Five members of Montana's Boulder Pack released from captivity Near Lake Koocanusa

Released wolves finally settle near Flathead Lake. 8-10-2001

4-8-2001, update 4-13 and 6-4-3001

Five of the eleven members of the Boulder wolf pack were captured this January and taken to Turner's Flying D Ranch west of Bozeman for holding until a suitable site was found for transplantation. The Boulder pack had been killing some cattle, and it was thought a reduction in its size might reduce the pack's requirement for food. This had worked before with this pack. Aversive conditioning to livestock had been planned for the five at the Flying D, but the shock collars did not become available in time.

Now the four yearlings and one sub-adult have been released in extreme northwest Montana in Parsnip Creek near Lake Koocanusa. The five wolves were released in late March. They did not leave their cages quickly. One wolf left immediately, but the rest were slow; and biologists had to tip one cage upside-down to get the wolf to leave.

This area in NW Montana has been devoid of wolf packs ever since wolves began to reinhabit Montana on their own in 1980, despite good habitat. There have been a few sightings of lone wolves. It is expected the pups (now barely yearlings) will learn to kill deer. Two weeks later four of the wolves were still together, and one had separated from the pack. 

There are six wolves remaining in the long-standing Boulder Pack, which lives to the southwest of Helena in southwest central Montana.

Lake Koocanusa is a huge reservoir on the Kootenai River. It stretches across the Montana-British Columbia border, and hence the name, which is a combination of Kootenai, Canada and USA. The reservoir was fought bitterly by conservationists, and it is responsible for bringing paddlefish and sturgeon in the river to near extinction levels.

Previous story on the capture and holding of Boulder Pack Five. Jan. 21, 2001.

Update 4-13. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has just reported: The 5 recently released (3/28) Boulder wolves had regrouped (the male separated initially) and had stayed a few miles north of their release site along the west shore of Koocanusa Res. until the 10th. Now, the male was by himself again and the 4 females had moved north and were a mile into Canada and about a mile from the west side of the Koocanusa Res. The "East Kootenai" pack containing a yearling female wolf originally from the Graves Creek Pack, was also located on the West side of Lake Koocanusa in Canada some 21 km north of the border.

Update 6-4. The pack has fragmented, although they all returned from B.C. The US Fish and Wildlife Service reports,  "the relocated 5 Boulder wolves have separated and are scattered throughout NW Montana, most east of Lake Koocanusa and 2 west of the National Bison Range."

Update 8-7. The five Boulder Pack wolves abandoned the extreme NW Montana translocation area, and have formed a pack in the vicinity of Flathead Lake, 100 mils to the southeast. As a result more wolves will probably be transplanted into the translocation area, only this time far up in the "Panhandle" of Idaho, north of Interstate 90. This is an area adjacent to extreme NW Montana. The area has not had any known wolves since two migrated from British Columbia early in 1995, only to be killed by M-44 "coyote gitter" cyanide device..

Story Aug. 7, 2001, Panhandle could get wolf pair Biologists consider first relocation north of I-90. By Dan Hansen, Spokane Spokesman-Review. Interestingly, one the the wolves to be moved to the Panhandle is one of the Jureano Mountain Pack pups captured just north of Salmon, Idaho in 1999 after its pack had been destroyed. This wolf,  B80F and her brother B81M, were put in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, but given little chance because they were only 6 months old, but both survived. B81M, 80's brother is near Lolo Pass, ID/MT and may be part of an unidentified pack there.

Update Aug. 10. Curt Mark, head of the Nez Perce tribal wolf team, told me the Spokesman-Review story was "way premature." Translocation of wolves to the Idaho Panhandle, is but one of several concepts at the present. The actions of this Spokesman Review reporter who made up a story out of almost nothing, have in fact caused a firestorm and completely killed any transplantation.