Wolf experts give facts about the animals and what happens when they share human lands
SUPERIOR, Mont. – Tracking the numbers and movements of wolves in western Montana is important work, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say.
Superior-based game warden Justin Singleterry says hunters are a primary control of the wolf population.
He said it’s important to get the wolf population to a sustainable level, for the health of the area’s overall ecosystem.
He encourages deer and elk hunters to get wolf tags, in case of a wolf encounter.
Singleterry related one story about a man and his daughter – out hunting for deer or elk – both getting wolves when they spotted a pack.
The man shot and killed a wolf, sending the others running. They waited to see what happened next, and about 45 minutes later the pack returned to investigate the kill.
The wolves didn’t notice the hunters.
While they looked over the dead wolf, the daughter was able to shoot and kill another one.
Singleterry described this as a good technique when hunting wolves with a friend. After shooting one, just wait a while and the rest of the pack will likely return, giving the rest of the group a chance at one.
Singleterry said fellow hunters are a good source for help finding wolves.
“People are more (likely) to tell other hunters where they’ve seen wolves,” he said. More so than with deer and elk.
While it is rare, Singleterry said wolves have attacked people or livestock before. He said in these situations an investigation begins.
He said a Wildlife Human Attack Response Team would examine the evidence to determine what happened. The team has responded to attacks by bears, mountain lions, deer and wolves.
Using the puncture wounds, teeth marks and DNA, the team verifies the animal involved in an attack.
From there, he said, they would attempt to capture the animal, usually with traps placed near the attack site.
Once they have a suspect, the team measures the teeth or horns to determine if it is the same animal.
If they get a match, he said, they usually euthanize it, either by shooting it or putting it to sleep with drugs.
Liz Bradley, a wolf management specialist from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, is monitoring wolf populations.
Her office does this by putting radio collars on wolves to track them.
Once a month she will go up in a plane and find the signals from the various collars. The plane will then circle lower so the number of wolves in a pack can be counted.
This gives her a fairly accurate number of how many wolves are in a pack and how many packs there are in an area.
Bradley said there is fairly high turnover as wolves escape the collars or are killed, but replacement wolves are found and collared.
She said hunter reports are especially important for tracking and population monitoring. Such reports help identify new packs forming and allow state wildlife workers to keep track of their movements.
She said the collars also help find wolves when they attack livestock. The collars can track down packs near the attack and determine whether any of those wolves were responsible.
A pack of wolves near Superior was suspected in 2010 of killing a group of miniature horses.
Two of the pack’s wolves had tracking collars, which allowed investigators to pinpoint them with little difficulty.
The collars indicated the pack had been at the site of the attack.
“That’s the middle of their territory, it’s not that common (for other packs to infringe on a pack’s territory),” Bradley said.
Once confirmed, a helicopter flew out to track the wolves down, and a gunner in the helicopter was able to shoot the wolves from the air.
Bradley said relocating problem packs, or individual wolves, was impractical.
The federal government at one time had a relocation program, but the wolves would often die shortly after the relocation or return to their original territory.
Statewide, the U.S. Forest Service removes a few packs every year, however, not many in Mineral County.