Wolf hunt didn't kill Glacier's top dogs

Contrary to rumors, a wolf killed up the North Fork by a hunter was not the alpha female of a Glacier Park pack.

Kent Laudon, wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said the wolf was a 2-year-old and was wearing a radio collar, but it was not the alpha female of the Kintla Pack.

Near Yellowstone National Park, where packs have lost the alpha male or alpha female to hunters, the packs have disbanded.

Glacier has two wolf packs in the North Fork, the Dutch Pack and the Kintla Pack.

The second wolf that was harvested up the North Fork may not have been from Glacier, Laudon said. It was shot at the top of the Whitefish Divide right at the border of the North Fork subdistrict.

"That may be the Dutch Pack, we're not sure," Laudon said.

The Dutch Pack has about 20 wolves and the Kintla Pack has nine, and wolves are known to roam great distances. Last fall Laudon collared two wolves in Glacier's North Fork and one, a male, disappeared — or so he thought. One day he got a call from Canadian officials — the wolf had been shot by a bowhunter outside Calgary, more than 160 air miles away.

"They can disperse so far, so fast," he said.

The dispersal of wolves has surged in the past four years, Laudon noted.

When hunters shoot collared animals, it keeps Laudon busy. The goal is to get a radio collar on every pack in the region if possible. When packs have radio collars they're easier to monitor, he noted. Biologists can fly an area, pick up the collared animal's signal, and then get a closer look to see how the pack is doing.

Laudon said the hunting season to date has been a success in Northwest Montana. The wolves that have been harvested are evenly distributed — no one pack is taking a large hit.

"It's about one animal per pack," he said.