Elk kill worries Clayton residents
by Anna Means
A young elk was recently found dead at the entrance to the old Clayton
Silver Mine. Wolf tracks around the kill have a Clayton couple concerned
that wolves are just a mile from their home and not much farther from the
town of Clayton.
Local Curt Hurless spotted the carcass Sunday at about 11:00 a.m. when
driving on Kinnikinic Creek Road. He told the Messenger the carcass was
still warm and he is convinced it’s a wolf kill based on how the animal
was taken down and the multitude of tracks around it.
Joyce Rovetto told the Messenger that it alarms her to know the wolves are
so close by when she has had grandkids playing in the area over the past
couple of weeks. She fears for their safety.
Rovetto said she used to see wolves in the backcountry long before the
reintroduction in 1995, but never felt uneasy about them, because they
were wild as opposed to reintroduced.
Curt Mack, coordinator for Nez Perce wolf recovery, told the Messenger he
wouldn’t be surprised if it was a wolf kill. He said the Buffalo Ridge
pack would be the likely suspects, since they’ve been staying at the head
of Squaw Creek all year. This particular pack had its first litter of
seven pups this year.
Mack said there’s a lot of good habitat for the critters in the
surrounding countryside and doesn’t think they’ll make a habit of hanging
around town.
Rancher Howard Cutler said he’s been seeing wolves in the upland country
where he runs cows.
Tim Ingram and Jeannie Quigley kept their calves home when running cows up
Squaw Creek this summer. Jeannie said it was an experiment based on the
knowledge wolves were up there and that they came up short three calves
and a cow last year. There was no carcass to examine if the animals were
lost to a predator.
Other sightings
Mack said he has received a couple of reports about wolves in the Darling
Creek and/or Morgan Creek environs. He suspects they’re the Twin Peaks
pack, but doesn’t really know. It’s extremely difficult to find a pack
unless there’s at least one collar among them. The last collared wolf of
that pack was killed over a year ago.
Mack said he hopes to bring a crew in this winter to look for tracks and
sign and with any luck be able to collar a couple of the critters.
Topped out
Overall, wolves may have just about settled available habitat in Idaho.
Although the official breeding pair counts aren’t finalized, Mack said it
looks like numbers have leveled off.
He said it appears all of the good wolf country has been colonized by the
critters, so it’s only natural that numbers are no longer rising as
quickly. When first introduced, the wolves rapidly reproduced, but as
habitat has filled up, reproduction has slowed.
Wolves dispersing from packs are having to travel farther to find a place
to call home. This was recently illustrated when a Yellowstone wolf from
the Druid Peak pack was caught in a coyote trap near Ogden, Utah. The
animal was unharmed and shipped 200 miles back to Yellowstone. While this
one was sent back, officials with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they
won’t be moving any more unless they get into trouble with livestock or
people.