By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
Idaho wildlife officials are searching for a missing wolf pack to reunite with a lost pup.
Near starvation, the five-to-six-week old male pup was found alone, picked up over the weekend by campers at Sawtooth National Forest near Twin Falls, Idaho.
“He doesn’t really have a name yet,” says Susanne Stone, a Defenders of Wildlife wolf conservation program official on Tuesday. “I’ve never seen a pup this young away from its pack in 25 years of working with wolves,” Stone says. “He is kind of in a bad way.”
Idaho Department of Fish & Wildlife biologists are searching for the pack that the pup belonged to. Wolves typically mature at ten months old or so, when they can hunt independently.
If the pack is found within the week, the pup will likely be reintroduced to its parents. Alternately, biologists could try to find a surrogate pack, a more dicey option, or finally, look to a captive wolf program to foster the young wolf, Stone says. Wildlife biologists are consulting on methods to reintroduce the pup to its pack or to a new one.