Four wolves killed

by Cat Urbigkit

It has been a fatal week for wolves in Sublette County, with two killed in the Wyoming Range and two more killed in the Upper Green River region.

Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported in a Tuesday morning interview, "We killed a wolf on Union Pass, by Mosquito Lake, a gray female from the Teton wolf pack. And another one's going to get taken out."

In fact, another wolf was shot later in the same day.

The action is the result of confirmation that three calves had been killed by these wolves during the last week or so, he said.

The wolves were not sporting radio collars but were known to be a subset of the larger Teton pack. Jimenez said this subset consists of four or five two-year-old wolves, including one that has been seen roaming in the Pinedale area.

"These are wolves that are killing livestock," Jimenez said. "We're just trying to stop them."

The main part of the Teton pack, including this year's litter of pups, is located near Grand Teton National Park. Jimenez said U.S. D.A. Wildlife Services personnel shot both the adult female and male wolves from an airplane in the immediate area of the calf carcasses.

In response to a pack of uncollared wolves killing domestic sheep in the South Horse Creek area of the Wyoming Range, federal wildlife officials had decided to attempt to trap the wolves and place collars on them to track their movements and give wildlife managers a better idea of what was going on there.

But that's not how things happened on the ground over the weekend, when trapped wolves succumbed to high temperatures. Jimenez reported that one wolf found in the trap was tranquilized, only to have its heart stop and the animal died. The other wolf managed to pull out of the trap, only to be found dead nearby.

"We don't usually trap in this kind of heat," Jimenez said.

The dead wolves included one adult male and one adult female, both gray in color. The reports of three wolves roaming the area included descriptions of two grays and one black, so Jimenez said, "It looks like the black one is still around."