Biologists Try To Release More Wolves Second Pen To Be Opened As Wolves Still Linger In First Pen

Thu., March 23, 1995

Associated Press

Wildlife biologists, undaunted by the refusal of six wolves to leave their pen in Yellowstone National Park, headed back into the park Wednesday to open a second pen.

Park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said biologists decided to open a pen near Rose Creek in the park’s Lamar Valley that contains three wolves - a female, her female pup and a male.

The opening of the second pen was to follow by about 24 hours the opening Tuesday of a pen containing one female and five male wolves.

“All along, they said they wanted to try to get them out without a long time delay,” Matthews said. “They want to kind of give them all equal footing.”

Meanwhile, at the first pen to be opened about five miles away, wolves continued to mill about inside the pen, 24 hours after its gate was opened.

Matthews said biologists believe the wolves are doing well; biologists continue to hope the predators will leave the pen on their own.

But biologists plan to visit the pen today if the wolves have not left by then, she added.

“It’s just a safety measure to go in and make sure everything is all right,” she said.

Wildlife biologists said it would be only a matter of time before the wolves give in to hunger and leave the 1-acre pen which has been their home since January.

“Until they become hungry, they are not going to leave that area,” Matthews said. “Sometime, they will have to go find some winterkill.”

Biologists continued to monitor the activity of the wolves, with each wolf wearing a collar equipped with a radio transmitter, from a location about four miles away from the pens.

Once the second pen is opened, only one containing five wolves will remain secured, and Matthews said it probably would be opened before the end of the week.

The wolves were among 29 brought to Yellowstone and central Idaho from Canada in January in an effort to restore the animals to America’s northern Rockies.

The 15 wolves taken to Idaho were released directly to the wild, while the 14 put in Yellowstone were held in pens so they could become acclimated to their new surroundings.

Ultimately, the government wants to build up a population of 200 wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho. The gray wolf was wiped out in America’s northern Rockies early in this century through a federal eradication program.

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