The upcoming operation to trap the wandering wolf is expected to take time
GRANTS PASS — Biologists trying to put a
new GPS tracking collar on Oregon’s famous wandering wolf, OR-7, could
be camping out in the Southern Oregon Cascades for weeks before they are
successful.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist John
Stephenson said the upcoming operation involves setting out leg-hold
traps with padded jaws in probable locations, then checking every
morning to see if a wolf has stepped into one — a process that could
take weeks. “The capture is not all that glamorous a
thing,” he said. “It usually involves a lot of days of getting up at the
crack of dawn and going out and finding nothing in the trap.”
The morning they do, biologists will use a
syringe mounted on a pole to inject a tranquilizer to immobilize the
wolf, weigh it and take a blood sample, all the while monitoring its
vital signs to be sure it is OK.
If it is OR-7’s mate that steps in the
trap, the blood sample could reveal what pack she is from through DNA
analysis. If it is one of the pups, biologists will keep trying to catch
an adult. OR-7 set off in search of a mate in
September 2011, covering thousands of meandering miles from his
birthplace in northeastern Oregon to Northern California before settling
in Southwest Oregon. Against the odds, he found a mate last winter, and
by September their pups should be big enough that they won’t be hurt in
case they step into one of the traps.
If OR-7 hadn’t found a mate, no one would be trying to put a new collar on him, Stephenson said.
Though the public has been fascinated by
OR-7’s movements, wildlife managers are more interested in the movements
of his pack. Oregon’s wolf management plan calls for collaring at least
one individual from each pack.
And if they make it into winter with a
pair of surviving pups, they will be the first pack in Western Oregon in
more than half a century. Besides offering data on their habits,
locations are vital in determining whether they have attacked livestock —
something OR-7 has yet to do.
Rob Klavins of the conservation group
Oregon Wild said people have mixed feelings about collaring wolves.
Wolves have died in collaring operations, and while collars help
scientists understand wolves better, collars make it easier to track
wolves down if they prey on livestock.
Any wolves may be somehow less wild wearing
a collar. But the fact remains that without his collar, OR-7 would
never have become the celebrity he is.
A few weeks ago it looked like biologists
wouldn’t have the advantage of a working collar to show them where to
set the traps, said Stephenson.
For a few days, there were no transmissions
to the satellite tracking the wolf. But it now appears that was just a
matter of too much smoke from nearby wildfires. The transmissions are
operating again.
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