Newest Yellowstone Wolves Not Attached To Park Boundary

The latest batch of wolves transplanted into Yellowstone National Park seem more inclined to wander outside its borders than the wolves brought in last year.

Two groups of the newcomers have moved into Montana, joining four females that were spotted earlier near Red Lodge.

Two of the male wolves from what is known as the Nez Perce pack were found Friday in Paradise Valley near Emigrant.

“It’s not our intent to let them stay there, with the amount of time we have invested in them,” Yellowstone biologist Mike Phillips said. “We just haven’t had time to craft a conservation strategy yet.”

Three other young males from the Chief Joseph pack were more than 10 miles west of Yellowstone’s western border, near Hebgen Lake and northwest of the town of West Yellowstone. They had killed a moose calf there and were feeding on it, Phillips said.

“We expect them to stay there for a day or two,” he added.

Federal biologists have notified ranchers that the wolves are in their areas, but there have been no attacks against cattle so far, Phillips said.

Guidelines for the federal wolf recovery plan allow ranchers to shoot wolves they find in the act of attacking cattle, but not otherwise. Wolves that twice attack livestock are to be removed by predator control officials.

Four female wolves, an adult and her three pups, were roaming the Red Lodge area on Friday. Biologists first intended to trap them and return them to Yellowstone, but have decided to see if they return on their own.