Embedded trap removed from wolf

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Officials have removed a snare embedded deep into the neck of a large gray wolf, months after it escaped from a trap just outside the boundary of Denali National Park and Preserve.

The wolf, one of Denali’s more visible wolves for tourists because it stayed close to the park road, was spotted by park employees several times but always managed to give them the slip.

Luck changed Friday, when Denali National Park and Preserve wildlife biologist Tom Meier, working with a veterinarian, spotted the wolf’s tracks in fresh snow atop a ridge.

Meier immobilized the wolf with a tranquilizer dart. Once the drug took effect, veterinarian Denise Albert removed the snare, cleaned the large, gaping wound and administered antibiotics.

The snare had cut deeply, as much as 2 inches, into the animal’s neck.

Meier said the wolf probably will survive.

“It seems like it should have a pretty good chance. It survived two months with the snare. This is an improvement,” he said Monday.

The fate of another wolf, a black one, spotted this spring in the park with a snare around its neck is more uncertain. That wolf is a member of the famed Toklat Pack, whose members are most sighted by tourists, and has not been seen for weeks.

Meier said it’s possible that the black wolf has died.

Denali National Park has about 100 wolves in 18 packs.