Lone Wolf Could Be Pregnant

The lone female wolf in an area south of Red Lodge will be left alone while biologists try to determine whether she is pregnant, a federal official says.

The mate, a gray male wolf, apparently was killed in the area recently.

Ed Bangs, leader of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf recovery project, said the female has remained in one spot for close to a week and may be digging a den in preparation for delivering pups.

He noted, however, that wolves not pregnant sometimes still go through the motions of producing milk and digging a den.

The female might also be hovering in the same place if it was shot along with her mate and is now crippled. Or the wolf may be waiting in hopes of finding her missing mate, Bangs said.

Federal wildlife agents are still trying to determine what happened to the large male wolf, one of 14 moved to Yellowstone National Park in January as part of the recovery plan. It is the first Yellowstone wolf lost since the animals were freed from acclimation pens in the Lamar Valley last month.

A radio collar that had been worn by the male wolf was discovered along a public road about three miles east of Red Lodge on Thursday, said Carbon County Sheriff Alvin McGee. The collar had been transported from somewhere else and dumped on the road.

Authorities have not located the male wolf but presume it was killed sometime between tracking flights over the Red Lodge area a week ago.

Killing a wolf is a violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. A provision of the wolf recovery plan lets ranchers shoot wolves attacking livestock, but there has been no sign of such an attack.

Even if there were, the action of cutting the animal’s radio collar off would negate any justification for the killing, said U.S. Attorney Sherry Matteucci.

“If someone killed it and removed the collar, it would be illegal regardless of whether it was preying on livestock,” she said. “What they should do is report it, not hide it.”

Biologists want to avoid capturing the lone female wolf, especially if she is pregnant, Bangs said. However, they may fall back on that option and move the female back to Yellowstone if it appears vulnerable to further illegal killing.