The canid that has killed about 30 sheep north of Soda Springs, Idaho killed three more sheep on Thanksgiving Day. The wolf-like animal has proven hard for federal shooters to track down. Oddly, this animal which is said to look like a wolf, and might be a wolf, is traveling with a large white dog -- perhaps a Great Pyrenees.
Craig Maycock, U.S. Wildlife Services regional chief was quoted in an AP article yesterday that such a relationship between a dog and a wolf is "not unusual." Great Pyrenees are usually used as sheep guard dogs against predator attacks, and several Great Pyrenees have been attacked and killed by wolves in the Northern Rockies area. A better term might be such a relationship is "not unknown," because it clearly is unusual. If it is a wolf, it is probably a wolf from Yellowstone, or an illegal release. The central Idaho wolves are separate from Eastern Idaho by the dry, treeless Snake River River Plain. The most southerly Yellowstone area wolves are only about two days travel to SE Idaho where these incidents have occurred.
The presence of this animal, about 80 miles north of the Utah border, has sparked discussion what to do if a wolf migrates to Utah. . . so much so that my niece tells me it is debated in her northern Utah middle school.
It is doubtful that the U.S. Fish and Wildfire Service would go retrieve another wolf that migrates out of Idaho as it did with the "Blue Mountain Wolf," B45F, the central Idaho wolf that migrated to Oregon. Recapture of this wolf cost a great deal of time and money.
I understand B45 is doing well back in west central Idaho, and may have found a mate.
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Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209