Yellowstone Wolf Killed By Sheep Rancher First Since 1995 Return, Incident Won’t Bring Legal Action Because Animal Was Attacking Livestock

A Montana rancher has killed a Yellowstone National Park wolf attacking his sheep in what a federal official says may be the first legal killing since wolf reintroduction began in 1995.

Kevin Halverson of Sweetgrass County said federal agents informed him he would not be prosecuted because he acted within the rules that allow ranchers to kill wolves caught in the act of attacking livestock.

Several wolves reintroduced in the park and the central Idaho wilderness have been killed - accidentally hit by cars, shot by biologists or illegally killed. But until now, none has been lawfully killed by a rancher protecting livestock.

“This would be the first one,” said Ed Bangs, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program. “That’s exactly what the rules are designed for, and if they worked in this case, then that’s great.”

Within a month of the first release in 1995, a wolf was shot in Lemhi County, Idaho, as it was feeding on what was later determined to be a dead calf. But the rancher, who would have been the only one with legal authority to kill the predator, has steadfastly maintained he was not the one who shot the animal.

The Fish and Wildlife regional office in Denver said it could not confirm Halverson’s account because the case remains under investigation.

The wolf was shot near Greycliff last Friday. Halverson said that when he first saw the animal biting at a lamb, he thought it was a coyote, and he went home about a half-mile away for his rifle.

He returned to find that the predator had left the lamb and was moving through some trees. He shot it with a rifle from about 150 yards. He said that when he realized it was a wolf, he notified predator control agents, who contacted Fish and Wildlife.

The lamb was so badly wounded it had to be killed, Halverson said. Another lamb was found dead nearby, but its carcass had been scavenged, leaving little evidence to prove a wolf had killed it.

Halverson said two other lambs were injured by predators earlier in the week. Nearby sheep ranchers had also reported wolf attacks.

While the Defenders of Wildlife will compensate ranchers for livestock losses to wolves, Halverson said he was “more worried about killing a wolf than I am about recovery money for the dead stuff.”

The wolf was a yearling female from a group of 10 pups moved to the park after the adult members of their pack were destroyed for attacking cattle.