POSTED BY GEORGE PRENTICE
In what is reported to be the first “depredation event” of the season, this morning’s Idaho Mountain Express reports that two sheep were confirmed to be killed by wolves in the mountains east of Ketchum.
A spokesman for the Idaho Wildlife Services said traps had been set out to catch the wolves since the September 23rd kill, but have since been removed as the sheep had left the area.
Suzanne Stone of the Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife told the Mountain Express, “Two [killed] sheep out of an entire field season is remarkable.”
Stone added that the sheep band was in an area covered by the Wood River Wolf Project, which prevents predator/livestock conflicts through nonlethal deterrents and would be wrapped up for the season this week.
Stone told the Mountain Express about 30,000 sheep graze in the area.