Wolf pups shot from helicopter after livestock attacks, Oregon wildlife officials say
Wildlife officials shot two wolf pups from a helicopter in eastern Oregon on Sunday after livestock owners experienced multiple attacks.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife approved a kill permit on July 29 after cattle owners confirmed the Lookout Mountain pack killed or injured four cows in a two-week period.
Under the permit, the livestock owners or the wildlife agency can kill up to four uncollared wolves until Aug. 21.
Permits are issued when wolves are a “significant risk to livestock.” Wildlife officials deemed the wolves a risk and “chronically depredating.”
“While killing pups is not something we want to be doing, our overall goals are to reduce the depredation while allowing the overall pack to endure by not targeting the collared breeding adults,” Michelle Dennehy, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told McClatchy News.
The last kill permit was administered in June 2018, she said.
The two pups were both 3-and-a-half months old. The pack included seven pups, two uncollared yearlings, and a collared male and female. Wildlife employees, however, only counted five pups and their parents during the flight, Dennehy said.
“Reducing the caloric needs of the pack reduces the amount of killing they need to do in order to feed the pups,” Dennehy said. “With 2 pups removed there is less need for meat.”
Before the shooting, the livestock owners took multiple non-lethal measures to reduce wolf conflict with their animals for years, according to an agency investigation.
When the wolves began attacking the cattle on July 14, the owners upped their efforts by increasing their presence, hazing wolves with firearms and moving any injured cattle from the grazing field, but the attacks persisted.
The Lookout Mountain pack was first documented in 2019.
As of April, Oregon has at least 173 wolves. The number of wolves increased by 9.5% from 2019, according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management 2020 annual report.
The report counted 22 packs, 17 of which were “breeding pairs,” across 12 Oregon counties. The agency has 20% of the wolves collared.
In 1974, wolves were listed under the Endangered Species Act but removed from the state list in 2015.
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Wolf pups shot from helicopter after livestock attacks, Oregon wildlife officials say."
