4 wolves killed after 2nd attack

Four wolves have been killed and efforts to kill a fifth are under way after it was confirmed that the Hog Heaven Pack was responsible for a second attack on livestock in the last week.

Two wolves were killed last week, and a federal trapper shot two wolves from a helicopter Tuesday morning in an area not far from Brown's Meadow west of Kalispell, said Kent Laudon, regional wolf management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The hunt continued for an additional wolf in the pack, which is believed to have a minimum of 10 wolves based on a recent aerial observation.

"Last week, we got a good look at five adults and five pups," Laudon said. "There may be more."

Laudon coincidentally spotted the pack, which has two wolves fitted with radio collars, the same morning that two valuable heifers were confirmed as being killed by wolves in the Brown's Meadow area. The killings prompted Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Service division to kill two wolves in the pack. But concerns remained for neighboring ranchers and Ed Jonas, who lost the two heifers.

Those concerns were realized with the reported killing of two cows in the Lone Pine area, further to the south, just a couple days later. Wolves were confirmed as the culprits, prompting the authorization for three additional wolves to be removed from the pack, Laudon said.

A young female wolf and an adult male were killed by Wildlife Services last week.

And by Tuesday afternoon, Laudon was conducting necropsies on an additional young female and an adult male at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional headquarters in Kalispell. A pursuit was under way for a fifth wolf.

"This is a bit of an aggressive action but I'm hoping it will alleviate the problems," Laudon said.

In this case, there was no way to determine which of the wolves have led the livestock attacks. So the goal is to reduce the pack's lethal power as well as its nutritional needs, he said.

Laudon said the nature of the Hog Heaven Pack has changed in the last couple of years, possibly due to the addition of one or more wolves that dispersed from other packs.

"The old Hog Heaven pack didn't seem to get in trouble," he said, but the pack's original alpha female died in 2004 and just a couple of years later, the pack's numbers had dwindled. Since then, another pack has established itself in the southern reaches of the territory used by the Hog Heaven Pack, which has grown in numbers over the last couple of years.

Last year, the pack was responsible for two livestock depredation incidents, prompting Wildlife Services to kill one of the wolves.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com