Tracking flight fails to find Nez Perce Pack near Ashton, Idaho.

Have they moved on?

11-8-01

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The much awaited tracking flight from Yellowstone Park was conducted Nov. 8. The aircraft flew down the eastern boundary of the Park, locating Mollies Pack near the Park boundary and the Delta Pack in Hunter's Creek inside the Park. These were normal general area locations for the two packs, but they were up at 8700-9000 ft elevation in the snow, unusually high for this time of year and with few elk tracks around them.

Next the aircraft followed the south boundary of the Park heading westward toward Idaho, a flight path that would catch the wolf pack  should they be moving east on their way to Jackson Hole (by crossing between the north end of the Tetons and the rugged Pitchstone Plateau in Yellowstone Park).

No wolves were located.

Then the area around Ashton, Lamont, and Drummond Idaho was flown, the place the 13+ wolves were seen last weekend and on Monday, but no wolves seen or tracked. 

The wolf team thought it was likely the wolves had gone back to Yellowstone Park by way of Island Park and Henry's Lake (that is, by the way they came through the Targhee National Forest). 

No wolves were located on this flight path back.

Finally the team flew central Yellowstone, all over the normal range of the Nez Perce Pack. . .  no wolves!

So, it appears the wolves have moved further afield in their sudden excursion. The 2 most reasonable possibilities seem to me to be they have moved west which would take them along Big Bend Ridge and into the sand hills where the elk winter from SW Yellowstone, Island Park, and the Centennial Mountains summering areas.

The other most plausible alternative is south down the foothills of the West Slope of the Tetons to Driggs, Victor, and perhaps further south in eastern Idaho or Western Wyoming. There are lots of elk there too, but incredible number of domestic sheep in the summer.

Movement to the SW would seem out of the question because it is all cultivated fields, farms and small towns.

There is a slight possibility they moved back into the Park and were on the Madison Plateau or that they moved NW, crossing Island Park, and are now in Montana, perhaps the Centennial Valley.

Dr. Doug Smith, head of the Park's wolf team, told me he thought they would eventually end their walkabout and head back to YNP, but for the time being . . .

Mike Jimenez, who manages Wyoming wolves outside the Park for USFWS, is flying the Idaho/Wyoming border on Nov. 9 to look again for them.

There seems to be little doubt as to the actual presence of wolves Sunday and Monday in East Idaho because they were seen by a number of people, seen up close, and it was noted at least 3 wolves seemed to have radio collars.