|
Wildlife Officials To Remove Wolves |
|
|
From
Yahoo
|
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) - A wolf pack with a history of killing cattle will be removed from the Paradise Valley and taken to a ranch owned by media mogul Ted Turner, federal officials said.
At Turner's Flying D ranch south of Bozeman, federal game officials hope to use high-tech shock collars to teach the predators to avoid livestock, said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The announcement was made Wednesday, after the Sheep Mountain Pack was spotted feeding on a steer near Dailey Lake in southern Montana.
The capture effort, using helicopters and tranquilizer darts, is scheduled to begin next week, Bangs said. Any members of the pack that cannot be caught will be tracked and killed.
Wildlife officials plan to place the collars on the wolves and either shock them when they approach calves or outfit steers with collars that would trigger a shock in the wolves' collars, Bangs said.
If the experiment succeeds, the remaining members of the pack will be rereleased this fall in Yellowstone National Park.
If the animals don't learn to avoid cattle in the pen, they will be euthanized, Bangs said.
``When you have a high potential for conflict, this is the kind of technology that may allow us to have wolves in areas with a high concentration of livestock,'' Bangs said.
Bangs said the project is being funded primarily by the Turner Endangered Species Fund.
webmaster?subject=3%20Options%20For%20Wolves">![]()