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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

WA: WDFW collars wolves, fills tracking gap

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife captures and puts collars on two adult wolves in Ferry County.

Don Jenkins
Capital Press

Two wolves were captured and fitted with radio collars in June to help wildlife managers track packs in areas where wolves have a history of attacking cattle, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

An adult male in the Togo pack was collared, as was an adult male traveling in the territory formerly occupied by the Profanity Peak pack. The collars fill gaps the department had in monitoring wolves in northeast Washington.

The Togo pack has attacked at least three calves in Ferry County since early November. The most recent attack was May 20. The department says the pack has two known members and neither was wearing a collar previously.

The Profanity Peak pack in Ferry County ceased to exist in 2017, according to the department, but wolves are in the area.

The department killed seven wolves in the Profanity Peak pack in 2016 to stop attacks on livestock. A surviving adult female traveled north into Canada in 2017.

The department also reported Tuesday in a monthly report on wolf activities that biologists tried to collar wolves in the Huckleberry, Lookout Mountain and Grouse Flats packs, but did succeed. The department said it plans to try to collar wolves in the next few weeks in the Beaver Creek, Five Sisters and Leadpoint packs.

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