My experience as a wolf field technician with the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho

 

I worked one field season as a field technician with the Nez Perce tribe's wolf project based in McCall, Idaho. The tribe was under contract with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to manage wolves in Idaho; gray wolves were listed under the Endangered Species Act at that time. Our main concerns were counting wolf pups in the Spring, and then tracking wolves via radio telemetry (using radio collars) throughout the rest of the season. We wanted to know where the wolves were going, and we also investigated reports of uncollared wolves in new areas.

It was all very exciting and interesting; I received some physical threats, and one or two death threats that summer. I received them simply because I was working with wolf management. It truly is, or was, a wolf war, though no one ever followed through with their threat.

It was fun learning how to find wolves because they are so intelligent and elusive. I learned that wolves seem to go everywhere, but they do follow roads, streambeds, and hiking trails frequently. Sometimes they cross very rugged terrain, and quite quickly at that. They can travel much faster than I was able to pursue on foot. One morning, I would be very close to a wolf or wolves, according to my radio receiver, and by noon, they could be miles away, almost out of range. The wolves I knew were all frightened of humans, and would run away from us as soon as they knew we were there trying to find them. Therefore, it was quite a challenge to sneak up on them. We wanted to see them to find out how many were in the pack, which was one of our management goals. It was very special to hear wolves howling in the wild, and it didn't sound anything like it is portrayed in films.

The highlight of the summer for me was when we found some wolves that no one knew about in the Idaho panhandle. My co-worker and I had a report of wolf tracks in a certain area, and we drove a long distance to investigate it. We expected that if there were any wolves there, they would be long gone by the time we were able to drive to the location. We did find some wolf tracks and scats, but we had given up on actually seeing any wolves. We decided to hike in to a lake that was nearby, and just after we started walking we saw a wolf pup. I got a photo of it that I've included as a lab note in this project. Shortly after that, we encountered one of the adults; probably an alpha, because he or she was running back and forth in front of us. I took a picture of that wolf too. We think they must have had a kill nearby, and had been feeding on it, but we never found the kill.

I find it sad that wolves are now hunted in Idaho, and I can't really imagine why someone would want to hunt them. It is quite a challenge to find them and then sneak up on them, but why not take a picture instead of shooting one? Maybe some hunters think that they are "restoring balance," but wolves and elk have co-existed quite well for thousands of years before humans were on the scene.