Three Wolves Leave Park, Enter Forest The Movement Makes The Group The Second To Wander A Substantial Distance From Its Pen

Three wolves freed from their pen in Yellowstone National Park have moved out of the park and into Gallatin National Forest in Montana, a park spokeswoman said Thursday.

Marsha Karle said the three were tracked by electronic monitors to a point about 15 miles north of the pen they were released from in the park’s Lamar Valley and seven miles north of the park’s northern boundary.

The movement makes the group the second to wander a substantial distance from its pen.

Five wolves released from a pen at Soda Butte Creek were tracked Thursday to a point about 4 to 5 miles south of their pen.

The eight wolves are among 14 taken to the park in January as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s program to restore wolves in America’s northern Rockies.

The group of three wolves, one male and two females, had been in a pen at Rose Creek that was opened last week.

The wolves, wearing collars equipped with radio transmitters, had stayed in or near the pen until Wednesday.

Karle said the wolves may double back and return to the park.

“Watching the (wolves released in Idaho), they moved out a distance then they moved back in,” she said. “We don’t know what to expect these animals to do. They may go a ways and then turn around and head south.”

Six more wolves held in the first pen to be opened in the park near Crystal Bench last week remained in and around the pen Thursday.

“Those animals are out exploring to within about a one-third mile perimeter of their pen,” she said. “One animal even approached an elk carcass and fed on it a little bit. That’s a really good indication that they are moving back and forth, in and out of the pen.”

Although the gate to their pen was opened last week and a second opening was cut in the pen earlier this week, the wolves have been hesitant to leave the area that has been their home for more than two months.

But Karle said biologists had no intention of trying to force the wolves to leave the pen.