State finds wolf den in Sun Valley area

KETCHUM, Idaho – The tourist-attracting Wood River Valley that includes the Sun Valley resort area just got some new residents – a wolf pack.

Biologists with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have confirmed that a breeding pair of wolves have established a den and are caring for an unknown number of pups in the northern part of the valley.

Dave Parrish, Magic Valley regional supervisor for Fish and Game, said the agency is not revealing the location of the den with the pups that are probably about nine weeks old.

“We don’t want people flocking to the area to view the wolves,” Parrish told the Idaho Mountain Express.

The agency confirmed the pack’s existence after a number of recent sightings by valley residents, who have reported seeing both wolves that were black and gray north of Ketchum.

Parrish said wolves have entered the valley before from surrounding drainages, but this is the first time one of the packs has chosen to build a den in the valley.

One sheep-grazer in the area, Hailey-based Lava Land and Livestock, is working with Sawtooth National Forest to alter when and where it grazes sheep this summer.

The company had planned to start grazing ewes with lambs in an area that includes the wolf den but will now move the sheep farther south.

“Because of the den with pups up there we have delayed the arrival of sheep onto that allotment,” said Mike Stevens, president of the company. “We are going to watch the situation as it unfolds over the course of the season.”

Nelson said the wolf pack will be monitored to find out if grazing might be allowed later this summer.

Experts say the home ranges of wolf packs are 250 to 350 square miles, and once the pups are large enough to travel the pack will leave the den site.

Wildlife officials announced last week that a different pack of wolves had killed 15 sheep and injured two guard dogs in the Smoky Mountains, west of the Wood River Valley. In a press release last week, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said efforts were under way to kill those wolves.

As for the wolves in the Wood River Valley, Nelson said they were just another predator, along with mountain lions and black bears, to consider when making decisions about livestock grazing.

“The question is how do we manage it intelligently,” he said.