Hungry Fox Becomes Dinner For Wolves

A red fox that was too curious for its own good has become the first wild meal for the wolves held in pens in Yellowstone National Park.

Park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said the fox was probably lured to one of the pens holding the wolves awaiting release in the park by the smell of elk, deer, moose and bison meat fed to the predators.

“Apparently the fox, which is a good climber, found a way over the top of the enclosure,” she said.

Fourteen wolves from Canada are being held in pens in the park’s Lamar Valley until U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service officials determine they can be released.

The wolves are among the first 29 to be released in Yellowstone and central Idaho as part of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s project to restore wolves in America’s northern Rockies.

Federal wildlife officials are to meet next week to discuss how much longer the wolves in the park will be held in their 1-acre enclosures.

“We’re still looking toward the end of February or early March, but that could all change depending on the weather, general conditions of the wolves and biological considerations,” said Ed Bangs, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf recovery coordinator. “When a decision is made to let them out, it could come very quickly, within a matter of hours.”