Canadian Wolves Released - Sort Of
After being snared, darted, caged, poked, drugged and jostled during a 500-mile trip from Canada, eight wolves brought to Yellowstone stretched their legs Friday inside one-acre pens.
Four other wolves, destined for immediate release in the Idaho wilderness, weren’t as lucky. The helicopter that was supposed to fly them from Salmon, Idaho, into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness 50 miles away was grounded by heavy snow.
The four animals remained in their small metal boxes while their keepers waited for the weather to clear.
Wildlife officials said if the weather didn’t clear by today, they would drive as far as possible on the road northwest of Salmon, and release the wolves there.
“We could turn them loose, and then would encourage people to basically get out of there so the wolves could be left alone,” said Laird Robinson, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.
The 12 animals were captured in Canada as part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to return the gray wolf to the Northern Rockies states, where the predator was wiped out by hunters some 60 years ago. The plan was held up for years by opposition from ranchers, who fear the wolves will kill sheep and cattle.
In Yellowstone, the pens set up in the park’s Lamar Valley will be the wolves’ home for at least six weeks, while they get used to their new surroundings. For now, they will be fed chunks of road-killed elk, bison and deer that park officials have been stockpiling in a freezer.
The wolves arrived at the 10-foot chain-link pens Thursday morning but weren’t let out of their cramped travel kennels until that night, when a federal appeals court lifted its 11thhour order blocking the wolves’ release.
The wolves survived their 1 days of confinement in travel kennels fairly well, said Cheryl Matthews, park spokeswoman. Some had scratches on the nose and face from biting their metal cages, but otherwise seemed in good health.
“They were a little scruffy and stiff,” Matthews said. “But they were breathing well, their eyes were open and clear, and their noses were all moist. They looked good.”
On Friday, one wolf that had ripped out some stitches in its mouth was tranquilized and removed from a pen so workers could fix the stitches. The animal cut itself chewing on its cage during the trapping in Alberta, Canada.
After the initial flurry of activity, biologists plan to limit their contact with the wolves, watching from blinds and distributing food once a week or less, a whole carcass at a time, Matthews said.
“They’re not going to be under a microscope,” Matthews said. “The biologists want to keep contact minimal because they don’t want the wolves to become habituated to humans.”