Wolves Suspected Of Killing Cattle Caught Members Of ‘Boulder Pack’ Likely To Be Relocated To Glacier Park

A federal wolf specialist has caught five of the six wolves suspected of killing cattle in southwestern Montana.

Ed Bangs, who heads the federal wolf recovery project in the Intermountain West, said the Animal Damage Control specialist was using leghold traps that the wolves have survived albeit with some sore and swollen feet.

Three pups born in the spring, one subadult female and one adult male have been captured, Bangs said. One of the pups has been radio-collared and released in hopes it will lead trappers to its mother.

Bangs said the three pups probably will be radio-collared and released in the same area where they were captured, between Deer Lodge and Basin. With teeth only half an inch long, the pups are too small to kill livestock, he said, and wolf managers hope they will learn to hunt wild animals.

The two adults and the subadult will be released in another area, probably Glacier National Park. The animals are now in holding pens in Helena.

“My guess is the adults were the ones doing the killing” of three calves, Bangs said.

The pack is known as the Boulder pack.

With the advent of hunting season, the unattended wolf pups probably will be able to bring down wounded or unretrieved deer, Bangs said. Without adults around to teach them to kill cattle, the pups may not develop a taste for it.

Bangs said he is not optimistic about the adult wolves staying wherever they are released.

Wolves taken to new territory tend to move considerable distances. Past relocations have generally resulted in dead wolves.