Monitoring

Winter weather continues to hinder monitoring efforts, but YNP was able to locate the wolves on the northern end of the Park. All the northern packs are still in the Park with no erratic movements. The Chief Joseph male is still in the Madison and West Yellowstone area. No locations were obtained for the Soda Butte pack, pair 30 & 35 and pair 15 & 26 last located near Togwotee Pass in Wyoming. When the weather clears they will attempt to locate the southern most wolves. The Nez Perce female is still in McDonald Basin near Nye, MT. Female wolf R 39, a Druid pack female is making long excursions to the north. Her radio locations indicated that she traveled north to the Castle Mountains, reversed her course and went on the west side of the Crazy Mountains and the west of Springdale, MT. Her last radio location indicated that she was up the west Boulder River. She probably will continue these forays as she searches for a male before breeding time which is around mid-February.

There have been no radio locations of the Idaho wolves do to the weather.

Radio locations of the Murphy Lake pack indicate that a pair of wolves may be establishing a territory between the Murphy Lake territory and the Pleasant Valley territory. The pair of wolves, one radio collared, have been in the same area for about a month. The remainder of the Murphy Lake pack were near Murphy Lake.

Livestock Depredations & Management (control)

An attempt will be made the week of 12/16 to capture the Big Hole pair, place them in an acclimation pen in YNP, and release them into the Idaho wilderness area sometime mid to late January.

Research

Nothing new to report.

Information, Education & Law Enforcement

There was a conference call with WERC, Forest Service, National Wildlife Federation and the Service to discuss the traveling wolf trunks. Additional trunks are being prepared and different ways to correct the shortage of wolfskulls and pelts is being considered. Information in all the boxes is being updated and contents have been repaired or cleaned. They are determining which boxes are or are not being used and trying to distribute the boxes to get maximum utilization by the teachers in the tri-state area.

A documentary by KXLY TV from Spokane will air "Return of the Gray Wolf" on December 21. They tried to make this a very balanced film and give an historical perspective to the present about the return of the wolf.

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

Home | Organization | Wolves | Library | Trips & Events | Ralph | Donations | Site Map | Guestbook | Email



Site owned by ©1998-2002 Wolf Recovery Foundation.
Site Design and Graphics by ©1997-2002 Wolff Den Design™ All Rights Reserved.
No part of this site or any material within this site may be
used without the expressed written permission from the author.