Wolves have killed more livestock at a Whitman County ranch, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reports.
WDFW wildlife program assistant director Nate Pamplin said department staff on Dec. 16 responded to a wolf depredation involving three sheep, according to an email update to the department’s wolf advisory group.
The department confirmed one dead pregnant ewe as a wolf depredation. The other two sheep were unknown because there were not enough remains beyond a few bones to determine a cause of death, Pamplin said.
A 4 1/2-year-old ewe was reported killed Dec. 9 on the same ranch. The ranch has 1,200 sheep in the area.
Pamplin said some of the sheep from the second kill apparently escaped Dec. 14 from a pasture surrounded by an electric fence. A small portion of the electric fence pulled out of the ground due to freezing and thawing throughout the day. The sheep were killed roughly half a mile outside the fenced area.
“The fence has been fixed with heavier posts being used to hold the fence in the ground and the sheep are back inside the pasture,” Pamplin stated.
The department removed carcasses from the site and continues to deploy Foxlights in the fenced pasture. Cameras were deployed at the kill site.
The rancher has entered into a livestock damage prevention cooperative agreement with the department. The producer plans to follow his normal practices and move the sheep from the current pasture to another location near the house by the end of the year, Pamplin said.
—Matthew Weaver