Rancher Fears His Mare Has Fallen Prey To Wolves

A rancher south of here worries his trophy mare has fallen prey to a wolf that wandered from Yellowstone National Park.

Buck Sanford’s horse has been gone for about a week. He is reluctant to blame the wolves released in the park last month, but he cannot quell his suspicions.

“She’s gone, that’s all I know,” Sanford said. “When the wolves came through.”

“I’m really in favor of the wolves,” the 77-year-old man said. “I love the wolves. I just don’t want to feed them with a $10,000 mare.”

Perhaps the horse is just lost somewhere near the ranch. But then there were those tracks that Sanford and his sons observed.

“Right here’s where we seen the tracks,” Sanford said as his truck rumbled past some chocolate-brown horses and colts. He believes they were wolf tracks.

During the past week, wolves from Yellowstone moved closer to Red Lodge than they had to any town before. Sanford and other people in this area found themselves on the front lines of wolf reintroduction. Many do not seem to mind it, and some even think it’s exciting.

But not everyone is pro-wolf, and authorities wonder if a wolf that wandered from the park was killed deliberately in the Red Lodge area. Officials this week found the wolf’s radio collar, but not the wolf. They refused to say whether the collar was cut off, but they did say evidence indicated foul play.

Biologist Joe Fontaine of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not discount Sanford’s fears, but he does not want to convict the wolves prematurely. Fontaine plans to search for the horse.