Removal Of Wolves Difficult Wolves Here Before Transplants Complicate Order, Biologist Says

A judge’s order to remove transplanted wolves from central Idaho is on hold, but a federal biologist says if it has to be carried out, it will be complicated by wolves that already were living in Idaho.

And it may be most complicated in northern Idaho’s Kelly Creek, where biologists believe a native wolf mated with a transplanted female.

Their pups apparently qualify for full endangered species protection because they were born outside the experimental recovery area, said Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf recovery coordinator in Helena.

The Nez Perce Tribe, which contracts with the federal agency to manage the Idaho wolves, is tracking 28 of the 35 animals released in 1995 and 1996. Four wolves are dead, and the locations of the other three are unknown. Central Idaho’s total wolf population is estimated at 66.

Trying to catch them would be a difficult exercise, said Timm Kaminski, the biologist leading the tribe’s wolf project.

U.S. District Judge William Downes in Casper, Wyo., ruled Dec. 12 that the wolf recovery effort violated the Endangered Species Act because it did not sufficiently protect wild wolves that already might roam Idaho.

Downes ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove all the transplanted wolves and their pups from Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. He stayed that order to give federal officials and others a chance to appeal his ruling.

“In a year’s time we might get half to two-thirds of the animals. But the cost of that effort, the conditions, the weather and such, the logistics would be extraordinary,” Kaminski said. “I’m game for that challenge if it comes to that, but I think it’s absurd.”

Bangs said he did not consider the effort as difficult as Kaminski.

“There’s only a few questionable wolves in Idaho,” he said.

Tracking down the three that have paired with radio-collared wolves would be the first focus.

“That’s the key, and we’ll need to run them to ground first,” Bangs said. “It’s not that big a deal to remove them. It’s difficult but it’s doable.”

It also is possible that Fish and Wildlife would choose to kill the transplanted wolves, Bangs said. The Canadian government made it clear the wolves would not be welcome back when U.S. biologists were allowed to capture them in Canada and move them to Idaho and Yellowstone.