Man shot at wolves while flying overhead

BOISE – A shotgun-wielding motorized parachutist fired on a pack of wolves earlier this year from the eastern Idaho sky, something forbidden even under a state permit that allows aerial gunning of foxes and coyotes.

Carl Ball, a sheep rancher, was flying his aircraft June 5 near St. Anthony above a 160-acre sheep pen when he saw at least four wolves, according to an Idaho Department of Fish and Game law enforcement report obtained Thursday by the Associated Press.

Ball reported he shot at the wolves after they’d already left the pen and said he believed one animal outfitted with a radio collar had been killed, though state and federal wildlife officials who arrived hours later never found a wolf carcass.

Four years ago, then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, Idaho’s congressional delegation and sheep ranchers persuaded Federal Aviation Administration officials to allow licensed pilots to shoot coyotes and other wild predators while flying overhead in ultralight flying machines.

But even though both states have legal hunting seasons for wolves, that’s only for people shooting from the ground or trees.

Blasting wolves from the sky remains off limits because state wildlife managers consider them big-game animals, not predators.

State Sen. Jeff Siddoway, who owns the 160-acre sheep pen where the incident occurred, is planning to introduce a bill in the Idaho Legislature next year to expand animals covered by the aerial permits to include wolves, too.

“It’s insane that I would have to ask for permission over my own ground,” he said.