Monitoring

The conditions are horrendous for the reintroduction team due to the extreme cold. The temperatures remain at -35 to -42 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes it difficult on the Alaska Fish and Game darting team since they must fly with no doors on the helicopter. Once they locate a wolf and hit it with a tranquilizer dart, a crew must wade through about five feet of fluffy snow to reach the wolf and then bring it back to the helicopter. Even though the tranquilized animal may only be a distance of 100 to 200 yards from where the helicopter landed, it may take the crew an hour to get to animal and bring it back to the landing site due to the deep snow.

Regardless of the conditions, this was another successful day in Canada. Five additional wolves have been captured, including three males and two females. This brings the total to nine wolves so far. Four of them are gray and five are black. All of the animals are believed to be less than five years old and in good health. The captured wolves are being held in fully covered pens and are doing extremely well. Needless to say, the reintroduction team is pleased with the progress of their efforts.

The weekly wolf report can now be viewed at the Service's Region 6 web site at www.r6.fws.gov/wolf.

Contact: Ed Bangs (406)449-5225 or Internet - ED_BANGS@FWS.GOV

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