Wolf Destroyed After Biting Its Handler Remaining Transplants Shipped By Snowmobile To River Dropoff

Thu., Jan. 25, 1996

Associated Press

Nine gray wolves plucked from the Canadian backcountry for release in the Idaho backcountry on Wednesday fell to eight after one bit a handler and had to be destroyed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported.

The remaining wolves were being transported by snowmobile to a dropoff point along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Biologists hoped to release them by Wednesday night, said Ed Bangs, Fish and Wildlife’s wolf recovery chief.

The handler was trying to put ice in the male wolf’s transport box. It has two doors; one hung up and the man reached in to free it.

“It bit the guy on the thumb,” Bangs said. “You can imagine a wolf nip is a big thing. It broke the bone and some skin.

“The veterinarian protocol calls for the animal to be euthanized. The skull is then checked for rabies.

“The guy who was bitten felt bad about it,” Bangs said. “I know he didn’t want the wolf put down, but that’s the procedure.”

The bad weather on Wednesday mirrored the first release of gray wolves in Idaho last January when biologists hoped to fly 15 into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. They were grounded by snow for several days with the wolves remaining in transport boxes before finally driving them to the main Salmon River.

One of the wolves was shot shortly after the January 1995 release on a Salmon-area ranch. Lemhi County officials clashed with Fish and Wildlife biologists who traveled to Gene Hussey’s ranch to investigate the predator’s death after it fed on a stillborn calf.

Bangs said a snowstorm blasted Missoula on Wednesday and biologists were forced to move the wolves south by truck and then snowmobile.

Lemhi County commissioners said they were pretty sure the wolves will not be released in their jurisdiction again.

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