By Michael H. O’Donnell
Snowmobilers follow trail of paw prints in area forest
SODA SPRINGS — With a long stride and big pad prints, the trail of a large canine led a trio of snowmobilers on a 13-mile quest to catch a glimpse of what they suspected was a lone wolf last Friday. Instead they were left with a line of paw prints disappearing into the snow ahead.
Paul Gritton, a photographer and correspondent for the Idaho State Journal, was joined by two members of Southeast Idaho law enforcement for an outing near Slug Creek about 12 miles east of Soda Springs when they first came across the tracks. It was in an area known as Big Basin in the Caribou National Forest.
“We left the warming hut and went about three-quarters of a mile when I spotted large canine tracks,” Gritton said. “I knew it was unlikely it was a dog.”
Gritton said the paw prints were large as was the stride of the animal. In addition, the animal did not stray from side to side by remained on a pretty steady course to the southwest, using a path packed by weeks of snowmobile activity. And the trail was fresh.
“There was hoar frost that morning and the tracks were on top of that,” Gritton said.
Although the trio stopped off and on during their snowmobile ride, they continued tracking the animal for about three hours.
“We actually hoped to catch up to it,” Gritton said. It never happened.
The next day when Gritton was back in the same area where a poker run for the annual Soda Springs Winter Carnival was taking place. He said he talked to a woman at the even who said she had actually seen a lone wolf in the area.
Spotting tracks or even a wolf in the southern corner of Idaho doesn’t surprise Idaho Fish and Game regional conservation educator Jennifer Jackson.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she said about the Soda Springs area. “We’ve had wolf sightings throughout Southeast Idaho. They’re transient wolves just moving through the area.”
Jackson said Idaho Fish and Game has not established any evidence of breeding pars, dens or packs in this part of the state.
But Fish and Game is interested in any and all sightings and is actively tracking such events. Those who make a sighting are asked to use the Idaho Fish and Game website to document it.
A wildlife tab on the main webpage gives users an option to go to wolves and wolf management information. A link on that page called “Report Wolf Sightings Here,” opens a site where anyone can provide information about their sighting. An interactive map helps them pinpoint the event and provide a description of everything they observed about the animal or animals.
Jackson said people recreating in the field can provide valuable information as Idaho officials continue to develop management plans for the state’s wolf population.
The F&G website also provides the latest data on legal wolf harvests in Idaho as of January 2013. A quick look at a chart shows that in the panhandle area of Idaho, 26 wolves were killed this season, 16 by hunting and 10 by trapping. The Salmon area saw hunters kill 18 wolves while 14 were taken in the Island Park area.
“We have had calls about wolves in Soda Springs,” Jackson said. “People need to get it on the website.”