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I have been getting confusing reports by email about federal agents killing off a NW Montana wolf pack for several days now. Now a newspaper article I have received does little to clarify things.

Apparently federal agents -- the ADC -- has killed the last 2 members of the native, NW Montana, Browns Meadow Pack. They shot it near a carcass of a cow.

The newspaper report quoted Ed Bangs as saying the population of NW Montana wolves has dropped this year -- down to 7 or 8 pairs rather than the ten needed for delisting. An unattributed source asserted the decline was due to the effects of the harsh winter of 1996-7 on the NW Montana whitetailed deer population, which, indeed is down.

Some rancher was cited for illegally killing a wolf pup. The story was unclear whether it was part of this now defunct pack or not.

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Update: I received the following information from Steve Thompson who studies and gives presentations about wolves in NW Montana.

ADC did kill the last two members of the Browns Meadow Pack after they killed cows for a second time. After the first depredation, the three wolves in the pack were moved across Flathead Lake and across the Swan Mountains into the Spotted Bear area of the South Fork of the Flathead, near the Bob Marshall Wilderness, but the two adult wolves travelled west back to their Browns Meadow stomping grounds, crossing the
breadth of the populated Flathead Valley in the process. They were killed October 21 by ADC. The third pack member, a half-grown pup, was killed October 14 on the eastern flats of the Flathead Valley by rancher Phillip Gunderson, who said he mistook it for a coyote. Gunderson reported the incident to state biologists.

The comments about pack numbers in Montana and the status of prey populations was attributed in the original article to Bangs.