New wolf named OR-16 collared near Elgin in northeastern Oregon

By Richard Cockle, The Oregonian
on November 02, 2012

ELGIN -- Federal wildlife workers captured and put a radio collar on an 85-pound gray wolf that biologists hadn't known existed in northeastern Oregon's rugged Blue Mountains north of this sawmill town.

Thursday's capture of the yearling male wolf, dubbed OR-16, took place in the Wenaha Game Management Unit of Union County in an area where wolves weren't known to be living, said Michelle Dennehy, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Workers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service made the capture, she said Friday. It wasn't immediately clear if OR-16 belongs to one of three nearby wolf packs -- the Wenaha, Walla Walla and Umatilla River packs, or represents new wolf activity, she said. That answer may be provided by the new radio collar, she said.

The capture follows the Aug. 25 discovery of a new wolf pack, including a litter of five pups, in the nearby Eagle Cap Wilderness. They were spotted in the upper Minam River drainage. A few weeks later, biologists photographed two pups with the Walla Walla pack, bringing that pack's size to 10 wolves and the number of known reproducing wolf packs in northeastern Oregon to six.

Biologists say the census of new wolf pups in the state is roughly 25, in contrast to a total of 29 known wolves in Oregon in December 2011.

 They've found adult wolves in the Imnaha, Wenaha, Walla Walla, Snake River, Sled Springs and Minam River packs, plus at least two mature wolves in the Mount Emily Game Management Unit  between Pendleton and La Grande.

Additionally, two wolf packs were confirmed in the Sled Springs Game Management Unit over the summer. Biologists radio-collared a 49-pound male pup Aug. 2 in the Snake River Pack.

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