Yellowstone Wolves To Get Radio Collars

Sat., Jan. 9, 1999

From Staff

Yellowstone National Park officials will begin capturing 30 wolves next week to fit them with radio collars as part of the recovery effort.

The collars will help biologists tell how many wolves and how many wolf packs are in the Yellowstone area.

Superintendent Mike Finley said the wolves will be darted with tranquilizers from a helicopter and then fitted with collars. Blood samples will be taken and the wolves will also be weighed, measured and have their sex and overall condition noted.

The targeted animals are the offspring of 31 Canadian wolves released in the park in 1995 and 1996. Another three dozen were released in the central Idaho wilderness at the same time.

The goal is to “enable park biologists to continue to track reintroduced wolves and their offsprings and to determine if and when a recovered wolf population has been achieved,” Finley said in a statement.

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