Although the Nez Perce Tribal Wolf Team that oversees the Idaho wolf project has not released information, Ed Bangs has listed the following pairs/packs that have pups in Idaho. Below I have fleshed out the rudimentary detail given in the "Gray Wolf Recovery Status Report" which is released by Bangs each week.
The following have pups. The numbers of pups were not given. Every pack that existed last year had pups except the Selway and the Landmark Pack (the status of which as a pack is not known).
1. Kelly Creek pack (a surprise because they didn't seem to localize).
2. "Big Hole" a.k.a "Running Creek" (that's B7M and B11F) finally, after two pup-less years, had pups.
3. Chamberlain Basin pack (no surprise)
4. Jureano Mountain (no surprise)
5. Moyer Basin (no surprise)
6. B36F and uncollared male (no surprise; will this be called the "White Cloud Mountains" pack?)
7. B18M and B35F (no surprise. Will this be called the "Loon Creek pack?")
8. Stanley Pack (surprise because they didn't seem to localize).
9. Monumental (B22F and uncollared male) (no surprise).
It will be interesting to see if Idaho now has as many wolves as the Yellowstone country.
Update on the Landmark pack:
Last week I went looking for the Landmark pack which recently lost its alpha pair (in April). The were found dead along and in the Middle Fork of the Salmon River from unknown causes.I assumed that the remainder of the pack, which is perhaps five wolves, would return to its traditional summer range (SW corner of the Frank Church Wilderness). In exploring the SW corner of the Frank Church Wilderness, I ran into a trail crew worker who told me there had been wolves howling that previous night on the ridge just south of Bear Valley Creek. I went up on that ridge and found scattered wolf tracks -- more than one wolf, but hard to say how many. I emailed this information to the Nez Perce Wolf Team indicating that this was probably the Landmark pack unless they had radio-tracked the Bear Valley Pair or the Stanley Pack in the area. A week has passed and they have not replied, but hopefully it was the Landmark Pack.
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