Biologists Hope To Capture 38 Wolves For Relocation

Sun., Jan. 21, 1996

Associated Press

Four new packs of Canadian wolves could be brought to Idaho or Yellowstone National Park early next week, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman said Saturday.

In a telephone interview from Fort St. John, British Columbia, Sharon Rose said biologists had captured 16 wolves through Friday. They were hoping for three more to fill Monday’s scheduled flight to Montana, she said.

In the first year of the federal government’s wolf recovery project, biologists captured 29 wolves near Hinton, Alberta, in early 1995. Fourteen were released in Yellowstone and 15 in Idaho’s Frank Church Wilderness.

This year, Rose said, officials hoped to capture up to 38 wolves to come closer to the project’s goal of establishing at least 10 breeding pairs of wolves for three consecutive years in Yellowstone and Idaho and in northwestern Montana, where no wolf relocations are planned.

Two packs of wolves in Yellowstone saw a total of nine pups born last year. One was killed by a delivery truck, but the remaining eight have been reported in good health.

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