Nine wolves killed
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
April 22, 2016
Responding to repeated livestock depredations on cattle on private property in the Bondurant area in recent weeks, federal wildlife officials have killed nine wolves in the area, including three on Thursday.
The Dell Creek wolf pack has now been reduced from an estimated 16 animals to seven, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a kill order on the remaining animals in the pack as cattle producers are now in their calving season in the area.
A second wolf pack, the 9-member Rim pack, roams the same area.
Researchers reviewing the history of wolf control in the tri-station area of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, found that "full pack removal was the most effective management response to reduce future livestock depredations in a local area."
Wolves in Wyoming remain under protection of the Endangered Species Act, but FWS can authorize the removal of wolves involved in chronic livestock depredations, as the Dell Creek pack has been. There are more than 1,700 wolves in the Northern Rockies.
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