Officials pursue escaped wolf

BOISE – Federal trappers Thursday used road-killed deer as bait to try to capture a domesticated wolf that has killed one sheep and maimed two others since escaping Oct. 29 from its pen in southwestern Idaho.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Division has also set traps near a sheep carcass killed by the wolf during its flight into remote Owyhee County. A rancher reported spotting the wayward wolf Thursday.

State Department of Fish and Game officials issued a removal order after determining that rules protecting some 800 wild wolves that roam Idaho allow trappers to kill animals like this one that escape captivity, linger near people or prey on livestock. Wild wolves that prey on livestock can also be killed, according to federal rules.

“We authorized the removal, not only in response to the depredation, but also because of the abnormal behavior,” Steve Nadeau, the agency’s top wolf manager, said on Thursday. “Wild characteristics like chasing wild prey is what is expected of wolves. The behavior of hybrids or captive wild animals is not normal.”

Wolves were reintroduced more than a decade ago to Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, where they have flourished. They now number 1,200 in the region and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said it could lift federal protections by early next year, giving the states authority to manage the animals.

Virtually all of Idaho’s federally protected wolves are in the mountains north of the Snake River.

This escaped animal, however, was raised in pens with 20 other wolves on the south side of the river, where no wild wolf sightings have been reported.

Federal wolf recovery experts say it’s unheard of in western North America for a wolf or hybrid raised in captivity to interbreed with wild wolves; the big concern is that they’ll loiter near human settlements and cause problems such as preying on livestock.

“There’s a potential threat to human safety,” said Ed Bangs, federal wolf recovery coordinator for the lower 48 states. “They’re just big feral dogs that look like wolves. They’ll never become wild animals.”

Todd Grimm, a Wildlife Services district supervisor, said the focus of his agency’s trappers now is to capture the wolf, then give it to Nadeau and Owyhee County Sheriff Gary Aman to verify with its owner that it is the escapee. Depending on circumstances, the animal also could be shot, Grimm said.

It’s legal in Idaho to own wolves or hybrids that display wolf characteristics, provided a $10 annual permit is obtained for each adult animal.

State officials said there are 58 total wolf registrations in Idaho, 29 near Boise and another 29 around Idaho Falls.