Alpha wolf dies after hitting car
Associated Press
HELENA (AP) – A 2-1/2-year-old female wolf wearing a radio collar was
killed after running into a vehicle on MacDonald Pass, wildlife officials
said.
“She ran across the road, ran into the side of a vehicle and killed
herself,” said Joe Fontaine, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The wolf, the alpha female in the Great Divide Pack, was killed late last
week on the east side of the pass, near the Montana Department of
Transportation’s highway shop and just a few miles west of the Helena city
limits.
Fontaine said the female had a litter of five pups last spring, but
another adult has probably taken over their care.
The female wolf had been relocated to the Yaak Valley of northwestern
Montana two years ago, Fontaine said.
Mike Korn of the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said there
have been numerous calls about wolves in the area.
“We weren’t surprised to have a road-killed wolf. It was just a matter of
time,” Korn said.
Officials also said a new pack of about eight wolves has been spotted
north of Avon and the wolves are suspected of killing two calves last
week.
“We have no idea where that pack came from,” Fontaine said. It is being
called the Halfway Pack.
Two adult males from the Castle Rock Pack, also known as the Boulder Pack,
were shot earlier this summer after several cattle were killed south of
Avon. Fontaine said a former member of that pack, relocated to the Yaak
Valley as a pup, may have returned to run with the Halfway Pack.