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Ranchers.net

This was sent to us, by the President of the Gila Cattle Growers Association. She's one of the main ways we get info on what they're up to!



So far the Nantac pack has killed at least 6 head of stock on Loretta Rabenau's ranch in the past three weeks. Most of the known kills have happened in the past week.

Yesterday morning the FWS with Loretta found a third cow and calf. They were confirmed last night.

The first calf was a probable since Loretta actually did see the wolves eating it.

The second was a young healthy cow with no visible marks on her in the wolf inhabited area that was not examined due to everyones inexperience with wolf kills, there is a learning curve with new sufferers.

The third was another cow and calf the cow was confirmed as a wolf kill the calf is still missing.

The new cow and calf were killed around day before yesterday sometime.

They are killing more than they need it appears they are killing the calves and the cows are fighting them, so they run and harrass the cows too. Yesterdays victim was one of Loretta's favorite cows a "named cow", obviously it is very upsetting to her and the rest of the family.
All the carcasses have been limed so there will likley be another kill soon it is unpreventable at this point one more kill is a strike three if it can be confirmed.

If the third strike happens, then there will probably be control measures taken.

In another twist, unfortunately Dan Stark our local wolf biologist, has a GPS collar on the Nantac male and his masters study will be in jeopardy if the control effort happens before the collar falls off in (guessing here) about 20-30 days. As much as we would like to support some predation data, most of us agree that, for the sake of our families and well being of our livestock, we cannot tolorate more than one more strike.

Thank goodness for the ranchers who get out and find those kills fast.

Laura
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