One more sheep and two calves were taken last week in the Sawtooth Valley. One calf was a highly probable wolf kill, and the other calf and the sheep were confirmed.

The calf depredations occurred on two different private properties, while the sheep was lost on public land.

George Graves with Wildlife Services (WS) said a control action was initiated last week, cancelled and then reinstated this week on private land.

Graves said traps were pulled September 7 after telemetry equipment showed the wolves had moved 10 miles from permittee Bill Brailsford's sheep. Graves said, the wolf advocacy group that has been in the valley all summer had also been hanging around the sheep herd, and with all of the human scent around, trappers figured it was a waste of time.

On Saturday a dead calf was found on the Humphrey ranch and WS field personnel determined it was a highly probable wolf kill. That same day one of Brailsford's sheep was confirmed as killed by wolves.

On Monday a 550 pound calf was confirmed killed by wolves. According to Fish & Wildlife Services, the calf belonged to an individual with the surname of Hinsley.

Graves said WS then set traps on private property with the intent to lethally control pack members other than the alpha pair. He said they think a satellite pack of four to six subadults is running with collared wolves. Their depredation activity has been sporadic and they kill at night or in the early morning.

Graves said they gave Brailsford radio telemetry equipment to use when the dogs barked at night. The hope was that the herder could pin down which collared wolves were in the mix. On Saturday when the sheep was lost, however, no signal was picked up.

Graves said WS has considered aerial shooting, which is sometimes more efficient. He said it isn't considered a cost effective option at this point due to the terrain and type of cover in the area. He said the area is also full of hunters at this point, and they don't want to be flying around disturbing them.