Bitterroot Wolf Packs on the Rise

While wolf numbers are expected to remain relatively stable in the Bitterroot watershed, a state biologist said densities of the predator have been on a bit of an the upswing in the valley’s northern reaches.

That change may be the result of an earlier focus on wolf hunting and trapping in the southern Bitterroot, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wolf biologist Liz Bradley said Tuesday.

The number of packs remains the same in the southern reaches of the Bitterroot, but there are fewer animals in each pack.

There are a few new packs in the northern Bitterroot and there tend to be larger numbers of wolves in each pack, Bradley said.

There are a total of 15 confirmed packs in the Bitterroot. Bradley expects the soon-to-be-released 2013 annual monitoring report will say that, at a minimum, there are 60 to 70 wolves in the watershed.

“Overall, over the last five years the numbers of wolves in the Bitterroot have remained steady,” she said. “The distribution has changed a little bit. There will be shifts from one year to the next.”

Bradley is currently working through information gathered during past wolf hunting and trapping seasons to determine what kind of impacts that activity had on different packs.

For instance, for years one of the packs she monitored was in the Welcome Creek area of the Sapphire Range. When the alpha female of the pack died, the male started a new pack in the Burnt Fork area.

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