IDAHO FISH AND GAME
HEADQUARTERS NEWS RELEASE
Boise, ID
| Date: | November 27, 2006 |
| Contact: | Ed Mitchell (208) 334-3700 |
wolf report: update
Federal officials are investigating the killings of two wolves in the Clearwater region of north-central Idaho, and in November wolves have killed one cow and one calf, both east of Cascade.
The radio collar from the alpha male of the O’Hara Point pack was found and turned in by a deer hunter in mid-November. The pack roams the South Fork of the Clearwater, and the wolf was last located alive on October 4, 2004. The collar has been turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement, and the death is under investigation.
An untagged adult female gray wolf was found killed south of Grangeville on November 19. Her death also is under investigation. The total documented wolf mortality including all causes is 60 so far this year in Idaho.
On November 9, federal officials confirmed that wolves killed a calf on state land east of Cascade. Idaho Department of Fish and Game authorized the removal of two wolves.
A week later, on November 17, officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services confirmed wolves killed a cow on private land southeast of Cascade, an area where wolves of the Orphan Pack have killed livestock in the past. Traps were set.
Wolf control actions, authorized by Fish and Game and carried out by the federal Wildlife Services, are in no danger of jeopardizing wolf recovery in Idaho.
The Fish and Wildlife Service considers the wolf recovered in the northern Rocky Mountains. Federal officials are working on a proposal to remove wolves from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana separately from Wyoming, which would be a break from policy of considering the wolf population in all three states together.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf reports can be viewed at http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov/.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Too many wolves killed by humans because of hatred and misunderstanding of this beautiful creature.