Jureano and Twin Peaks Pack eliminated to help Salmon/Challis area ranchers. Now it is the White Clouds Pack's turn.
April 4, 2000, update April 5 and April 6
It appears that Wildlife Services is in the process of controlling the White Clouds Pack, one of the larger in Idaho, for continued sporadic calf depredations on the Baker Ranch on the East Fork of the Salmon River. This is about 5 miles south of the Hurless Place.
My request for details has not been answered, but it appears the pack killed two more calves on the ranch of Wayne and Melody Baker. As a result the alpha pair have been caught and relocated. The number and future of the rest of the wolves is not known.
The alpha female is B36F, originally from British Columbia; and the alpha male has long been believed to be a "native" Idaho wolf. I believe that B36F and a subadult are the only radio-collared wolves in the pack. In the past the alpha male proved to wily to capture.
B36F whelped 9 pups in 1998 and 7 more in 1999. The pack's territory has been the east side of Idaho's famous White Cloud Mountains and the northeastern end of the Boulder Mountains, which are to the south and southeast of the White Clouds.
Over time it appears to me from Defenders records that the pack has killed about 7 head of cattle and 5 or 6 sheep in sporadic small depredations.
If this pack is removed, it will be the third east central Idaho pack removed for livestock depredation.
Ms. Baker is a Custer County Commissioner. Unlike Hurless, whose operation is entirely on private land, the Bakers have a public land grazing allotment.
White Clouds Update April 5: USFWS is trying avoid lethal control on this pack. The alpha pair and two other pack members have been captured. About four wolves in the pack are still loose. A pup has been radio-collared with the hope it will lead back to the other four. If possible, all of the pack will be transported to North Central Idaho where they will be released, and hopefully the move will not cause the alpha female B36F to abort. Pups are usually born April 18-27.
Four wolves are already on the way to north central Idaho.
Twin Peaks Update April 5. Here is an update on the Twin Peaks Pack: the radio-collared sub-adult has never joined the 2-3 pups. The wolf remains by itself and has traveled up and over the ridge away from Hurless's property.
White Clouds Update April 6. The four wolves have been released at the end of a dirt road somewhere in the Lochsa River drainage of North Central Idaho. The Lochsa River is where U.S. Highway 12 cuts across the state. It is a very mountainous region and adjacent to the vast Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness which seems to have no wolf packs at present, although the Twin Peaks alpha was relocated there a few days ago (not in the same place as the four White Clouds wolves).
Released were the alpha pair (she, no. 36F, is about to have pups) and two other wolves, both sub-adults.
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