Avon wolf pack on Death Row
By Pat Hansen of The Montana Standard
AVON — Two wolf packs in the Avon area will be eliminated because of a his tory of depredation — including several cattle kills this week, a federal wolf recovery coordinator said.
Signs in the snow on a ranch north of Avon told how three wolves entered the pasture and singled out a 1,100-pound cow from the herd as their prey. Two other terrified cows charged through the barbed wire fence.
The victim fled, but five times the wolves’ jaws sank into her shoulders and flanks. The cow reached a shelter of pine trees where the wolves began eat ing her alive. They ripped chunks of flesh from her hind quarters exposing her unborn calf. Then she died.
When rancher John Bignell found the cow, he initially thought she’d fallen on the ice. Closer inspection showed the truth. He preserved evidence of the kill by covering the wolf tracks with cans, then called the state damage control officer Kraig Glazier and government trapper Jim Stevens who came to inves tigate the kill, which is attributed to the Halfway pack.
Closer to Garrison, Don Beck found his two-year-old registered Hereford bull dead Tuesday evening. In the dusky light he didn’t realize it was a wolf kill, because he’d never had trouble with them before.
Ed Bangs, federal wolf recovery coor dinator, says the kill was made by mem bers of the Castle Rock-Boulder pack and is the first report of wolves taking down a bull.
Beck shot at what he thought was a coyote on the carcass. It wasn’t until the next morning he discovered he’d killed a wolf. Promptly he called state game war den Dan Burns.
A special investigator is reviewing the incident.
A federal Wildlife Services agent shot a 90-pound yearling male wolf eating the bull carcass on Wednesday, at which time three others were seen.
Bangs ordered the troublesome wolf packs be eliminated, but bad weather with poor visibility, freezing rain and snow hampered those operations Friday.
The action will not affect the efforts to delist the wolves as an endangered species.
“ If we eliminate these wolves there are others who will move into the terri tory, but we can hope that they won’t bother livestock,’ said Bangs. “ Wolves are always on the move. An average pack uses a home range of 200-500 square miles, so when people see tracks, they often think there are wolves every where, but that’s not the case.’
During a recent, standing-room-only meeting in Avon the audience pressed federal and state officials to hasten the delisting of wolves as an endangered species and to develop a management plan for Montana. Ironically, at the time, Bignell told a reporter he had seen wolves in the area without experiencing a problem but added, “ It’s only a matter or time.’
Tana Bignell said Friday, “ I like wildlife as much as anyone else, but this is our livelihood. Our kids feed calves in a pen near where the cow died. Now I’ll fret and worry about the children, our pets and the rest of our herd.’
“ People are afraid of wolves, and their fear is real,’ said Bangs. “ However, there has been no report of a wolf killing a human in 150 years; whereas, mountain lions and bears kill people every year.’