Sawtooth yearling, wolf number 68F, returned to the the Upper Green River area, killed seventeen more sheep, and so she was shot by the federal agents even as she was in rancher Bill Thoman's herd trying to make another kill.

For background folks might want to read by article of Aug. 19, "Sawtooth yearling kills 41 sheep. . ."  The wolf had been captured and relocated to Yellowstone National Park after killing 41 of Thoman's sheep in August, but in early September it moved southward from the Park and was soon back on the upper Green River killing sheep.

The wolf was killed under the "two strikes" policy for wolves that kill livestock. Joe Fontaine of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was quoted: "With repeat offenders, we try to give them a chance to break the habit, but if they keep doing it, there's no other choice than lethal control."

It may appear that this wolf killed the sheep for pleasure as wolves are sometimes accused of doing. However, it appears that the large number of dead sheep was the result of a curious interaction between the hungry wolf and the the herder's sheep guard dogs.  The wolf would kill a sheep and the guard dogs would chase the wolf away before it could feed. Soon it would return and kill another sheep, and the process would repeat.

Defenders of Wildlife will reimburse Thoman for the lost sheep. (See note at the bottom of the article).

This is the third of the ten original Sawtooth yearlings to be legally shot for killing sheep.  Two others also were killed -- one by a vehicle in Yellowstone and one by ADC cyanide gun, an M44. The dead Sawtooth yearlings are 64F, 66M, 68F, 69M, and 71F.

Of the remaining five Sawtooth yearlings, three are in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park. One, and maybe all three of these, are part of a new pack that consists of the last group of wolves to be released from the Nez Perce enclosure (in June). The yearlings in question are no. 67F, 70M, and 72M. Numbers 63F and 65F have not been located for some time, and may well be a considerable distance from the Park as was number 68, who was just shot.

The raising and release of the Sawtooth pups/yearlings in Yellowstone has not been a resounding success.  However, folks should remember that any of them that does reach sexual maturity and reproduce will strengthen the diversity of the gene pool of Yellowstone wolves -- a gene pool that may be on its way to being dominated by the genes of the Rose Creek alpha female, wolf number 9F.  

Note added on 10-26-97: Defenders of Wildlife paid the sheep rancher $4580 out of its depredation fund for the 60 sheep that were killed by wolf 68. This is the largest depredation claim paid so far by Defenders.