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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Officials kill just one pup as pack of wolves escapes

Associated Press

BILLINGS – Authorities following up on reports of livestock losses set out to kill a wolf pack, but only one pup was shot and the other wolves fled into timber, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

The pup, part of a pack in the Roscoe area, was shot Thursday from the air.

Wolf recovery coordinator Ed Bangs of the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency will wait until hunting season closes before making any further decision about wolf control.

Bangs said there were reports of sheep and calf losses earlier this year.

The Fish and Wildlife Service determined the wolf pack consisted of a pair with three pups. Officials caught and collared one pup during the summer.

“They’ve essentially stayed on private property the whole time,” Bangs said.

The pack lives on a ranch where no loss of livestock has been reported, but neighbors said they lost about 40 sheep and half a dozen calves, Bangs said. The sheep had one owner and the calves several, he said.

Agents with Wildlife Services, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, flew over the area in a helicopter Thursday and shot an uncollared pup weighing as much as an adult.

Ordinarily, aerial wolf operations do not take place during hunting season, but Bangs said there were no hunters in the area where the pup was shot.

Once hunting season is over, the Fish and Wildlife Service will determine what the pack is doing, Bangs said, adding that snowfall will help in tracking the animals from the air.

It is common to blame wolves when there are livestock losses, Bangs said, “but it’s kind of not fair.”