Pack has declined from 16 to 4, with 2 on death row-
The execution of two members of the Imnaha Pack has been stayed by the Oregon Court of Appeals. They wolves might yet be put to death. With just 2 wolves remaining after that the Imnaha Pack would very likely disappear, especially because one marked for execution is the alpha male.
The state’s known wolf population has dropped a great deal from 2010, from 21 to 14. There is more hope than some have indicated, however, because there are several other packs, one new pack, and several dispersing wolves known in the states. A wolf pack can grow very quickly, just like it can decline in a blink.
As mentioned above, there are four wolves left in the Imnaha pack; four in the Walla Walla pack, 2 pups were confirmed in it this year; four in the Wenaha pack which has stayed “out of trouble”; and two wolves are dispersing as lone individuals.
I wrote this story like a stay of an execution of a prisoner because most “wolf control” is more like execution than removal of an animal that has troubled some livestock owner. Consider the appeals, the emotion on both sides, and news attention. It is also like a lynching because the guilt of a particular wolf is rarely established.
There are numerous news accounts of the stay on-line. This event seems to have unified and galvanized Oregon wolf conservationists.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
