New wolves roam the east slope of the
Bitterroots:
One inadvertently caught in coyote trap
1-1-1999
Last Wednesday I was talking with Joe Fontaine about wolf movements in Montana. He told me Carter Neimeyer had just told him there were reports of new wolves near Stevensville, Montana on the benches above Bitterroot Valley of extreme western Montana. The wolves were not B7M or B11F of the Big Hole Pack which spent part of last winter near Stevensville, nor those of the Kelly Creek pack.
Joe was going to send me some various Montana wolf materials, but he never got back to me. Now I know why. Today's Missoulian ran a photo of Joe carrying a 108 pound male gray wolf that was accidentally caught in a coyote trap in Bass Creek near Stevensville.
There is a good indication that this male has just paired with a female that has also just come into the area. It is not clear whether the wolves came from the Idaho reintroduction, from the Montana "natural" dispersion, or a combination. The male wolf (now radio collared) appeared to be about three years old. Members of the Big Hole Pack are still pups (except the alpha pair). The oldest of the Kelly Creek pack offspring are 2 1/2.
Fontaine said the pair is likely to mate soon and may den in the area. This would be the third wolf pack in the Lolo Creek/Kelly Creek/Bitterroot Mountain area of the Idaho/Montana border.
The wolves are suspects in the recent killing of a 500-pound steer in the area. Hats off to the ranchers who opted to radio collar the wolf and give it a second chance rather than ask it be relocated. The male wolf was released back in the Bass Creek area. Hopefully, pups will result and they will not get in trouble.
Although B7M and B11F spent part of last winter in the very same area, they have since remained on the other (the wilderness) side of the Bitterroot Range. There they whelped their first litter after two years together to create the Big Hole Pack.
Story in the Missoulian 12-31-98
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