DNA tests on an animal equipped with a radio collar last month in Kittitas County have confirmed Washington now has a fourth documented wolf pack.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists caught, collared and released an adult female wolf that was lactating, indicating she was nursing pups. The biologists took tissue and hair samples and submitted them for DNA testing to determine whether the animal was a wild wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid.
Results of the DNA testing conducted at UCLA confirmed the animal is a wild gray wolf. The results were released July 5.
Department biologists are monitoring the wolf’s location and activity through the radio telemetry tracking collar. They are referring to the new wolf pack as the Teanaway Pack.
“The discovery of another resident wolf pack clearly indicates that wolves are returning to Washington state naturally,” Director Phil Anderson said in a prepared statement. “Their return highlights the need to continue efforts to finalize a state wolf conservation and management plan that will establish state recovery objectives and describe options for addressing wolf-livestock and wolf-ungulate management issues.”
The gray wolf is protected throughout Washington as a state endangered species. In the western two-thirds of Washington, the species also is federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The Lookout Pack, confirmed in Okanogan and Chelan counties in 2008, was the state’s first documented resident pack since a breeding population of wolves was extirpated from the state in the 1930s, the department news release said.
A second pack, known as the Diamond Pack, was documented in 2009 in central Pend Oreille County.
A pup from a third pack, known as the Salmo Pack, was radio-collared in 2010 in northeast Pend Oreille County. That pack’s territory extends into British Columbia. Wolves from the Cutoff Peak Pack, with a den site in Idaho, range into Pend Oreille County in northeast Washington.
Before the Teanaway Pack was confirmed, agency biologists estimated about 25 resident wolves lived in the state.
The department has been working since 2007 with a 17-member citizen group to develop a wolf conservation and management plan. A draft of the plan, which underwent extensive public review and scientific peer review, will be presented to the state Fish and Wildlife Commission in August.
Harriet Allen, threatened and endangered species program manager for the department, said the search for the Teanaway Pack was prompted by reports of wolves in the area from residents and state and federal agency personnel.
Remote, motion-triggered cameras were deployed by multiple agencies and private groups. Images of wolf-like animals were captured on cameras placed in the area by Conservation Northwest, a private, nonprofit organization. The group’s Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Program also provided the first images of the Lookout Pack pups three years ago.
“We appreciate the efforts of Conservation Northwest and our partner agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to help us document wolves as they return naturally to Washington,” Allen said in the news release. “Documenting packs and learning about territory use, productivity and survival will help us understand how wolves are using Washington habitat. That will help us protect them and ultimately determine when we reach recovery goals.”
It is illegal to harm or harass a federal- or state-protected endangered species.
Wolf resources
Wolf management: More on the state’s draft plan at wdfw.wa.gov/ conservation/gray_wolf.
Wolf sightings or activity: They should be reported through a joint federal-state toll-free wolf reporting hotline at 1-888-584-9038. Joint federal-state Wolf Response Guidelines, including agency staff contacts, are available at wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/contacts.html.
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