Big Mistake in the White Clouds costs Alpha Male
Judas Wolf terminated too
Mountain Express Story added on April 27 and May 10, plus moreApril 21, 2000, plus updated 4-22, 4-27, 5-10
Since my last update (April 6) on the control of the White Clouds Pack, events have continued to develop. Unfortunately the attempt to remove this pack from the area, but save it from slaughter plus maintain the alphas as a breeding pair, has failed.
The pack was being controlled because it recently killed two calves of Wayne and Melodie Baker on the East Fork of the Salmon River. This depredation was the latest in a number of sporadic small depredations over the last two years.
Five wolves, including the alpha pair, had been captured. Four were relocated to North Central Idaho, including the alpha male and female. She was about to whelp pups. It was hoped that the other three wolves would provide for her and her pups. Biologists also hoped that the capture and move would not cause her to abort.
The wolves were released in a tributary of the famed Lochsa River.
A location tracking flight about a week after their move looked promising because the wolves were only a mile from the release site, although the omega female had left the alpha pair and the 11-month old pup.
Back in the East Fork of the Salmon, the fifth captured wolf was radio collared and released as a "judas wolf" to help trappers locate the rest, capture them, and relocate them to the Lochsa area release site. Things did not go as planned. Like the Twin Peaks Pack judas wolf, the White Clouds judas wolf did not join the remainder of the pack, which was believed to be three or more other wolves.
The next event was the other wolves then killed two calves on the ranch of another of the Baker family, Eddie and Junior Baker. Wildlife Services was then given the order to kill the rest of the wolves if possible.
Over a week passed without a successful kill of the wolves, but yesterday Wildlife Services agent Rick Williamson flew the East Fork area and radio-located the judas wolf, still alone; but he soon found the other three wolves on a hilltop. He shot two from the helicopter and a third ran into the trees. He landed to go after the third wolf, but it got away. When he went back to pick up the two dead wolves . . . sadly and amazingly, one of them was the radio-collared alpha male, who, in about a week, had returned about 175 linear miles from the Lochsa River southward to the East Fork. There had been no tracking flights in the interim, and no one suspected that the alpha would have returned this great distance, which is not just 175 miles, but 175 miles of rugged forest and mountains of great relief.
With this unfortunate mistake and the three dead wolves, the control action has been terminated. Idaho has lost another breeding pair (down one pair now from last year when there were 10 pairs, and possibly down two if the Twin Peaks alpha female relocated to the Selway-Bitterroot losses her pregnancy).
In summary then, at least two of the former members of the White Clouds pack remain in the East Fork area. This includes the radio-collared judas wolf. The size of the pack was uncertain, there may be more than two wolves left. The control action is over.
The status of the alpha female and her sub-adult male son are not known. There have been no tracking flights. There is not enough money to so, according to Roy Heberger of the Boise office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. The mistake might well have been avoided if there was more money for tracking flights.
The alpha male was believed to have been a non-reintroduced wolf. It is possible he had lived for a number of years in the White Cloud Mountains area before reintroduced wolf B36F showed up late in 1997. I speculate he had a strong homing instinct. The Lochsa River country is a much different habitat area, and it is also topographically very different from the East Fork Salmon/White Clouds Mountain area.
Below are two photo that illustrate the difference in habitat.
Fish Creek, a tributary of the Lochsa River. North Central Idaho
Copyright © Ralph Maughan
East Fork of the Salmon River, the home range of the White
Clouds Pack. Copyright © Ralph MaughanUpdate: 4-22-2000.
When Roy Heberger told me this story yesterday I guess he didn't know, but Wildlife Services shot the White Clouds judas wolf too. So there is perhaps just a lone wolf left. The result of the actions of last 6 months is that 3 Idaho wolf packs have been wiped out to help about 5 ranchers. Wolves have been exterminated from a 150-mile swath of east central Idaho.I've been getting a lot of email response on this story. People are outraged. If you want to help to make sure that wolves stay in the White Cloud Mountains, email me and I will forward your name to a group working on this. Email: Ralph Maughan
I received the following today (4-22) from Lynne Stone of the Boulder-White Clouds Council, a group that is vitally concerned with conservation issues in these two magnificent Idaho mountain ranges.
AGENCIES SLAUGHTER WHITE CLOUD WOLF PACK TO APPEASE RANCHERS
Date: April 22, 2000
To: Friends of wolves and wild places
From: Lynne Stone, Executive Director, Boulder-White Clouds Council, Ketchum, ID
Phone: 208/726-8262With heavy heart, after a sleepless night, I write to tell you and the world of the slaughter of the White Cloud wolf pack. In this Easter season, we can only hope that somehow, with our help and our prayers, that someday people may learn to tolerate all God's creatures including the wolves. For now, it's apparent that in Idaho the holiest of creatures remains the holy cow. Ranchers would not tolerate them. So the pack is gone. Executed.
These are the facts as we have been told by USFWS and gathered from the Challis Messenger newspaper (the wolf accounts were written by reporter Todd Adams, journalist and fisheries biologist.) Boulder-White Clouds Council will be adding more to this tragic story as it unfolds.
Chronology FRIDAY MARCH 30. 2 calves were confirmed killed by wolves on the Melody and Wayne Baker property in the East Fork Salmon River. Melody is a Custer County commissioner. The Bakers are long time, and politically powerful ranchers who hold public land grazing permits in the heart of the proposed White Cloud Wilderness.
WED. APRIL 5. Ed Bangs, USFWS Northern Rockies wolf recovery leader, arrives to take charge of darting and removing some of the White Cloud wolf pack. 5 wolves were darted including the alpha pair. The alpha female was visibly pregnant. Bangs stated to the press she was expected to give birth to pups in 2-3 weeks. Despite this, the alpha female was chased from a chopper, drugged, and dumped out 150 miles from the White Clouds.
A total of 4 wolves were taken to the Lochsa River area: the pregnant alpha female, the wild, now radio-collared alpha male; a two-year old subadult #870 (which had been radio tracked as far south as Copper Basin near Sun Valley); and a yearling pup.
A 5th wolf, a yearling pup, was captured and radio collared as the Judas wolf to lead USFWS/Wildlife "Services" to the remaining wolf pack members.
[NOTE: The Challis Messenger's April 13, 2000 paper had 3 pages on the trapping and removal of the four wolves, and the killing of the first two wolves. We have copies available. There was also a lengthy story in the Idaho Mountain Express, Ketchum.]
THURS APRIL 6. Dead calf reported by Junior Baker, who ranches with his father Eddy Baker near Big Boulder Creek. This is upriver from the Wayne Baker property.
[Big Boulder Creek road near their ranch, is the gateway to the White Clouds famous high lakes region and spectacular Railroad Ridge. Cattle damage to public lands including lakes, streams, springs and meadows has been on-going for decades by the Baker ranches. The Sawtooth National Recreation Area is coming out with a new grazing plan for the White Clouds this summer, so cattle abuse may be curbed, at least on public lands. Nothing can be done about the feedlots on private lands in the East Fork. There will opportunity for public comment on the SNRA's new grazing plan.]
SAT AFTERNOON APRIL 8. Roy Heberger, USFWS, Boise, orders "lethal" control of the remaining White Cloud wolves. Wildlife "Services", headed up by gunner Rick Williamson, uses helicopter to find the Judas wolf and locate other pack members.
Two (2) wolves are gunned down by Williamson that afternoon, one "escapes to the brush".
SUNDAY APRIL 9TH - raining hard. Chopper is grounded. I visit the East Fork with a reporter. Cow/calf pairs, a thousand pairs or more belonging to four different ranches, occupy the fields, river banks, and feeding areas for most of 17 miles along the East Fork River. Current and historic cattle degradation to the natural landscape including bare, eroding riverbanks is obvious. So is the confined, feedlot smell of cattle. There are hundreds of deer on the road, among the cows, on the hillsides. The East Fork Salmon River canyon is a predator-free zone to protect its cattle and tame deer herd. I've never seen a coyote there, except draped over a barbed wire fence.
WEEK OF APRIL 10TH - Eddy and Junior Baker report their second calf kill. (Total calves killed on Wayne Baker and Eddy Baker ranch combined: Four (4)
EASTER WEEK SLAUGHTER THURS APRIL 20, PASSOVER. USFWS' Heberger issues extermination of remainder of White Cloud pack. USFWS and Wildlife Services (what a misnomer) scramble to recreate "Mash" combat scene with helicopter and gunner strapped in nylon harness for "clean shot"
Heberger reports to me that Williamson managed to aerial gun two wolves but a third escaped to the bush. When Williamson gets on the ground, he's surprised to find he's killed the alpha male which has returned over 150 miles to his White Cloud homeland. The shooting of the alpha male particularly upsets USFWS. The agency is desperately trying to get 10 breeding pairs in Idaho for three years which would mean wolves could be delisted from what little ESA protection they have now, and more readily shot and "controlled" when cattleman demand it.
FRIDAY APRIL 21, GOOD FRIDAY. On Good Friday morning, the Services' God Squad tracks and executes the collared Judas wolf.
Body count: 4 dead calves, 5 dead wolves.
SAT APRIL 22,. One remaining wolf roaming the White Cloud foothills, howling for his lost family, awaiting the bullet which has claimed five of his pack mates. ---------------- Last night, Good Friday, it rained hard in central Idaho, washing away the blood of the White Cloud pack. How can we prevent such future agency and rancher madness? How can you help? We and others are discussing that this weekend. Call if you want to talk, help, or have suggestions.
For the White Cloud Pack and all things wild, Lynne Stone 4/22/00
ENN News
5 wolves eliminated in Idaho Thursday, April 27, 2000 By Lucy ChubbIdaho Mountain Express. April 27
White Cloud wolves shot. One member of pack survived. by Greg StahlIdaho Mountain Express. May 10
The rise and fall of a wolf pack The White Cloud Pack’s formation and demise by Greg Stahl.
Added on 4-27-2000
So how many wolves are left in area? The Twin Peaks Pack "Judas Wolf" was never shot. At last report this wolf was still living off Curt Hurless's bone pit. The 2 pups from the Twin Peaks Pack, which the Judas Wolf was supposed to lead gunners to, have never been located. They are perhaps still alive. If so, they would now be a year old.
One wolf from the White Clouds Pack escaped during the event that killed the alpha male and another wolf. The size of the White Clouds pack was not known. Some ranchers think the pack had two or three additional members.
The surviving sub-adult wolf from the extinct Jureano Mountain pack dispersed late last summer after the pack had been pretty much wiped out. This left the two Jureano pups to fend for themselves. They moved down out of the mountains and hung around a dairy north of Salmon, Idaho. They were captured at the time the Twin Peaks pack was controlled and also moved to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. No information as to their fate since that time has been forthcoming. They are far enough north that they are out of the picture. Because they hadn't learned to hunt, I think their future is not good.
In sum then, there are two wolves known to still be in the general Clayton/East Fork of the Salmon area. A maximum number would be about 7. It is possible that some of them could form a new pack. My guess it is just a matter of time until under some combination of circumstances one or two new packs forms in this general area. There will be dispersers from the nearby Stanley Pack and Moyer Basin Pack.
The big question is, has the government and local ranchers learned anything to prevent the same thing from happening again, or will a new pack stumble onto another livestock carcass dump or dead cow, begin to take an occasional calf or lamb and get killed off again?
Email addresses for members of Congress, other officials, and the media
Return To Maughan Wolf Report Page
Copyright © 2000 Ralph Maughan
Not to be reprinted, archived, redistributed, etc., without permission.
Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209