Two more litters of pups have been discovered in Idaho, bringing the total to 19 for the year, far short of the 41 claimed by the aide to Governor Freudenthal of Wyoming.One litter is in the Kelly Creek Pack, a long established north central Idaho pack. The other litter is in a new pack, which will be named "The Magruder Pack" to describe its general location near the Magruder Corridor.
Idaho wolf B110M, a disperser from the Moyer Basin Pack was suspected not to be traveling alone last winter as he hunted the steep breaks of the lower South Fork of the Salmon River, but the country was too steep and too deep to investigate on the ground. This spring, however, he moved down into the main fork of the Salmon and traveled over the big area between the mainSalmon's large tributaries, Sabe Creek and Bargamin Creek in the Frank Church Wilderness, north of the main Salmon. Last week more than B110M was located on the ground by Nez Perce Tribal Biologist Jason Husseman. He documented 6 pups and accounted for 4 adult wolves associated with B110. The pack apparently claims the country between Sabe Creek and Bargamin Creek to its west and north to Dry Saddle on the Magruder road.
This special country to our family. My father in law, Bill Johnson, outfitted it until he died at an untimely age at Center Creek Lake on the big ridge that runs from Dry Saddle to Bear Point, separating the Bargamin and Sabe Creek Drainages. His ashes were scattered over the area, and it is comforting to know his remains now run not with elk, deer, and moose alone, but also run with wolves.
The Kelly Creek pack is not a new pack. It formed way back in 1997 when one of the reintroduced wolves, B15F found old wolf 90-13, who had migrated into Idaho long before the reintroduction and had lived alone in Kelly Creek. After many successful litters 90-13 died in spring of 2001, at the age of 13. B15F's collar no longer works and she is presumed dead. Since those early times the pack migrated west into the Weitas Creek, Cayuse Creek country of the Clearwater National Forest. The pack did have pups last year. B42F was seen with 6 pups and least 2 other adults in this thick, hard-to-observe-through landscape. This late July, field crews identified at least 2 pups this year by means of howling. There were no visual locations.
In other news, the Selway Pack, known to have pups, apparently has three. The Selway is one of Idaho's three original packs: Selway, Chamberlain Basin, Landmark.
The Buffalo Ridge Pack, saved the late spring in the part by donations by us (Wolf Recovery Foundation), Defenders of Wildlife, and others (to buy hay to keep the cattle on winter pasture near Challis) has moved to higher ground and is now way back in the Salmon River Mountains near the head of Squaw Creek and adjacent drainages. Cattle on the Forest Service grazing allotment have now been put into the area, but last year there were no "depredations."
A number of weeks ago, the court-protected Galena Pack in the SNRA was successfully harassed back from its den area near Horton Peak into the headwaters of Champion Creek in the White Cloud Peaks. Galena Pack alpha female B107F was observed, however, recently in Warm Springs Creek Meadows to the north of Champion Creek. She might have been hunting or perhaps that is a rendezvous site for this new pack.
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Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209