PORTLAND — Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has decided to kill two more wolves in the Imnaha pack, after a number of recent livestock losses.
Two wolves were killed in May, to try to slow down livestock losses. The pack is now made up of four wolves: an alpha male and female, their cub, and a fourth juvenile wolf whose sex biologists haven’t determined.
Michelle Dennehy with ODFW says the pack killed a number of livestock in late spring and early summer. Then, last Thursday, they killed a calf on private land near Joseph.
Michelle Dennehy “We’re going to be killing the alpha male. He is one of the breeding pair, and also an un-collared sub-adult wolf who’s currently with the pack. It’s not a decision that was made lightly, but we have to be sensitive to the losses suffered by livestock producers.”
Those losses total 14 cattle since 2010.
Dennehy says ranchers have tried non-lethal methods for several months.
The Imnaha pack will be down to two wolves once this action is complete. The size of the group is of concern to the Department. The state’s wolf recovery goal calls for four breeding pairs, producing two pups who survive at least a year, for three consecutive years.
It’s not known if the state’s other two wolf packs are breeding.
(This was first reported for opbnews.org.)
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