Saturday, April 5, 2014

2013 Idaho Wolf Count: Fewer and Smaller Packs

Posted by George Prentice on Fri, Apr 4, 2014 

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game unveiled its annual wolf report Friday, indicating that there were 107 wolf packs in Idaho at the end of 2013, fewer than the 124 packs reported in 2012.

The average mean pack size was 5.4 wolves at the end of 2013, nearly 33 percent smaller than the 8.1 wolves per-pack average during the three previous years.

Fish and Game officials cautioned that not all packs are presumed documented.

Along Idaho's borders, 28 documented border packs were counted in 2013 in Montana, Wyoming and Washington.

As for wolf kills, the Fish and Game report documents that hunters and trappers killed 356 wolves in 2013. An additional 94 wolves were killed in control kills or legal killings by landowners in response to livestock depredation. Sixteen wolf deaths were attributed to other human causes.

Additionally, Fish and Game reports that 39 cattle, 404 sheep, four dogs and one horse were killed by wolves, with another seven cattle, nine sheep, and one dog considered as probable wolf kills.

The full report is available online here.

source

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