Wolf pups heard howling in Union County

Russ Morgan

A pack of wolves was heard howling early Friday morning just past midnight in a forested area of northeast Union County. The howling was detected by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Russ Morgan and Chase Brown, an Oregon State University wildlife student working this summer for the ODFW.

The pack that was heard has at least two adults and two pups, said Morgan, the ODFW’s wolf coordinator. Morgan and Brown were in the portion of the Wenaha Unit in Union County.

The howls provided proof that wolves are reproducing in Northeast Oregon for the first time since the early 1920s and the first time anywhere in Oregon since the 1940s.

Biologists have known that wolves have been in Northeast Oregon for several years but did not know they were reproducing. ODFW and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have been monitoring the region for wolves.

Morgan and other biologists have spent many long nights over the past two years doing wolf calls to see if they would get a response. Morgan was surprised to hear wolves howl back Friday morning.

“It was a shock,’’ Morgan said, emphasizing that he knew wolves were present but was surprised to finally hear them howl back.

Morgan said he would like to trap some of the wolves in the pack and radio collar them for tracking purposes. Radio collaring the wolves would make it easier for state and federal officials to communicate with ranchers about wolves and improve their ability to manage them, Morgan said.

Activity on the wolf monitoring front in Northeast Oregon made headlines in late January. That is when a radio-collared gray wolf was spotted by the ODFW near the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area between Medical Springs and Wallowa. The sighting was the first live radio collared wolf seen by the ODFW in Union or Wallowa counties. The wolf, which had been wearing a collar since captured northeast of Boise in 2006, is not a member of the pack heard Friday morning, Morgan said.

That wolf, named B-300, is now in the Imnaha River area.

Prior to recent history the last time a wolf was documented in Union County was 1921, according to bounty records. Union County records indicate that April 18, 1921, was the last time a bounty was paid here for a wolf.

Wolves are believed to have become extinct in Northeast Oregon shortly after the early 1920s. The extinction date is not known, but retired ODFW biologist Bill Brown told The Observer in 2005 that no wolves were here when he came in the late 1940s. Brown now lives in the Spokane area.

Union County bounty records indicate that wolves were never abundant here in the early 1900s. Available records indicate that between 1899 and 1921, only two wolves were taken.

An ODFW press release issued Monday reminds people that it is illegal to shoot a wolf, even one mistaken for another animal such as a coyote. Any gray wolf in Oregon is listed as an endangered species under both state and federal law.

Killing an animal protected under the federal Endangered Species Act is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000, one year in jail, or both. Killing a wolf is also a violation of Oregon state game law, with fines and penalties that are assessed by the court.

Individuals who see a wolf, or suspect or discover wolf activity, are asked to immediately contact Morgan at 963-2138; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf coordinator John Stephenson at 786-3282; or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s La Grande Field Office at 962-8584.