Idaho Wolf Update:
White Cloud Pack has Nine Pups, buts gets into trouble
8-21-98 (update 8-31)
Idaho's new White Clouds Pack has nine pups. This is the largest litter in Idaho since reintroduction three years ago. This pack is product of the union of wolf 36F and what is believed to be a native wolf. Theirs is an amazing story, although the facts have been hard to get. Number 36 whelped her pups in some of the most degraded cow range country in Idaho. I know the location from several stinking experiences. Then the pair moved their pups out of this tributary of East Fork of the Salmon River and over the Boulder Mountains into the Galena Summit area, an extremely popular scenic pass where Idaho Highway 75 passes from the Big Wood River into the Sawtooth Valley.
A pack with this many pups needs plenty to eat; and as a new pack it has but two adults to supply the food.
Unfortunately, the pack has gotten into trouble. It appears they have killed five sheep being grazed on public land near Pole Creek. Now the U.S. Wildlife Services (Animal Damage Control) wants to trap and move the male. They can't shoot him because Idaho officially has less the six breeding pairs of wolves. (See my story of 6-1-98.) Since they have so many pups, however, relocating the male will almost certainly mean the wolves will get into further trouble. This is what was learned with the Washakie Pack SE of Yellowstone. In this case the alpha pair both had tooth trouble and had more pups than they could easily feed. Shooting the alpha male, Number R15M, last October only exacerbated the situation. Fortunately, the pups were yearlings and knew how to hunt by the time the depredating alpha female was shot. Since then the pack -- the four remaining yearlings -- has moved away from livestock into the deep wilderness.
Although the White Clouds Pack has gotten into trouble, it and the Stanley Pack (which mostly inhabits stunningly scenic Stanley Basin about twenty miles to the north) are Idaho's best bet to attract wolf tourists. These two packs could become as visible as the Druid and the Rose Creek Packs have in Yellowstone. The area that is their range is in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. It has large valleys and meadows similar to Yellowstone, such as the Sawtooth Valley and Stanley Basin. Unlike Yellowstone, there are lots of livestock during the summer. Because of the openness and location, the ability to see wolves is much higher than in most of central Idaho.
The Sawtooth Valley and the Sawtooth Mountains. June 1998.
© copyright Ralph MaughanIt's my view that giving the whole White Clouds Pack another chance is the way to go, both in terms of wolf recovery and economic rationality because the sheep rancher will be compensated and otherwise the pups with starve and the pack will probably get into more trouble. Update: It looks they will trap the male if they can and hold him until the sheep are moved from their summer grazing allotment. Fortunately, it appears the wolf team wants to conserve the pack.
I understand that last year Number 36F and her mate feasted on elk wounded by the archery hunt. The time of this hunt is again almost at hand. This might provide additional food.
In other Idaho news, a number of "prescribed" fires are burning in the Chamberlain Basin in the Frank Church Wilderness. Of course this expansive area is the home of Chamberlain Basin Pack. I understand that the wolves seem to be frequenting the edges of the fires. Reason?
There has been one other wolf depredation. The Jureano Pack apparently killed a cow calf near the old mining town of Leesburg last week. This is the pack that made short work of three tracking hounds last fall near the town of Salmon. Two of the pack's pups were recently found dead. I covered this in an earlier story.
Candice Burns has written an article on some of these events with that distinctive "Custer/Lemhi County feel." (Her interpretation in the Post-Register.)
As for myself, I am still nursing an injured Achilles heel incurred while chasing trespassing cattle off the property of a friend near Stanley last weekend. Do I get some compensation?
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