Don Jenkins, Capital Press
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed the state’s 19th wolf pack, formed when a female wolf left one group and started traveling with a male whose history is unknown.
The Sherman pack, named by state biologists after geographic features in Ferry County, was announced June 14 by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
So far, WDFW has only confirmed the two adults in the pack, though biologists suspect they have pups, WDFW wolf specialist Scott Becker said. Two wolves traveling together qualify as a pack.
The female was captured and fitted with a radio collar last year and at the time was possibly the breeding female in the Profanity Peak pack.
She may have been pushed out of the pack by another female, Becker said.
“We’ll probably never know for sure what actually happened there,” he said.
The male wolf was captured and collared in February.
WDFW collared a 2-year-old male June 9 and a yearling female June 12 in the Profanity Peak pack.
With collars transmitting signals from both groups, WDFW was able to confirm they were separate packs.
WDFW has not yet determined whether the packs have overlapping territory. The Sherman pack has been staying south of Highway 20, while the Profanity Pack has been roaming north of the highway, Becker said.
The Sherman pack is the 15th in the northeastern corner of Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has de-listed wolves in the eastern one-third of Washington, but the animals remain a state-protected species.
Statewide recovery goals call for wolves to disperse over more of the state, including into the South Cascades. Lone wolves have been spotted in the South Cascades, but WDFW has received no reports of wolves traveling together in a pack.
“It’s only a matter of time before they show up in the South Cascades,” Becker said. “We’re continuing to search down there.”
WDFW confirmed seven wolves in the Profanity Peak pack at the end of 2015. The department counted at least 90 wolves in the state.
The Huckleberry pack in Stevens County split last year, with the Stranger pack forming just to the north. One of the packs killed a Holstein heifer in May, the last confirmed wolf depredation in the state.
The depredation would be the first of the year for either pack. WDFW’s policy calls for the department to consider lethal removal of wolves after four depredations.
WDFW wolf policy lead Donny Martorello said the department is monitoring the movements of the packs to determine which one was responsible.
“We want to make sure we don’t assign it to the wrong pack,” he said. “There’s no intention to not assign” responsibility.