Wolves can be anywhere in Park County
– By Paula Clawson, Enterprise Staff Writer
and the Associated Press
It’s hard to tell just where the wolves are in Paradise Valley.
Reports earlier this week indicated a resident pack had formed on the
southwest side of Wineglass Mountain.
But a fly-over of the area Thursday morning, Dec. 5, had wolf biologists
reevaluating that assumption.
“It looks like the Lone Bear (Eight Mile Creek) pack is what we’ve been
seeing in the Wineglass,” said Joe Fontaine, a wolf biologist for the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
Two wolf pups were fitted with radio collars on Nov. 19 after being caught
by a trapper in the Eight Mile Creek area, according to Fontaine. At the
time it appeared the pups were closer to, and staying in, the Wineglass
area about 10 miles from Eight Mile.
‘That’s a hop, skip and a jump for a wolf,’ Fontaine said.
Thursday morning federal wolf biologist Doug Smith flew over the Eight
Mile Creek and Wineglass areas.
“Doug Smith said both pups have been seen not only in the Wineglass but on
Eight Mile, too. That’s a pretty good indicator there is only one pack,”
Fontaine said.
The Lone Bear pack is a confirmed wolf pack of about five animals,
Fontaine said.
“People who live out there have reported as many as 11. Who knows? Wolves
travel back and forth,” Fontaine said.
Outfitter Justin O’Hair, who ranches in the Trail Creek area, believes
there are two packs in the region.
O’Hair said he has seen eight wolves on Eight Mile Creek, and others on
the south side of Wineglass Mountain, about 10 miles to the north along
Bullis Creek.
O’Hair said it was confirmed a wolf killed a calf on his family’s ranch in
September.
Fontaine said his office will try to dart and radio-collar more wolves
this winter to determine how many packs are in the Eight Mile Creek area.
Other confirmed packs in Park County are the Chief Joseph Pack in the
northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park and into Tom Miner Basin;
the Sheep Mountain pack northwest of Jardine and around Dome Mountain; and
the Mill Creek pack in the Mill Creek basin east of the Yellowstone River.
A number of credible wolf sightings have been reported in other parts of
Park County, Fontaine said.
“A radio-collared female was in the Shell Mountain and Lion Mountain area
of the West Boulders,” Fontaine said. “We’re not sure if she’s still
there.”
“You can just put a pin in the middle of the Crazy Mountains as a
location. We’ve gotten credible reports of wolves and wolf tracks from
different places up there,” Fontaine said.
He said limited manpower has kept federal wildlife managers from getting
on the ground to confirm the sightings.
“It is very, very speculative to say there’s a pack in the Crazies or at
West Boulder,” Fontaine said.
Gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and
1996 and have been spreading. Last week one of the collared wolves was
found in northern Utah, 200 miles south of Yellowstone.
“People need to understand a pack can range 200 to 300 miles,” Fontaine
said.