Officials exterminate Madsion Valley wolf pack
By NICK GEVOCK Chronicle Staff Writer
The second wolf pack that has been attacking cattle in the Madison Valley was wiped out Friday morning.
Federal trappers flying in a helicopter east of Ennis Lake early Friday morning spotted five wolves out on a sagebrush plain and swooped in to shoot all of them, said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“There are basically not any wolves left in the Madison Range,” Bangs said late Friday afternoon.
The pack– now dubbed the “Ennis Lake Pack” — had attacked two cows on a ranch east of the lake. Bangs said officials thought there were four wolves in the pack, which is believed to have been offspring from the Sentinel Pack.
A fifth wolf running with the pack Thursday was wearing an old radio collar, Bangs said. That wolf turned out to be the alpha male from the Nez Perce Pack that roams the region south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The wolf was last tracked in December 2002.
The Ennis Lake Pack’s death comes on the heels of Thursday’s extermination of five members of the Sentinel Pack, which killed a steer and a stock dog in separate attacks on ranches east of Cameron.
Once seven wolves strong, the Sentinel Pack now has only one healthy wolf left. Another one wearing a radio collar is injured, but still alive.
Bangs said trappers snuck up on the injured wolf Friday and it was limping but could walk. It is being kept alive in hopes that the last healthy wolf from the pack will come back so both can be killed.
If the last wolf doesn’t show up by Monday, the injured wolf will be shot. That wolf’s injury is being investigated as a crime.
Bangs said the illegal shooting last year of three collared adult wolves may have contributed to both packs getting into trouble. Those shootings are still under investigation.
“Both of these packs were in the valley for two years and we weren’t having problems,” he said. “When you lose the ones that normally lead the pack, you basically have a bunch of teenagers walking through cattle.”
Although the packs known to live in the Madisons are basically gone, Bangs said inevitably other wolves will wander into the range. He hopes those won’t get into trouble.
He added that although the recent attacks grabbed headlines, wolves preying on livestock remains rare.
And Bangs said he hopes the federal government’s quick action has built some trust among Madison Valley ranchers.
“Most wolves don’t cause problems, but the ones that do, we get on them right away,” he said. “There will be more wolves in the Madison Valley, hopefully things will go better next time.”