Missoula man brags about running over wolves

Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say they will investigate the case of an outspoken conservationist who claims to have hit two wolves with his vehicle in an attempt to save an elk calf. One wolf was seen in a Facebook photo laying dead on the road.

Toby Bridges, of Missoula, who runs a pro-wolf control Web site called Lobo Watch and sends op-ed pieces to media nearly every week, said he was driving on I-90 near the Idaho-Montana border when the incident occurred.

A military veteran who says he served with the Marines from 1969-1972 as a journalist and photographer and with a Presidential security team, Bridges advocates killing wolves because they threaten big game.

“Two wolves out of the equation ... and it was all an accident,” he wrote in a Sept. 16 Facebook post. “I love it when things go good.”

According to his post, Bridges said he was on I-90 near the Idaho-Montana border earlier this month when a female elk and her calf darted in front of his van.

“I let up on the gas and had just started to brake — in case more elk followed,” he wrote. “What followed were two adult wolves.”

Bridges said he slowed down and watched as the cow elk hopped over a traffic barrier, leaving the calf behind.

“The wolves went after the calf ... and I let off the brake and hit the accelerator,” he said.

Saying he wanted to save the calf, Bridges said he accelerated the van to 55 mph when four more wolves appeared in the road.

“There was no time to hit the brakes (like I really would?) and I heard two distinct loud ‘thumps,’” he said. “Out of my mirror, I saw an almost black 50-pound wolf spinning around in the middle of the highway ... with one very apparent, very badly broken back leg. In the other mirror, I saw one slightly smaller wolf rolling onto the shoulder.”

Bridges said he continued down the highway for a few moments before turning around to see what had happened. One wolf lay dead on the shoulder of the highway. The second appeared to be limping and escaped into the surrounding woods.

In his Facebook posting, Bridges said he thought about following the young wolf to put it out its misery but reconsidered because there were other wolves around and he didn’t have a gun with him.

Bridges posted four photos on his Lobo Watch Facebook page. Three showed a gray wolf lying on the shoulder of a road in front of his van.

FWP officials say Bridges may have broken the law by intentionally running down wild animals with his van.

“We’re trying to determine, first of all, what exactly we can do with something somebody says on Facebook with no other physical evidence,” FWP Capt. Joseph Jaquith said. “It’s very unsporting, regardless of how you feel about wolves or lawful means for harvest of wolves. Certainly running them down on the highway is not what we would accept.”