February 10, 2012
From BlueMountainEagle.com
EMMETT, Idaho - An Idaho hunter who apparently didn't realize his
wolf tag was no longer valid shot and killed a collared male wolf
from northeast Oregon's Imnaha Pack.
The man was hunting for
coyotes Feb. 2 when he spotted the wolf north of Emmett, near a
cattle feedlot and winter calving area. His Idaho wolf tag was good
only through 2011, however.
Mike Keckler, communications
bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said IDFG
issued the hunter a warning over the incident "and that's as far as
it went." He said the department stopped short of issuing a citation
because the hunter received "incorrect information from a clerk from
one of our vendor stores."
The clerk led the hunter to
believe that his 2011 tag was actually good through remaining months
of the current wolf season.
The collar identified the wolf
as OR-9, the designation signifying he was the ninth wolf collared
in Oregon.
According to an email from Russ Morgan, wolf
program coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
OR-9 was collared Feb. 26, 2011, in the Grouse Creek area east of
Joseph, Ore. He was born to the alpha female of the pack, who had
migrated to Oregon from Idaho in 2007.
At the time of the
collaring, OR-9 was 1-1/2 years old and weighed about 90 pounds.
In early July last year, the young wolf was on the move. ODFW
said he apparently swam across Brownlee Reservoir into Idaho,
traveled south toward Weiser for a time and then moved north into
the Cuddy Mountains and Sun Devils area, where he stayed into the
fall.
OR-9 had traveled south and east into the mountains
where he was shot.
The collar is being returned to ODFW,
officials said this week.
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