Wolf Sightings on the rise in SE Idaho

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Wolf Sightings on the rise in SE Idaho

Oct. 14, 2005

I have been working on a story on the wolves of Eastern Idaho (broadly defined). It's about ready to go, but very time consuming, talking to everyone.

In the meantime, the Idaho State Journal (Pocatello) has produced a good feature article on increasing sightings of wolves in SE Idaho -- that's pretty much the mountains and valleys southeast of Idaho Falls to the Wyoming and Utah border.

Reports to me over the last two or three years, which were not reported to the state of Idaho (though I tried to get them to) leads me to believe there are one or more wolves in the Portneuf Range (maybe a small pack), and lone wolves and sporadic wolf pack activity in the Bear River Range (a long mountain range that begins at Soda Spring, Idaho and runs down into Utah past Richmond, Logan, and Hyrum).

There were in fact two black wolves several years back in Arbon Valley, just south of Pocatello. One of these was later shot by a Pocatello coyote hunter almost on the Utah/Idaho border in Cache Valley near Weston, Idaho. The hunter convinced authorities he thought it was a coyote. What happened to the second wolf is not known.

As the article below indicates, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition folks have found evidence of wolves in the Caribou Range -- very likely because it runs right along the Wyoming border and confirmed wolves live in the mountains just to the east of there (Salt River Range, Commissary Ridge).

On the prowl? Wolf sightings and controversy on the rise in Eastern Idaho. Idaho State Journal. By John O'Connell.

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Ralph Maughan PO Box 444, Pocatello, ID 83204