Five wolves killed in southwestern Montana
By KIM BRIGGEMAN – Missoulian – 09/26/07
MISSOULA Five wolves from two separate packs were killed Monday and Tuesday in southwestern Montana for preying on cattle.
That brought to nine the number of wolves removed by federal agents in Granite County over the past two weeks.
This has been by far my busiest month for depredations all summer, said Liz Bradley, wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services shot and killed one adult female wolf and three young females out of the Sapphire Pack in upper Rock Creek on Monday. The pack, one of the largest in western Montana, was weeded down after the second confirmed calf killing on private land since July.
On Tuesday, the lone survivor of the Bearmouth pack southwest of Drummond was killed, Bradley said. Wildlife Services removed four wolves from the Bearmouth pack in mid-September, after eliminating one in August. Tuesdays kill was a collared alpha female.
At first it was thought she had one or more companions.
Thats why we were waiting, to see if another wolf connected up with her, Bradley said. But shes been by herself, so they finally decided to remove her.
The shootings completed the control actions in both locations.
The wolf kills pushed the number of government-mandated wolf kills in 2007 past the total for all of 2006 in Montana.
A tentative mid-year count released this week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said 50 wolves had been killed through last week. That compares to 53 last year.
Livestock deaths attributed to wolves are already up by nearly two-thirds, from 42 in 2006 to 69 so far in 2007. This years killings include 48 cattle, 19 sheep, one dog and a llama near Livingston that died last Wednesday from injuries inflicted by a lone uncollared wolf.
Bradley said the Sapphire Pack consists of an estimated 11 adults and three subadults after Mondays killings. Its one of the largest of the 30 packs she manages from Dillon to western Mineral County.
There are believed to be 71 packs and some 390 wolves in Montana, up from 60 and 316 at the end of last year.
Mondays action on U.S. Forest Service land in upper Rock Creek was authorized by FWP in response to a calf kill on private land confirmed last Friday. All thee radio-collared wolves in the pack were found near or on the ranch that day.
Wildlife Services was authorized to trap on the carcass of the dead calf over the weekend and kill any wolves that returned. The four killed Monday were shot from a helicopter.
The Sapphire pack was responsible for a calf killed in the same area on July 30. One wolf was killed after that, and the landowner was issued a shoot-on-sight permit.
FWP said it will continue to monitor both areas for wolves, as well as work with landowners and grazing allotment permit holders to reduce depredation risks. A press release said the agency uses an incremental approach to address confirmed livestock depredations.
Visitors to www.fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/wolf can inform FWP when they see wolves or wolf sign, and also learn about Montanas recovered wolf population.