The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a wolf that died during an experiment near Livingston suffered liver and kidney failure. The agency's Ed Bangs says those problems apparently were brought on by stress, heat exhaustion and tranquilizers during capture of the wolf in June, inside a pen. She'd been penned at the Ted Turner Ranch in Gallatin Gateway as part of an experiment intended make wolves leave livestock alone. . . Ladywolf

Authorities say illness killed wolf
© Billings Gazette

The wolf was the alpha female in the Sheep Mountain Pack, captured in May after attacks on Paradise Valley livestock. Researchers chased the wolf for more than 20 minutes as they tried to capture her in the pen at the Turner ranch, and put a collar on her. The death was a blow to the experiment, which will continue into the fall.

A female wolf that died during an experimental training program near Livingston suffered from liver and kidney failure, probably brought on by stress, heat exhaustion and tranquilizers, authorities say.

The injuries appear to all have occurred during the wolf's capture in June at a Gallatin Gateway ranch.

The wolf, known by researchers as No. 16, was the alpha female of the Sheep Mountain Pack. The wolf had been housed, along with three young male wolves, in an one-acre pen at a ranch owned by media-magnate Ted Turner, said Ed Bangs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf-recovery coordinator.

The Sheep Mountain Pack had been captured in May after a series of attacks on livestock in Paradise Valley. They were transferred to Turner's ranch, where researchers have been training the wolves to stay away from livestock.

The training, first developed on coyotes, uses electronic collars to deliver a shock to the penned predators if they approach a calf placed in the pen.

Bangs said the wolf died from kidney and liver failure that is believed to have been caused by a combination of stress, overheating and tranquilizers used during a capture operation in the one-acre pen.

Researchers were attempting to capture No. 16 to fit it with an electric collar and were forced to chase the animal in the pen for more than 20 minutes, he said.

Bangs said the death of the alpha female was a blow to an experiment that has produced mixed results with the three remaining juvenile males.

Researchers have fitted the penned wolves with electronic collars and placed a calf hide, fitted with a transmitter, in with the animals. One of the males is believed to have been shocked after he approached the hide, Bangs said.

While the wolves have not actively hunted in the pen since that incident, their apprehensiveness about approaching calves in the enclosure could be because the small pack is suspicious of the new surroundings, he said.

The wolves also did not attack a bison calf placed in the enclosure after it tried to head-butt one of the predators, Bangs said.

Because of the pack's social hierarchy, the alpha female could have been able to dictate the group's behavior and prevented the members from feeding on cattle if the experiment was successful and the animals were released into the wild, he said.

The experiment is expected to continue later this fall.

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