As most folks know, ten pups from the Sawtooth Pack in NW Montana were captured last summer after most of the adults in the pack were shot for repeatedly killing livestock. These ten pups and two wolves released last year and then recaptured due to their location in an undesirable part of the Paradise Valley have been in the Rose Creek pen ever since.Plans were to relocate them to the new Pelican Valley enclosure, but this has been abandoned. All twelve wolves plus wolf no. 27F, who was recently recaptured, are being moved right now to the Nez Perce Pen near the Park's Lower Geyser Basin on the west side of the Park.
This decision appears to be based on the fact that the Crystal Creek pair have relocated to the Pelican Valley. The prey base in the Pelican in March is also a bit low to support a pack of 13 wolves.
One will recall that the two adult wolves that have been with the ten pups are wolf numbers 29M and 37F. Both are the offspring of no. 27F and no. 28M (the wolf that was recently killed). They were born in British Columbia. Now they will be reunited with their mother under very different conditions -- the ten nearly full grown pups from the Sawtooth Pack.
Regarding the part of the Sawtooth Pack that remained free and was not shot, I understand that the two remaining adults and four pups are still surviving on the Rocky Mountain Front about fifty miles to the SE of Glacier National Park.
In other Park wolf news, two of the Rose Creek yearlings, nos. 16 and 17 have joined the Chief Joseph Pack. One more Rose Creek yearling, no. 18 or 23, has dispersed. This wolf is one of the few uncollared wolves in the Park. Neither 18 nor 23 had collars, so it is unclear at this time, which one it was.
© 1997 Ralph Maughan
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