Wolf shot; animal had killed cattle
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
KALISPELL - A young male wolf whose pack was suspected of killing cattle west of Kalispell was shot this week by federal wildlife agents, a situation that is becoming more common as wolf populations expand dramatically in northwest Montana.
"Livestock depredations are still low," said Kent Laudon, "but it's been a busy year, busier than we've seen in a long time."
Laudon is a wolf management specialist for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and his territory ranges across miles of northwest Montana, from Canada to Interstate 90, and from Idaho to the Rocky Mountain Front. Wolf numbers, he said, are exploding there, as new packs pop up faster than biologists can keep count.
The species was hunted hard during the past century, ever since 1884 when Montana put its first bounty on wolves. That year, 5,450 hides were turned in for payment.
By the 1930s, Montana wolves were considered extinct in terms of a self-sustaining population.
The occasional lone wolf, likely a disperser from Canada, was spotted and shot, but it wasn't until 1980 that wolves returned to make a full-time home under the Big Sky.
That was seven years after the species gained protections under the federal Endangered Species Act, the year a pack moved out of Canada and into Glacier National Park. In 1986, a Montana wolf den was documented, the first in more than 50 years.
With a pack home range of 200 square miles or more, and individual dispersers traveling upward of 500 miles, it wasn't long before the Glacier wolves began to repopulate the region - crossing, in the process, considerable private acres, including acres thick with livestock.
In 1980, one Montana wolf was documented. In 1986, 16 wolves. By 1993, 55 wolves. More than 70 were counted in northwest Montana by 1996. And last year, a whopping 316 wolves roamed the region.
"It's been amazing the last few years," Laudon said. In 2005, northwestern Montana was home to 19 confirmed packs, he said. In 2006, they counted 31 confirmed packs.
At the same time, wolves have colonized other parts of the state, because of reintroductions in the mid-1990s. Canadian wolves were trapped in both 1995 and 1996, and were released into central Idaho's wilderness, as well as the area in and around Yellowstone National Park.
Those politically placed wolves - unlike the natural dispersers in northwest Montana - are considered "experimental" populations under the ESA, but still enjoy considerable protection.
Currently, an estimated 1,300 wolves roam the "recovery area" of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, with the biggest population boom occurring in areas where animals were purposefully reintroduced.
Wolves from all three regions - northwest Montana, central Idaho and Yellowstone - are mixing together, Laudon said, filling in the habitat gaps, and today some 60 packs rub shoulders up and down the spine of Montana's Rockies - from the Candy Mountain pack in Yaak to the Rosebud pack down near Billings. An estimated 21 breeding pairs (male, female and two pups) live in the state.
The Hog Heaven pack, from which the young male was killed this week, is located about 15 miles southwest of Kalispell, sandwiched between the Fishtrap and Ashley and McMillan and Meadow Peak packs.
With all those wolves, Laudon said, it is surprising there aren't more livestock kills. During the entire decade from 1995 to 2004, he said, 167 Montana cows were confirmed lost to wolves, and 397 sheep.
In 2006, 65 wolves were killed in the larger recovery region, and 53 of those, or 82 percent, were killed because they found trouble with livestock.
The Hog Heaven pack, Laudon said, does not have a notorious history of cattle killing. In fact, the first time he spotted them they were bedded down peacefully not 50 yards from grazing cows.
But last August, and then again on Monday, one of the Hog Heaven members got a taste for beef. Whether it was the wolf agents killed, he said, no one knows.
"We try to get the offending animals," he said, "but that's not always possible. So we try to remove mouths to feed, and reduce the nutritional needs of the pack. Admittedly, it's sloppy, but you do the best that you can. And hopefully, you get lucky and take out the offending animal."
Laudon doesn't know whether they were lucky this time, but he does know he's getting busier. As wolf numbers increase, he said, and as habitat decreases, run-ins between wolves and ranchers are increasing, and are sure to increase more.
A compact between state and federal wildlife officials allows Montana agents to manage wolf problems much the same way as they would black bear or mountain lion problems, but only so long as the state maintains at least 15 breeding pairs.
With that threshold now easily met, Laudon said, officials have more than enough flexibility to handle problems as they arise.
"And every year we get busier," he said. "It's pretty amazing how the population is bouncing back."
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
KALISPELL - A young male wolf whose pack was suspected of killing cattle west of Kalispell was shot this week by federal wildlife agents, a situation that is becoming more common as wolf populations expand dramatically in northwest Montana.
"Livestock depredations are still low," said Kent Laudon, "but it's been a busy year, busier than we've seen in a long time."
Laudon is a wolf management specialist for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and his territory ranges across miles of northwest Montana, from Canada to Interstate 90, and from Idaho to the Rocky Mountain Front. Wolf numbers, he said, are exploding there, as new packs pop up faster than biologists can keep count.
The species was hunted hard during the past century, ever since 1884 when Montana put its first bounty on wolves. That year, 5,450 hides were turned in for payment.
By the 1930s, Montana wolves were considered extinct in terms of a self-sustaining population.
The occasional lone wolf, likely a disperser from Canada, was spotted and shot, but it wasn't until 1980 that wolves returned to make a full-time home under the Big Sky.
That was seven years after the species gained protections under the federal Endangered Species Act, the year a pack moved out of Canada and into Glacier National Park. In 1986, a Montana wolf den was documented, the first in more than 50 years.
With a pack home range of 200 square miles or more, and individual dispersers traveling upward of 500 miles, it wasn't long before the Glacier wolves began to repopulate the region - crossing, in the process, considerable private acres, including acres thick with livestock.
In 1980, one Montana wolf was documented. In 1986, 16 wolves. By 1993, 55 wolves. More than 70 were counted in northwest Montana by 1996. And last year, a whopping 316 wolves roamed the region.
"It's been amazing the last few years," Laudon said. In 2005, northwestern Montana was home to 19 confirmed packs, he said. In 2006, they counted 31 confirmed packs.
At the same time, wolves have colonized other parts of the state, because of reintroductions in the mid-1990s. Canadian wolves were trapped in both 1995 and 1996, and were released into central Idaho's wilderness, as well as the area in and around Yellowstone National Park.
Those politically placed wolves - unlike the natural dispersers in northwest Montana - are considered "experimental" populations under the ESA, but still enjoy considerable protection.
Currently, an estimated 1,300 wolves roam the "recovery area" of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, with the biggest population boom occurring in areas where animals were purposefully reintroduced.
Wolves from all three regions - northwest Montana, central Idaho and Yellowstone - are mixing together, Laudon said, filling in the habitat gaps, and today some 60 packs rub shoulders up and down the spine of Montana's Rockies - from the Candy Mountain pack in Yaak to the Rosebud pack down near Billings. An estimated 21 breeding pairs (male, female and two pups) live in the state.
The Hog Heaven pack, from which the young male was killed this week, is located about 15 miles southwest of Kalispell, sandwiched between the Fishtrap and Ashley and McMillan and Meadow Peak packs.
With all those wolves, Laudon said, it is surprising there aren't more livestock kills. During the entire decade from 1995 to 2004, he said, 167 Montana cows were confirmed lost to wolves, and 397 sheep.
In 2006, 65 wolves were killed in the larger recovery region, and 53 of those, or 82 percent, were killed because they found trouble with livestock.
The Hog Heaven pack, Laudon said, does not have a notorious history of cattle killing. In fact, the first time he spotted them they were bedded down peacefully not 50 yards from grazing cows.
But last August, and then again on Monday, one of the Hog Heaven members got a taste for beef. Whether it was the wolf agents killed, he said, no one knows.
"We try to get the offending animals," he said, "but that's not always possible. So we try to remove mouths to feed, and reduce the nutritional needs of the pack. Admittedly, it's sloppy, but you do the best that you can. And hopefully, you get lucky and take out the offending animal."
Laudon doesn't know whether they were lucky this time, but he does know he's getting busier. As wolf numbers increase, he said, and as habitat decreases, run-ins between wolves and ranchers are increasing, and are sure to increase more.
A compact between state and federal wildlife officials allows Montana agents to manage wolf problems much the same way as they would black bear or mountain lion problems, but only so long as the state maintains at least 15 breeding pairs.
With that threshold now easily met, Laudon said, officials have more than enough flexibility to handle problems as they arise.
"And every year we get busier," he said. "It's pretty amazing how the population is bouncing back."
