Skinned corpse of wolf discovered, but state won’t say from which pack

Wildlife enforcement officers are investigating allegations of a wolf poaching that is not related to an ongoing investigation of two gray wolf killings in the Methow Valley in 2008.

“We have been asked to investigate further poaching allegations… unrelated to the Okanogan case,” said Mike Cenci, deputy chief of enforcement for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We do have a wolf corpse, minus a hide. At this point I’m not willing to discuss which pack that animal may have come from,” Cenci said Tuesday (Feb. 15). He declined to say when the department discovered the carcass.

There are two confirmed gray wolf packs in the state. The Lookout Mountain Pack in the Methow Valley, and the Diamond Pack in Pend Oreille County in northeast Washington. John Rohrer, U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist, said there are unconfirmed reports of wolves in the Blue Mountains area of southeast Washington.

The case involving the 2008 poaching of the Lookout Pack wolves is being handled by the U.S Attorney in Spokane. Tom Rice, first assistant attorney, said last week that the case involving the alleged poaching of two wolves from the Lookout Pack in 2008 is still open.

Investigation by federal and state agents into the killing of the two wolves focused on three Methow Valley residents who live near Lookout Mountain.

A Twisp man admitted killing a wolf and having his wife attempt to ship the pelt to Canada, and the man’s father admitted giving contradictory statements to investigators, according to an affidavit filed in Okanogan District Court in 2009. No charges have been filed in that case.

Cenci said this week that he is “hopeful and there is some indication that we’re coming closer to a resolution” in the 2008 wolf poaching case.

Gray wolves are listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Killing a gray wolf is a federal and state crime, punishable by up to a year in prison and fines up to $100,000. Smuggling is a federal offense that carries fines and up to 10 years in prison.

The state filed charges last year on separate wildlife violations that were discovered during the wolf poaching investigation. Sgt. Jim Brown, WDFW supervisor for enforcement in Okanogan County, said Bill White and his son Tom White were charged with illegally hunting bear with hounds, and Bill White was charged with taking a trophy mule deer out of season.

A team of biologists has been monitoring the Lookout Pack since the gray wolves were discovered three years ago. The pack numbered as many as 10 animals in 2008, but is now believed to have dwindled to only two or three wolves.

The alpha male and female of the pack were captured and fitted with radio collars in July 2008. Wildlife biologists have not seen the female since she disappeared suddenly last May, shortly after she was believed to have given birth.

The radio collar on the female was programmed to give a particular “mortality” signal if the wolf became immobile, or the collar fell off, said Rohrer. Because researchers never received that signal, and because no trace of the wolf’s body was found, researchers believe the female was killed and the collar destroyed, Rohrer said.

The wolf researchers aren’t receiving signals from the alpha male’s collar, and believe the battery may have died, Rohrer said. The wolf team is trying to determine if one of the remaining wolves in the Lookout pack is a female that could reproduce and rebuild the Lookout pack.