Boulder Pack Wolves Targeted After Apparently Killing 3 Calves “We May Have To Kill Them, Although That’s Not My Preferred Option”

A pack of six wolves southwest of Helena may be destroyed because of evidence it killed three calves over the past two weeks, says the head of the federal wolf recovery project in Montana.

Ed Bangs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the evidence is not conclusive, but is strong enough to justify action. The pack was spotted eating the third calf carcass Wednesday, he said.

The so-called Boulder Pack is the southernmost of seven wolf packs that have migrated naturally into northwest Montana. The wolves are not among those that were brought to Yellowstone National Park or central Idaho last year, he stressed.

The pack consists of three adults and three pups and has been living on private and public land between Deer Lodge and Basin in an area that has “50 head of livestock for every one game animal,” Bangs told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

“They picked a crummy place to live,” he said.

Bangs’ agency and a wolf specialist for Animal Damage Control have set leghold traps for the wolves and will be tracking them via the radio collar worn by one animal, Bangs said.

Options include capturing and transplanting a yearling pup that may have been attacking the calves and capturing the entire pack for relocation.

However, finding a suitable place for relocation, and getting the wolves to stay there and avoid beef, is difficult.

“Now that they’ve learned it, they seem to have picked it up pretty good,” Bangs said. “We don’t want them teaching other wolves. …

“If we can’t catch them or find a place to move them to, we may have to kill them, although that’s not my preferred option,” Bangs said. “Wolves won’t be allowed to continue to prey on livestock. Period.”

He said he was not optimistic about the wolves’ chances for survival and eventual reproduction if they are moved.

The odds are “slightly better than just blasting them,” he said.

Bangs said the family that owns the cattle has been cooperative and will be compensated by Defenders of Wildlife for the loss of the three animals, he said.

Defenders of Wildlife is a private environmental group that advocates for wolves and pays ranchers for livestock proven to be killed by wolves.

“It’s just a matter of setting the price and writing the check,” Bob Ferris of Defenders said.