Losses To Wolves Called Inflated Experts: Farmers Blame Wolves For Losses Due To Other Factors

A report from a state/federal agriculture agency that said wolves killed 100 lambs in Montana last year was wildly inflated, biologists argue.

The figure, of lamb losses to wolves during 1994, was included in the March 31 report of the Montana Agriculture Statistics Service.

But seven federal wolf experts said in research paper that the number is several times higher than all the Montana sheep killed by wolves in the last 15 years.

If 100 lambs were killed by wolves last year, “we would have heard about it,” said Steve Fritts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

There have been only 12 confirmed sheep kills by wolves in Montana since the predators returned to northwest Montana in 1980, according to the paper prepared by wolf specialists working for the wildlife agency, the National Park Service, and Animal Damage Control. The paper was prepared for a symposium in Canada.

Curtis Lund, deputy state statistician for the statistics service, acknowledged the number was based on a statistical projection, not hard data.

He said the agency relies on ranchers to identify wolf losses, then projects those losses to all flocks across the state - whether wolves are present in the area or not.

Lund said the agency does not independently confirm that a wolf kill reported by a rancher actually was done a wolf.

Fritts said ranchers often mistakenly blame wolves for the work of weather or other predators.

“Everything ranchers think is killed by wolves is not necessarily killed by wolves,” Fritts said.

The phenomenon is not limited to Montana, Fritts added. He said ranchers in 18 mountain and western states reported losing 1,400 animals to wolves in 1991, including 1,200 outside of Montana. However, Montana was the only state among the 18 to have confirmed wolf packs at that time.

“The large number of alleged wolf depredations throughout the western states, where there are not wolves, suggests the livestock community is more sensitized to wolves than other predators,” the paper says.

Even if the 100 dead lambs proved true, it was a small number compared to other loss factors cited in the report. The statistics service said coyotes killed 28,500 sheep and lambs in 1994, foxes killed 6,000 and dogs killed 1,000.