Note: I have been away for two weeks in the wilds of Wyoming. That is why there have been no wolf updates. Of course the "cyberoutdoors" can never compare with the real thing. I will post a flurry of wolf reports today.
Yet another of the Sawtooth yearlings is now dead, and it is the second one killed legally by a livestock operator. This one was shot by rancher Alan Purcell on July 3 near the tiny town of Leadore, Idaho. It was attacking a lamb in a pasture visible from his house. It may have killed a cow calf a week earlier.
For reference, Leadore, pop. 74, is in a very remote part of Idaho -- the Lemhi Valley. This is about 130 miles due west of Yellowstone's west boundary, but much farther by road. Leadore is 160 highway miles NW of the city of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The valley is mostly public land (BLM) with a few ranches and the Lemhi Mountains on the west and the Beaverhead Range -- the Idaho/Montana border -- on the east. Idaho state highway 28 runs through the valley.There have been reports of wolves in the area from time-to-time for years prior to the 1995 wolf reintroductions. Some of the Idaho reintroductions have passed through the area.
This incident, although unfortunate, shows that the Yellowstone and Idaho wolf populations can connect. It also shows that ranchers may defend their livestock under the reintroduction rules. For over two years many livestock operators were openly skeptical as to whether they would really be allowed to shoot predating wolves.
The fact that this is the third known death out of the ten Sawtooth yearlings indicates that raising these pups may have not been very successful. Recall that they were brought to Yellowstone as orphaned pups and pen-raised for almost a year. At the present time, three of the pups are known dead (two shot and one killed by an M44 coyote getter), and all of the rest, except two, cannot be located. The two are in the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone with no. 29M, 27F, and 37F, and presumably with 29 and 37's three pups. These two Sawtooth yearlings may have become part of a pack.
In my estimation, the Sawtooth pups/yearlings never learned to hunt, and are just learning now. Hopefully someone is doing a research paper on whether there is a critical period at which a wolf learns to hunt or whether it is a behavior that can be learned later.
Nevertheless, the alternative was to kill all of the pups while they were up in Augusta, Montana in 1996 when most of the adult wolves in the Sawtooth Pack were dispatched after repeatedly killing livestock. I think thanks should be given to the Yellowstone wolf recovery team for the many months of feeding these ten wolves. It is no easy task hauling the meat (especially in the winter) up to the Rose Creek pen (and later the Nez Perce pen).
For reference folks might want to read my story of 9-10-96 on the bringing of these pups to Yellowstone.
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