Colville Tribe captures, collars two gray wolves
The Colville Tribes’ “Wolf Trapping Team” has captured and collared two gray wolves in two days at a remote location on the Colville Reservation, Colville Business Council Chairman Michael O. Finley announced Friday.
The Colville Tribes’ “Wolf Trapping Team” has captured and collared two gray wolves in two days at a remote location on the Colville Reservation, Colville Business Council Chairman Michael O. Finley announced Friday.
Finley said the wolves were captured Monday and Tuesday and outfitted with tracking collars that will transmit important data and allow the Tribes’ Fish and Wildlife Department to follow their movements.
“We’re pleased that this effort was such a success,” Finley said. “It will provide our Fish and Wildlife Department with very useful information about wolves in our homeland. It took several weeks of looking and seven days to capture the first wolf. But the very next day they found the second.”
The Tribes’ trapping team—Randy Friedlander, Rose Gerlinger, Sam Rushing, Richard Whitney, Eric Krausz, Kodi Jo Jaspers, Donovan Antoine, and Rick Desatuel—all employees of Colville’s Fish and Wildlife Department, were assisted in locating and capturing wolves by Carter Niemeyer, from Boise.
The first wolf captured, a female, is approximately 14 months old and weighed in at 68 pounds,” Joe Peone, Director of the Tribes’ Fish and Wildlife Department, said. “The second was a male about the same age, weighing 71 pounds.”
Both were captured with a “foot hold” trap which did no harm to the animals. They were immobilized briefly in order that they could be safely weighed and collared.
Randy Friedlander, Wildlife Program Manager for the Fish and Wildlife Department, said the Tribes’ biologists believe these wolves migrated to the area from either Canada or Idaho. They were located in the San Poil.
The Tribes’ Fish and Wildlife Department will use the data collected from the collars to help establish the home range of the Nc’icn Pack. It will also help the Tribes to estimate how many animals are on the reservation. Tribal biologists are continuing to develop a wolf management plan. In the meantime, their wolf trapping efforts will continue.
