Wolves killed in suspected poaching near Oregon border

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is looking for information after two wolves were reportedly poached near the Oregon border, according to a news release.

The agency said it received reports of two dead wolves northwest of Cambridge on Jan. 30. Conservation Officer Mark Sands found the wolves just off Idaho 71 within the boundaries of the Cecil D. Andrus Wildlife Management Area. Cambridge is about 20 miles east of the Oregon border and 30 miles northeast of Weiser.

One wolf’s body was “heavily scavenged,” but the other, which had fallen down a hillside into Brownlee Creek, was intact.

The intact wolf had been wearing a radio collar and was shot with a small-caliber rifle, Fish and Game said.

While wolf hunting is legal in Idaho and the season is open, hunters are required to present the skull and hide of any wolves they hunt or trap to Fish and Game to be recorded.

The incident is the latest in a series of poaching cases in Idaho in recent months, including two other predator poaching cases in which poachers illegally killed protected grizzly bears in eastern Idaho.

 Fish and Game also announced it had connected two Boise State University students to a waterfowl poaching incident reported in late January in Garden City.

Anyone with information on the wolf poaching can contact Citizens Against Poaching at 1-800-632-5999 or online at idfg.idaho.gov/poacher. People can also call the Fish and Game Nampa office at (208) 465-8465.