Rest of Fishtrap wolf pack to be removed

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks ordered the entire Fishtrap wolf pack of the McGinnis Meadows area to be removed since it recently carried out its fourth confirmed livestock depredation since the beginning of January.

Three of the pack’s seven wolves were removed in February in response to three previous incidents that resulted in a cow’s death in January and an injured calf in February. The remaining wolves are attributed to injuring another animal two weeks ago from the same ranch as the January incident. 

The pack’s behavior “demonstrates a significantly different behavioral pattern in that pack since they were first documented in 2000,” FWP’s weekly wolf report read. “In the past, livestock conflicts have been very infrequent.”

Kent Laudon, FWP wolf management specialist for northwest Montana, said that as of Monday morning the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services hadn’t carried out the order. Wildlife Services had performed three flyovers, but were unable to spot the collared female with the other members of her pack.

“With our best count from that pack in 2009 at the end of the year, there were seven animals, and three animals had been removed in the middle of these depredations, so that leaves the potential of four,” Laudon said. “But things are dynamic in nature. There’s always the possibility that we’ve missed some, but there’s a possibility that some have dispersed or have died.”

He added, “We know there’s at least two in the pack right now.”

With the birth of new pups and the death or dispersal of older wolves, a pack’s attitude toward livestock can change, Laudon said, especially if the alpha male and female are replaced.

“In 2008 the previously believed breeding female died,” he said. “We also had an older male – we don’t know if he was the breeder or not – and he dispersed.”

Laudon said there could be many reasons the pack began to prey on livestock. 

“Also, whitetail deer population is down right now for whatever reasons,” Laudon said. “That could be a driver too. It could be as simple as a nutritional change.”