Missing alpha male wolf concerns biologists

The absence of the alpha male of one of Oregon's two wolf packs continues to concern wolf experts and conservation advocates.

Oregon’s only confirmed breeding pair of wolves, which had established itself in Wallowa County, may be at risk. The alpha male has now been missing for close to three weeks.

In an exclusive interview with The Observer, Russ Morgan, ODFW wolf coordinator, said of the missing alpha male, “It’s a concern. He’s an important member of the pack. He’s the primary, but not the only provider for the alpha female and her pups.”
The black, 115-pound alpha male is thought to be between 4 and 5 years old. In February, he was captured and outfitted with a GPS collar. The GPS collar is capable of tracking his whereabouts every six hours

“It would be rare and uncommon that he went somewhere else,” Morgan said. “The radio collar may no longer be working; GPS collars have a high failure rate. Another possibility is that he is dead.”

“We will continue to investigate and monitor to find as much information as we can on the fate of that animal.”

The 2005 Oregon Wolf Plan says that four breeding pairs must be established in Eastern Oregon before the animal can be de-listed as an endangered species.

The alpha female, also known as B-300, was originally collared in Idaho. Last summer, Morgan trapped and re-collared her. She is believed to have had a litter last spring, and to the best of the biologist’s knowledge, she had a litter this spring too.

However, when Morgan went to the den site last week, the alpha female and her pups were not found.

This is not completely unusual, Morgan said. The wolves have rendezvous sites, usually close to the den. Now that the pups are assumed to be around eight weeks old, they may have moved to another site.

Wallowa County was hounded with wolf depredations on its young calves from May 5 to June 6 with more than two suspected kills a week and a total of six confirmed by ODFW. Since then, ODFW believes the wolves have shifted upslope to forested areas. This may take the pressure off the livestock, at least for the time being.

Though the alpha male has been detected in the valley on numerous occasions, ODFW has data that suggests that he has not been involved in any of the confirmed depredations.

With the data ODFW has, Morgan believes the yearling wolves from last year’s litter have been largely responsible for the livestock depredation. Yearlings are less skilled at hunting and young calves are easy prey, he explained.

With an expanding pack, the territory may be expanding too.

Morgan said, “Almost like clockwork a breeding female has her pups the second or third week in April.”

“We know we have two adults and a bunch of yearlings,” Morgan said. “And some of the pack may be adults that are not offspring of the breeding pair.”

Morgan said at the end of 2009, he believes five if not six pups had survived. This, too, is a benchmark in the Wolf Plan — how many pups survive from spring until Dec. 31 of the same year.

As of Thursday night, ODFW extended its authorization for Wildlife Services to kill two wolves for an additional week.

Choosing to remove two gray wolves was not an arbitrary choice. Though only one yearling female is collared, (the other four collared wolves are the alpha male, alpha female, and a 2-year-old male), she has been seen with other yearlings near the sights of depredation. With this data, ODFW targeted two gray wolves in a specific region of the Wallowa Valley, to be removed lethally.

Morgan said, “Our goal is to stop depredation. The removal of two wolves has that potential. Removal reduces the number of hungry mouths and we hope will affect the behavior of the remaining wolves; they should react to the stressful event of the two being killed by staying away from the valley.”

“Right now we have a very difficult situation in Wallowa County. We’ve confirmed six calf kills and we take it very seriously. Our agency has to and should address depredations.”

“We know there are people who don’t like the idea of us killing wolves. Lethal control puts a bad taste in people’s mouths. We want to remove them humanely, effectively and efficiently to solve a problem.”

Morgan said controlling depredation and balancing that with conservation is why the issue is so complex.

“We are trying to balance a lot of competing interests. It is a very polarized issue. People ask me, ‘You are really caught in the middle,’ and I say, ‘yes we are.’ However, that is probably a proper place for the agency to be.”

Morgan credits the efforts of the ranchers with their cooperation in exercising non-lethal methods of dealing with wolves. “The ranchers have really stepped up in a positive way in a difficult situation.”

Rubber bullets were given to stock growers in March, he said. Other non-lethal methods included radio monitoring, RAG boxes, hazing and burying bone piles.

“When you put all that together there’s been an impressive effort, including that of the producers, to keep wolves away.”

Hazing has had a minimal effect, which Morgan said he can’t explain.

In addition to the efforts of the ranchers, a telemetry specialist was hired the day after the first depredation.

“The specialist has been working nearly every night since May 6,” Morgan said. “He monitors and tries to locate radio signals. If he finds wolves near cattle he is to let Morgan or the cattlemen know so that ODFW can communicate with them.”

Morgan said ODFW is following the Oregon Wolf Plan and the corresponding Oregon Administrative Rules closely.

“With depredation 1 through 6, we were systematic in implementing the rules. The day after No. 6 was killed was the first opportunity we had to authorize the removal of two wolves.”

Morgan said, “The Wolf Plan had the largest public involvement ODFW has ever had. There were over 200 changes to the original draft.”

“Because of state law the rules have become our marching orders. We have to be legally defensible.”

Despite the fact ODFW and USDA Wildlife Services have differed on three of the suspected depredations, Morgan said the two agencies work well together on the ground.

“We work very closely with Wildlife Services and we will continue to. Both agencies have very significant expertise in wildlife biology and depredation,” Morgan said.

“Wolf presence does not mean a kill because we know wolves have scavenged a number of carcasses in the valley. We have to determine if a calf was alive when it was attacked. The litmus test is before we start removing wolves we have to be sure we are killing a wolf for the right reasons.”

“ODFW uses a standard of hard evidence before we lethally remove wolves. When we don’t confirm a kill it doesn’t mean it is not possible, but we have to be sure.”

“The reality is we have wolves. We didn’t ask for them and we didn’t bring them in. They are a tough thing to manage.”

The Wolf Plan comment period ends June 30. ODFW would prefer to have the stakeholders’ comments by then, but comments from the general public can be made until Oct. 1, when the ODFW Commission meets to revise the plan.

Morgan said, “The evaluation should consider current events and will undoubtedly take into account things that we are learning with the current wolf situation.”

“We will look at portions of the plan and consider adjustments to improve it. The plan is not written in concrete. We take these plans, use them and make them better based on real events.”