Half of the Boulder Pack is Captured; taken for training at Turner's Ranch.

1-21-2001, updated 1-22 , 1-26, and 2-28

Five of the eleven members of the Boulder wolf pack have been captured by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about 30 miles west of Helena, Montana. 

The wolves, mostly pups, including 1 male and 4 females, have been taken to Turner's Flying D Ranch near Bozeman for training similar to that employed last summer and fall on the three surviving members of the Sheep Mountain Pack.

The Boulder Pack recently killed at least three cow calves, something it does every several years; and similarly the pack has then had several members killed by the government three times now since 1996. This time instead efforts will be made to condition members of the pack to avoid livestock.

Joe Fontaine, assistant wolf recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said “We decided the best thing to do was to remove some of the wolves and cut down on the nutritional requirements of the pack.” He said that one or two more wolves may yet be captured and taken to the training facility.

The alpha male of the pack, which I assume is still B14M, one of the original wolves introduced to Idaho in 1995, was captured, fitted with a radio collar, and released along with two other captured wolves. Radio contact with this pack had been absent now for over a year, but will now be good.

The Boulder Pack originated not from the reintroduction, but from migration of wolves from NW Montana. However, B14M, was an introduced wolf that became the alpha male just as the original alpha female, a rather famous wolf, nick-named "Opal," was about to be shot for a number of incidents of sporadic livestock predation. That was back in early 1998.

The efficacy of the training given the 3 Sheep Mountain pack wolves last year may be hard to determine because their number was so few, and they seem to have already mixed with new, untrained wolves that have migrated northward out of Yellowstone.

Update 1-22-01. It turns out the assumptions that B14 was still the alpha male were wrong. Ed Bangs told me that when the alpha male was captured, he was not B14. The wolf that was the alpha was previously unknown and had no radio collar. Transmission from B14 ended about 1 3/4 years ago. It was assumed the collar had merely broke, but now it appears one possibility is someone may have killed B14 and disposed of the collar.

Update 1-26-01. A couple more Boulder wolves are planned for capture. After a period being held on the Flying D, which may or may not involve some training, the wolves will be released in NW Montana. The Fish and Wildlife Service believes the home range of the Boulder Pack west of Helena is of the nature that it won't support a large pack without sporadic, but continuing predation on livestock. 

Meanwhile in NW Montana the Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed a new pack seems to be forming there. This new trio, which involves an estrus female wolf recently killed a llama in the McGinnis Meadows area about thirty miles southeast of Libby, Montana.

Update 2-28-01. New story from Billings Gazette. Captured Boulder Pack wolves to be trained and released in NW Montana. Note: the wolves were released in April 2001 and were never "trained."

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