Control of Stanley Wolf Pack Over For Now

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has suspended further control actions of Idaho's Stanley Wolf pack for now.

Last Friday government trappers caught 2 members of the pack after setting traps on private property. One of the wolves, a sub-adult female, was shot and killed, and the other, the Alpha male of the pack, was relocated to north central Idaho.

All the livestock are in the process of being removed from the grazing allotment for the season and therefore no further depredations are anticipated. But what will be come next spring/summer is another story.

A similar situation occurred with the Sheep Mountain pack in October of 1999. The Alpha male and 5 juvenile pack members were shot and killed due to a few livestock depredations and then the control actions ceased for the winter.

But in the spring of 2000 when livestock were once again turned out to graze on land adjacent to their home territory, the control actions begun again---with the devastating outcome being the total destruction of the pack.

The 3 surviving male members of the Sheep Mountain pack are still on Ted Turner's Flying D Ranch undergoing "aversive" conditioning.

According to Ed Bangs there is a good possibility (as of right now) that these 3 wolves will be re-released at the end of the month because so far they have not harmed any calves that have been placed in the pen with them.

But this type of experiment is just that---an experiment. And even if it is successful in modifying the behavior of these 3 individuals, it is in no way the answer to solving the problem of wolf predation on livestock.

All we can do now is wait until next spring/summer and hope that depredations by the Stanley pack have ceased and the pack will not wind up suffering the same fatal consequences as female #16 and her pack did.