Update on Wyoming wolves outside of Yellowstone Park
July 23, 2004
With the silliness of the Park County and the "wolf trespass" issue involving Mike Jimenez, put legally to rest, I was finally above to get an update on Wyoming wolves outside Yellowstone Park.
While the large majority of Wyoming wolves are inside Yellowstone Park (174 count at the end of 2003), there are around 75 to 80 outside the Park, not counting pups.
Here is a rundown on the Packs, moving generally from north to south.
Beartooth Pack-
This pack is in a good location from the standpoint of livestock. It is thought they have a litter of pups and efforts are currently underway to collar one or more members of this pack.
Sunlight Basin Pack-
Having lost its alpha pair last year, 41F and 52M, and other members to poaching and mange, the pack, nonetheless persists and probably has 3 pups. The new alphas have not been determined. The pack still has mange, but possibly in a less severe form.
Absaroka Pack (Absaroka Pack II?)-
It is questionable whether the pack survived its long bought with mange. However, a previously unobserved healthy black wolf in the pack's general range was recently collared. Later this wolf was seen with a gray wolf, and later still, 5 wolves were observed. This pack killed several calves, and so the government ordered 2 gray wolves shot, which they did from a helicopter on July 22, a male and a female. Both dead wolves were mange-free.
Carter Mountain-
This was a new wolf pair on Carter Mountain west of Meeteetse. This pair, 275M and 359F, produced a litter of 4 pups this spring. However, the pair also killed 4 adult cows on nearby ranches (predation on adult cows rather than calves being relatively rare). As a result, 275M was recently killed by the federal government.Greybull River-
This pack is now several years old. It still inhabits the Greybull River area inside the Washakie Wilderness and also comes out to prey on the very abundant wildlife on the Pitchfork Ranch, 91 Ranch, etc. west of Meeteetse, and other nearby large ranches. It is thought they have pups again this year.Owl Creek-
This is another new pack, living the North Fork of the North Fork of Owl Creek and points north toward Meeteetse. This was a trio of adult wolves, but after killing a cow and a calf, the non-breeding male in the trio was shot by the government. The pack had 4 pups this spring.
Washakie Pack-
The Washakie Pack is in its usual home range near Horse Creek and the Dunoir Valley north of Dubois. This was the pack that made an excursion late last winter toward Meeteetse, and after being caught in the open, had 5 of its members radio collared. The collaring also resulted the great wolf trespass controversy, with charges the government was planting wolves on the Larson Ranch in Gooseberry Creek where the tranquilized wolves were processed.
In fact, the wolves quickly left the Larson Ranch after they had been collared and a couple days later were many miles away, back in the Dunoir.
Every year this pack kills a few cow calves and is controlled. This summer has been no exception. They have killed 7 cow calves in their home range, and as a result 4 members of the pack, including 3 of those radio collared under the controversial circumstances have been shot the government. The pack remains a fairly large sized pack and has 5 to 7 new pups. The Washakie also remains somewhat split, with a subgroup often off by itself not too few from the rest of the pack.
Teton Pack-
This is perhaps the most successful non-YNP pack in Wyoming. The pack had a double litter at its den inside Grand Teton National Park this year. 8 to 9 pups are still alive and the pack has 8-9 adult members.
There has been great fear this year (see article by Todd Wilkinson) that they would attack some of the hundreds of cattle put in a Grand Teton National Park pasture at the base of Uhl Hill (near Moran Junction), and indeed the wolves have been passing through the cattle but ignoring them, to hunt elk near the Snake River inside Grand Teton Pack. They have not used the Mt. Leidy Highlands behind their den or the Gros Ventre River drainage as much this summer as in previous summers.Daniel Pack-
This was the largest pack in Wyoming last year. Four members were radio collared. Two of the collared wolves were found dead along the Greys River and the others disappeared. There has been fear that these wolves were the target of poison. The wolf deaths are under investigation.
Contact with the pack has been lost, although it is not believed they have all been illegally killed.
The Green River female-
Wolf 237F in the upper Green River has had a series of mates and other companions, but all of them have killed some livestock and have been shot. She did not have pups this spring, and yet another companion wolf was shot by Wildlife Services. I understand the upper Green River is an area where groups in favor of responsible grazing are taking a hard look for action.
Kaycee lone wolf-
Mike Jimenez was on his way to Kaycee this morning to investigate reports of a wolf depredation there. This is in north central Wyoming. A lone wolf was killed there earlier this year by an M-44 cyanide "coyote getter."
Later today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its weekly "Status of Gray Wolf Recovery" and said the following about the wolf near Kaycee (in Johnson County, WY): "WS [U.S. Wildlife Services] confirmed that 2 bull calves were killed on private land by a wolf in Johnson County [Kaycee, WY] around the 17th. This is about 15 miles from where a wolf was killed earlier this summer by an M-44 coyote device. Nearby, 4 sheep [at least 2 lambs] on private land were suspected to have been killed by a wolf around the 20th. Observations by local residents indicate a lone grey wolf has occasionally been seen in the general area. On the 22nd another lamb was reported killed and WS is continuing to investigate. WS verified there were 1 confirmed and 4 probable wolf kills, 2 unknowns and 2 other 'missing' sheep. WS was asked to remove the suspected lone wolf if possible. They are trapping near the calf and sheep carcasses since they were not extensively fed on and the responsible wolf may return to them."
Summary-
In general it is my impression the population of wolves outside YNP in Wyoming has stopped growing. New packs appear, such as the Owl Creek pack and the Carter Mountain Pack, but they generally remain small in size because of government control efforts. Equal numbers like the once large Absaroka Pack disappear. Other packs, such as the Daniel Pack may be subject to extensive illegal killing.
Despite the heated, overblown rhetoric of Wyoming politicians, wolf recovery in Wyoming outside Yellowstone Park is only modestly successful, and Wyoming contributes less to wolf recovery than Idaho or Montana. Wolves are more controversial in Wyoming than other states with wolves, not because of the wolves' behavior, but because of the reactionary views held by political leaders in the state (excluding Teton County, where there is considerable enlightenment).
Attitudes aside, wolves fail to expand in Wyoming due to heavy federal government control, illegal killing and the presence of mange.
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