Here is a list of the Idaho wolf packs and estimated numbers at mid-year.
The list is from Ed Bang’s report. In each case, he has listed the name of the pack, the number of adults, third is the number of pups, 4 th is the total pack size. Last is the ID number they have given the pack.
As you can see, for many packs the figures are ? ? ?. This means they have confirmed its presence, that all. It’s pretty clear they came up with the number of 650 wolves by using a fixed size for a wolf pack they have no numeric data on. If they are off by 1 or 2 on the average for these packs the number 650 could be quite a way off.
Ralph Maughan
From Ed Bangs-
Idaho = Total is a rough estimate of 650 wolves; 74 packs; 176 pups; at least 31 potential breeding pairs. Growth rate = 20%. 1) Aparejo- 2, 1, 3; 2) Avery- 2, 2, 4; 3) Basin Butte-3, 5, 8; 4) Bear Valley- ?, ?, 8; 5) Big Buck- 3, 2, 5; 6) Big Hole- ?, 4, 4; 7) Big Water- 2, 5, 7; 8 ) Bimerick Meadow- 3, 6, 9; 9) Biscuit Basin- 7, 3, 9; 10) Blue Bunch- 4, 7, 11; 11) Brooks Creek- ?, 6, 6; 12)Buffalo Ridge- 6, 5, 11; 13) Caulder mt. 2, 4, 6; 14) Calderwood- 4, 4, 8; 15) Carey Dome- 9, ?, 9; 16) Castle Peak- 2, 3, 5; 17) Chamberlain Basin- 2, 4, 6; 18) Chesima- 2, 0, 0; 19) Cold Springs- ?, ?, ?; 20) Coolwater Ridge- 3, 4, 7; 21) Copper Basin- 2, 5, 7; 22) Danskin- 1, 3, 4; 23) DeBorgia 2, 4, 6 (shared with NW MT); 24) Driggs/Teton- 5, 0, 5 (shared with WY); 25) Eagle Mt.- 4, 3, 7; 26) Earthquake Basin- 8, 9, 17; 27) Eldorado Creek- 2, 3, 5; 28) Fish Creek- 9, 7, 16; 29) Fishhook- 2, 2, 4; 30) Five Lakes Butte- 3, ?, 3; 31) Florence- 15, 4, 19; 32) Galena- 8, 5, 13; 33) Giant Cedar- 3, 3, 6; 34) Gold Fork- 3, 0, 3; 35) Golden Creek- 7, 4, 11; 36) Grandad- 4, ?, 4; 37) Gospel Hump- ?, ?, ?; 38) Hazard Lake- ?, ?, ?; 39) Hemlock ridge- 6, 2, 8; 40) Hoodoo- 7, 2, 9; 41) Hughes Creek- 8, 8, 16; 42) Hyndman- 3, ?, 3; 43) Indian Creek- ?, ?, ?; 44) Jungle Creek- 2, 2, 4; 45) Jureano Mt.- ?, 5, 14; 46) Kelly Creek- 7, 3, 10; 47) Landmark- ?, ?, ?; 48) Lemhi- 3, 1, 4; 49) Lick Creek- 3, 3, 6; 50) Lochsa- 5, 1, 6; 51) Magruder- ?, ?, ?; 52) Marble Mt.- 1, ?, ?; 53) Monumental Creek- 3, 3, 6; 54) Morgan Creek- 13, 4, 17; 55) Moyer Basin- 9, 2, 11; 56) O’Hara Point- ?, ?, ?; 57) Orphan- ?, ?, ?; 58) Owl Creek- ?, ?, ?; 59) Packer John- 5, 1, 6; 60) Partridge Creek- ?, ?, ?; 61) Pettibone- ?, ?, ?; 62) Pot Mt.- ?, ?, ?; 63) Red River- ?, 1, ?; 64) Scott mt.- 6, 1, 7; 65) Selway- ?, ?, ?; 66) Sleepy Hollow- 4, 3, 7; 67) Soldier Mt.- 10, 2, 12; 68) Steel Mt. 9, 4, 12; 69) Stolle meadow- 2, ?, 2; 70) Superior- ?, ?, ? (shared with MT); 71) Tangle Creek- ?, 3, ?; 72) Thunder Mt.- ?, ?, ?; 73) Timberline- 12, 3, 15; 74) Twin Peaks- ?, ?, ?; 75) Warm Springs- 7, 6, 13; 76) Wolf Fang- 2, 5, 7; 77) Yankee Fork- ?, ?, ?; 78).
Comments
Do you think there are more than this or less (at the time of the report). I know there’ll be deaths before end of ’06. I figure F&G underestimates populations of other game since I don’t see how they could possible locate each different group of animals, or how they could know if they saw the same herd, say, and ‘counted’ it twice?? Are there any other reports indicating different numbers on Idaho wolves?
I’m pretty sure that some packs are duplicates.
I think the final figure will be a range just like the mid-summer figure is.
Nevertheless, based solely on the past reports, I think the final range will be a bit higher than this, currently reported range.
There are a lot of statistics that go into making these kinds of estimates and they have a certain confidence interval surrounding them so the estimate can be off by a certain percentage either direction. There are undoubtedly some groups of wolves that are not accounted for and there may be some wolves where more wolves were thought to be present than actually were.
I think that there has been a real effort this year to account for as many wolves in the wilderness areas so that when the wolves are delisted IDFG can try to manage for the minimum population rather than managing to reduce conflicts. I see the grand plan by some in state governement to try to kill as many wolves outside the wilderness areas once full management authority is handed over to the states.