Wolf News. SW Montana and Wyoming outside Yellowstone NP

No. 9's Collar Goes Dead. Sheep Mtn. Pack rejuvenated.

In mid-September I did an update for wolves inside Yellowstone Park. What about non-Park packs in SW Montana and Western Wyoming?

Wyoming-

Beartooth Pack. I guess the big news is that no 9's radio collar has, after 6 years, finally gone dead. Because this is the most difficult to observe pack in the GYE, her eventual fate will probably never be known. There are no plans to recollar her due to her age. 

It is not known if this wolf trio of adults had pups, once again due to difficulty observation.

Today, Nov. 5. The USFWS reported: "Famous Yellowstone female wolf #9 (whose radio-collar is dead) was seen this week with 2 other adults and 3 pups in the Beartooth pack. The pups are assumed to be from her daughter, who is the pack's alpha female. Wolf #9 is nearly white and lags behind the pack but still hanging in there. No attempts will be made to re-collar her."

Absaroka Pack- This Sunlight Basin pack has for the first time begun to kill cow calves. They have killed about 7 over the last month or two. Efforts to harass them from a federal grazing allotment worked, but then they entered private land and killed a few more.

The pack consists of 2 adults, 3 yearling, and 4 pups. There are 4 radio collars now, including one on a pup. Plans are to kill 1 to 3 yearlings.  When recently captured, the wolves were well fed and in good condition.

Sunlight Basin Pack- In their normal range in the upper part of Sunlight Basin with no reports of change.

Washakie Pack- This now fairly large pack has spent more time in or about the Dunoir Valley this year than last, but with fewer (and maybe no ) livestock killings.  Recently they were seen eating a dead cow calf. Examination as to whether they killed it, or they found it dead, is still inconclusive. Meanwhile the pack is being monitored, and, if possible, 5th radio collar put on.

Teton Pack. This pack of 12 (3 adults and 9 pups) is now roaming fairly widely. There are few  livestock in the area and plenty of elk and deer. Both females have radio collars. They may have had a double litter.

Gros Ventre Pack- This pack had no radio collars (due to control actions last year) until recently when a yearling was trapped. However, the yearling is ranging widely and might have left the pack.  The pack is believed not to have denned this year. The inhabit the Gros Ventre drainage on the south side (with the Teton Pack mostly on the north side). They are difficult to track. This is the most southerly pack in Wyoming.

Southwest Montana-

Taylor Peaks Pack- This pack of 2 years existence has been in the Taylor Fork of the Gallatin, NW of Yellowstone. The alpha female, however, was found two mountain crests and a valley westward, south of the tourist/ghost town of Virginia City and heading northward. It is thought she has been displaced from her position. She is 4 years old. The pack seems to have had pups. A den site was found, but due to the thick timber in the Taylor there have no visual sightings of pups. It is an odd time for an alpha to travel so far from her pack if there are pups or even if she is still with the pack.

A member of the pack did stand up in the brush 10 feet from an archery hunter the other day. This is in the same drainage where last week the two men were attacked by a grizzly when they decided to casually make an elk call near the end of an unsuccessful day of hunting. See that story on my wolf country conservation news page. 

Freezeout Pack- The pack is still in the Gravelly Range, a mountain crest and a valley west of the Taylor Peaks Pack. Some wolves have killed some sheep. This pack (or other wolves) may have recently attacked sheep on the top of the range. The USFWS says in their weekly report, Another lamb was killed by a black wolf in the Gravelly range. Previous radio locations of known wolves near this area and observations by the herder indicate the wolf is apparently uncollared but may be with another wolf. WS was already authorized to shoot any uncollared wolf seen in the sheep and any wolf seen attacking sheep. They were also authorized to shoot any black uncollared wolf within 3-4 miles of the sheep band, if it was encountered while the WS aircraft was in the area doing coyote control. The producer already has a permit to shoot any wolf seen actually attacking his livestock on this public grazing allotment.

Joe Fontaine tells me, however, he thinks the sheep were probably killed by the 2 remaining members of the Gravelly Pack which were not caught this spring when the rest of that pack was captured. He says the Freezeout Pack was located too far away from the sheep to make it the primary suspect.

I climbed Freezeout Mountain and drove the Gravelly Crest road in early August. Cattle are all over the bottoms and sides of the mountain and sheep on its broad plateau like top. There is essentially no place without livestock. The relative lack of livestock depredation is amazing to me, but sheep are usually the first to be attacked if both types of livestock are in an area.

Ed Bangs has told be several times that the presence of sheep may (unfortunately, I think) turn out to be the limiting factor in how far wolves successfully disperse.

The Freezeout Pack is a brother/sister (155F) pair from the Rose Creek Pack. He is not the father of her pups, however. The father is thought to be the late Sheep Mountain Pack wolf 196M.

Gravelly Pack- This pack is still in captivity on the Turner Ranch, and they will be released after hunting season. They were captured (the alpha male shot) in late May after killing some sheep SE of Dillon, Montana. It appears that 2 black members of the pack were not caught. They are suspects of killing a substantial number of rams this summer on the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station near the Idaho/Montana line. Predation on rams is rare of course because rams rarely run with flocks. These were flocks of experimental rams. Rams are fairly large and may weigh 300 pounds.

Boulder Pack- Control of this pack this spring (removal of a number of wolves from the pack to NW Montana) may have worked (or it may be luck). There have been no more livestock depredations from this long-standing pack, SW of Helena. The pack was formed from wolves that migrated from NW Montana.

Mill Creek Pack (southeast of Livingston)-  No radio collars. Last visual sighting was of 6 or 7 wolves, and probably some pups. They have hung back in the Montana Absaroka Mountains, but will probably follow the deer down into Paradise Valley foothills come winter.

Sheep Mountain Pack (now rejuvenated). It has finally been determined that 195M and his new mate did have pups this year, so the Sheep Mountain Pack has been rejuvenated. 195M, 196M, and 189M were the 3 brothers from the old pack that were "trained" at the Turner Ranch. The likely cause of death of 189 has finally been determined. He probably broke through the ice while crossing Tom Miner Creek and was swept under the ice. Both 189 and 196 were traveling with 155F, a disperser from the Rose Creek. He probably impregnated her before they split. The split came when 189 drowned. 196M later hung around the edges of the Mill Creek Pack, but he was control killed after he killed a cow calf.

Story on the death of 189M. One of the re-released Sheep Mountain wolves dead. Probably drowned. April 13, 2001.