Wolf
A motion-activated trail camera catches a wolf feeding on a deer carcass in the Iron Creek area outside Troy. (Photo courtesy of Dan Williams)
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FWP tracking wolves, rumors of wolves in Libby area
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
March 11, 2011
While investigations of suspected wolf sightings within the city of Libby have led only to domestic dogs, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials are keeping tabs on several packs roaming across southern Lincoln County.
FWP biologist Tonya Chilton-Radandt responded to a pair of recent wolf reports in Libby, with one coming a few weeks ago at the city cemetery and one last week on Cedar Street. Chilton-Radandt said she was never able to make contact with the person who reported seeing wolves at the cemetery, but she spent some time at that location and found only dog tracks in the snow.
"There was one dog that stood out as being a little bit bigger than the rest, but they were still obviously dog tracks," she said.
The Cedar Street report came from a man who initially said he had heard a wolf howling, then gone out and seen the animal near his home. By the time Chilton-Radandt responded later that day, the man told her he had seen the animal again in his neighbors’ yard and it was clearly a dog, believed to be a stray.
Chilton-Radandt said she confirmed the animal from the initial sighting was a dog by looking at the tracks where the man had first seen it.
"It sure looked like a wolf at that time, and that’s when he called it in to the sheriff’s office," she said.
With experience, an observer can spot a number of differences between the tracks left by wolves and domestic dogs, said Kalispell-based wolf specialist Kent Laudon.
"Generally speaking, a wolf track is going to be much larger," Laudon said.
Wolves also tend to have especially large front feet, their feet are more of an oblong shape than most dogs, and the shape of the individual pads is different, Laudon added.
"Take it all together and you should be able to parse it out," he said.
Although there are no known packs close to the city limits, it wouldn’t be unheard of for an animal to be passing through on its own after splitting off from a pack and looking for a new one to join, Laudon said. One radio-collared wolf left a pack at Fortine and ended up spending about 12 hours on the outskirts of Thompson Falls before heading back north through the Cabinets, past Troy and through the Yaak. It then crossed the border and roamed about 50 miles into Canada, turned around and headed south into Idaho, where it ended up being shot on private property.
The currently known packs that are closest to Libby are one in the Libby Creek area and one in the Bobtail-Quartz Creek area, Laudon said. Another pack, known as the Satire pack, is currently ranging across 200 square miles in the Fisher River-Wolf Creek area and includes an animal that was caught in a coyote trap and fitted by Laudon with a collar before being released on Dec. 30.
The female wolf, estimated at a year and a half old and 65 to 70 pounds, suffered an injury to the front paw that was caught by the trap but appears to be recuperating, Laudon said. The wolf has been spotted from the air and is still showing a bit of a limp but seems to be keeping up with the rest of the pack, he said.
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Editor's Note: See the March 8, 2011 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Tuesdays, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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