Wolf pack moves in just outside Livingston
Associated Press
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) – A trapper trying to capture coyotes caught two wolf
pups, confirming a wolf pack is living just southeast of here on Wineglass
Mountain.
Federal wolf specialist Ed Bangs said the pups were caught Nov. 19.
They were fitted with radio collars and released, and Bangs said the trapper
“really helped us out.”
The pups weighed 70-80 pounds and were not harmed by the leg-hold traps, he
said. “Their feet looked fine.”
Bangs, wolf recovery team leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said
radio signals show the wolves are still in the area.
“I’m certain” a pack has set up a territory nearby, with probably four or five
animals in it.
The Wineglass area is a mix of 20-acre subdivisions, traditional family ranches
and some large recreational ranches, about 55 miles north of Yellowstone
National Park.
There have been no reports of attacks on domestic animals, but area residents
have reported seeing wolves, occasionally close to houses or livestock.
Wayne Brozek, who manages the Starwinds Ranch just west of Wineglass Mountain,
said he saw a wolf on that ranch about two months ago and that neighbors and
visitors had reported seeing as many as eight wolves together.
He said he saw wolf tracks as recently as Monday and is seeing significantly
fewer elk than normal this year.
Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996 and have been
spreading since then.
Bangs estimated there are at least 250 wolves in the Yellowstone area by now.