Authorities link southern Oregon wolf pack to killed calf

BUTTE FALLS, Ore. – A wolf from the Rogue Pack is believed to be responsible for killing a calf last week on a ranch in southwestern Oregon, authorities said.

A rancher found a 250-pound calf dead on his property near Medco Pond on Thursday, the Mail Tribune reported.

Rancher Ted Birdseye said his wife heard the attack on their livestock Wednesday night, but they didn’t find the scene of the kill until the next morning. Wolves have been previously heard and spotted on their 276-acre ranch, which is in a rural area between Butte Falls and Prospect, he said.

“They howl off and on,” Birdseye said. “Three months ago, I had two right outside my back door – 30 yards away.”

The dead calf was linked to a wolf after finding tracks in the area and tooth scrapes and bites on the carcass matching a wolf, according to a livestock investigation report by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists.

Authorities traced the kill to OR-54, a young female wolf in the Rogue Pack. A tracking collar on the wolf placed it less than a mile from the scene of the kill Thursday, according to the report.

The collar was put on the wolf in October after it was captured in Klamath County’s Wood River Valley, which is in the eastern section of Rogue Pack’s home range, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The pack is named after the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southern Oregon – the area where it typically roams.

The wolf OR-25 was linked to a calf killing near Prospect in February, and the Rogue Pack was blamed for three livestock kills in southern Oregon in 2016.