Another Batch Of Wolves Headed For Yellowstone, Central Idaho
Canadian wolves destined for the wilderness of central Idaho and the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park were scheduled to enter the United States Monday, but details were sketchy.
Sharon Rose of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday morning that a total of 20 wolves were expected to leave Canada aboard a U.S. Forest Service DC-3 en route to Montana.
However, the agency later Monday said it could not confirm the airlift was under way.
Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said late Monday afternoon that the park had received confirmation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the wolves would arrive in the park late Monday evening.
“They will be held in a secured area overnight and then placed in the acclimation pens in the park Tuesday morning,” park officials said in a press release.
Plans called for the first 20 wolves to clear customs at Great Falls, Mont., sometime Monday, then fly on to either Bozeman or Missoula. Eleven wolves would be taken to Yellowstone, and the others to Idaho.
The Yellowstone wolves were expected to be released into three one-acre pens today for an acclimation period of about 10 weeks. The Idaho wolves will be released immediately after being flown to remote backcountry airstrips, either Tuesday or Wednesday.
That is the pattern that was established last year, in the first wolf re-introduction. Then, 14 wolves were released in Yellowstone and 15 in Idaho.
Federal officials describe the wolf reintroduction program as a success. The park wolves produced nine pups. Two wolves there have been killed - one illegally shot near Red Lodge and one hit by a delivery truck in the park.
The wolves have killed one hunting dog that chased them and two to four sheep north of the park. That is less than critics have predicted.
Bangs said that if wolf reintroduction continues to be successful this probably will be the last year any are brought to the United States. Earlier plans, which forecast higher wolf mortality and lower breeding rates, called for relocating wolves for three to five years.
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