Wyoming wolf update

Lots of minor "depredations" and 7 "controls"

8-22-2003

This summer has seen more wolf depredations on cattle and sheep outside Yellowstone Park.

I think the total number is trivial, considering that the death of 300 sheep near Soda Springs, Idaho this summer from selenium poisoning was but a one day story, but wolf kills are treated more seriously because wolf controversy is really not about economics, but of cultural value clashes.

Every non-Park Wyoming wolf pack except Beartooth and the new Thermopolis pair have been involved.

Two sub-adults from the Sunlight Basin Pack were killed after the pack eventually killed 3 cow calves in the new private pasture in Sunlight Basin.

In years past the rancher has run his cattle on the national forest and while only some losses were confirmed, he lost cattle to grizzlies, wolves and other wilderness hazards. This year he did not use his public grazing allotment, and built a big pasture in the bottom of Sunlight Basin where there are usually few cattle. There have been continual problems of grizzlies and wolves getting into this new pasture. A past report told how a grizzly cub was smothered by a snare set to catch wolves sneaking in. After the grizzly death, snares were pulled. The Sunlight Basin Pack is led by 41F, the sister of famous Druids 40F and 42F, and 52M, born to the Rose Creek Pack in 1996.

The "mangy" Absaroka Pack killed another 2 calves and another very mangy wolf was caught and euthanized. Visual observation of other pack wolves nearby did not show obvious mange. If any of these are caught, the current decision is to treat them if they show any mange and release them. Just one member of the pack has a functioning radio collar.

The Washakie Pack remains split with the main group and their 5 pups in the general Horse Creek vicinity to the east (outside of the Dunoir Valley). The alpha pair 282M and 233F are both radio collared. From 3 to 5 uncollared wolves remain in the Dunoir, where, as every year they probably have killed some cow calves. I am not sure if control of the Dunoir group is currently being attempted. Killing or capturing wolves here is always difficult because of legal access problems and the fact that the wolves quickly leave the small meadows in the area and head for the timber. Trapping with bait is not possible due to the very high density of grizzly bears.

This year quite a few grizzly kills of cattle in the area have been confirmed. In years past there were fewer bear kills, or, in my opinion, they were just not reported.

For the first time the Greybull Pack, which has tended to stay inside the Washakie Wilderness (the one Wyoming truly Wilderness pack?), has come out onto the big ranches near Meeteetse (such as the famous Pitchfork Range) and killed 4-5 calves. Efforts to control the pack have failed when the pack retreated to rugged inaccessible areas. The plan is to kill two members of the pack.

The main Teton Pack and their six pups have left their traditional rendezvous site in GTNP and are on the national forest to the east of the Park.  They have not been in any livestock trouble.  However, four of 2 year olds from the pack went way up the Gros Ventre River and into the Union Pass area where they killed three calves. Two of the uncollared 2 year olds were control killed, even though it was the two radio collared members of the group that had killed calves last winter near Pinedale. The 2 radio-collared wolves remain. Mike Jimenez hopes one or more of these former Teton Pack wolves will meet and adopt 237F's 5 pups. Folks may recall 237F's mate (162M) was control killed after he (or both) killed some cow calves. The cows were almost on top of the den site. Since then the cows have moved off the den site, so there may still be hope for the new "Green River Pack." The female has been seen "scavenging carcasses and carrying deer legs back to the pups."

A new pack in the Wyoming Range (well south of Jackson) was accidentally disrupted and perhaps eliminated after 2 trapping mortalities. The two dead wolves were trapped following suspected wolves killing 15 or so sheep in the South Fork of Horse Creek. Jimenez said they don't like to trap wolves in early August because of the heat, but two wolves were trapped to try and monitor what was going on, and they died from hyperthermia while under sedation. As a result trapping was ended. From 1 to 3 wolves are thought to persist in the area.

The Wyoming Range has become a flash point for sheep conflicts with other wildlife. There has been local strong opposition to the Forest Service's tentative decision to put sheep in the northern part of the range because of the presence of a beleaguered bighorn population there. In most cases domestic sheep quickly transmit disease to bighorns. Wyoming's bighorn population is in serious decline. Ironically a hunting permit for a single bighorn ram is worth more than an entire band of sheep.

I know from experience that the tall forbs (perennial flowerers) on top of this range are some of the most beautiful in the West, but not after the sheep have been through. See the photo below.

Tall forbs at the headwaters of the Little Grays River in the uplands
of the Wyoming Range. Copyright © Ralph Maughan

The new Thermopolis pair in the Owl Creek Mountains has not been in any trouble. The large male 318M was radio collared earlier this year. Tracks show he is accompanied by a smaller wolf (thus female?). There have been no signs of pup tracks.

A wolf was shot near Tensleep in the Bighorn Mountains after killing some sheep. This is the furtherest east any wolf has been detected.

  Copyright © 2003 Ralph Maughan