LACEY JARRELL, Herald and News , KGW
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Wildlife officials have confirmed that a fifth radio-collared gray wolf has made its way to Klamath County.
The wolf is suspected in the recent deaths of two goats and a lamb in Jackson County.
The 2-year-old male wolf, designated OR-33, dispersed from the northeastern Oregon Imnaha Pack in January.
Tom Collom, a district biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said OR-33 has been traversing land west of Swan Lake Valley, between Klamath Falls and Dairy, for about 10 days.
On Friday, June 10, a goat carcass was discovered in the field of a livestock producer, with a second goat showing signs of injury from an attack, according to a report by ODFW.
State biologists investigated the carcass and determined the death resulted from a wolf attack, based on the injury. GPS radio‐collar location data indicated OR33 was .4 miles from the kill site on June 11. A second goat carcass was found on June 13, with only parts of the skeleton remaining.
On June 12, just a half mile away from the site where the goats were found, the livestock producer discovered the body of an adult ewe.
“The extent and severe nature of the hemorrhage is consistent with wolf caused trauma,” ODFW officials wrote in their report.
Collom said the public has reported sightings of the wolf to ODFW. The agency conducted an aerial survey from a helicopter and confirmed the wolf is traveling by itself.
“We’ve been in contact with landowners of properties he’s been in the vicinity of in North Poe Valley and the Swan Lake area,” Collom said. “We are trying to be transparent, letting livestock producers know when he’s in the area. We’ve had no reports of depredation issues.”
Collom said OR-33 got into a couple cow carcasses on private property and the landowners have since buried the remains.
Wildlife officials trapped and fit OR-33 with a GPS radio collar last February, when he was still a member of the Imnaha Pack — the same pack from which the wolves OR-7 and OR-25 dispersed.
Collom said after leaving the pack, OR-33 traveled west into the Columbia River Gorge before moving south into the Ochoco Mountains, east of Prineville, and moving through the desert toward Fort Rock Valley.
OR-33 continued traveling south, on the east side of Crescent and Chemult, before landing in southern Klamath County.
Collom said OR-33 took a similar path to OR-7 and OR-25. OR-33’s collar is programmed to send location signals twice per day, but officials have only been receiving data once every two days or so.
OR-25 is a male that made his first appearance in Klamath County in May 2015. He left the Imnaha pack in March 2015. He is known to travel between Klamath County and Northern California, and has been on the west side of Upper Klamath Lake near Keno and Rocky Point.
OR-25 is believed to have attacked three calves on a ranch near the upper Williamson River in late October or early November.
Collom said a recent collar transmission placed OR-25 east of the Williamson River, in Lake County. He said the wolf is likely searching for food and a mate.
OR-7 was the first GPS radio-collared Imnaha wolf to make its way to Klamath County. OR-7 found a mate and became a breeding pair in May 2014. OR-7, his mate and their offspring have been named the Rogue Pack. OR-7 is known to travel across the Klamath-Jackson County line, near Fort Klamath.
Another collared Imnaha wolf, OR-3, was spotted in northern Klamath County in October. Collom said the wolf’s collar does not transmit GPS signals and officials don’t know where the wolf is now.
A radio-collared female, OR-28, was detected in Klamath County in November. OR-28 dispersed from the Mount Emily Pack in Umatilla County. She traveled in northern Klamath and Lake counties before settling in near Silver Lake in northern Lake County.
“We’ve confirmed that she is with what appears to be a male,” Collom said, noting that officials do not believe the male is fitted with a radio collar.