Lookout Pack Yearling Wolf 2008
Washington state is missing the mother of the first wolf pack in the state in seventy years. Apparently the Lookout pack alpha female has been missing since May, why are we just hearing about it now? This will be the fifth wolf missing or dead in the last three months in four states, four of them alphas (parents of the pack).
New Mexico and Arizona have been the hardest hit, losing three highly endangered Mexican gray wolves. Two members of the Hawks Nest pack, who have seven pups, are dead. The alpha male or father was found shot to death in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Soon after a yearling Hawks Nest male was also found shot to death, leaving the alpha female and a yearling female to raise seven puppies. The San Mateo pack alpha male, was found dead under suspicious circumstances.
(update)The Paradise pack alpha male, who roams the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation, has been missing since April. He just turned up alive with a dead collar. Thank you Jean for passing along the good news!
(UPDATE) In Oregon, the Imnaha pack alpha male has been missing since May 31 but he was recently sighted.
Now the Lookout Pack alpha female is missing in Washington.
This has to be a concerted effort among wolf hating poachers to eliminate the leaders of each one of these packs. When is the federal government going to get serious about poaching? The reason these wolves are dead is because poachers know they can get away with it. Clamp down on these people USFWS!!! Is this 1910 or 2010?
This video is last years Lookout Pack pups howling in the Methow Valley.
Here are Lookout pups romping, caught on remote camera.
Lookout Pack Pups 2008
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Mother wolf missing from state’s 1st pack in decades
Jul 29, 2010 at 4:44 PM PDT
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/99589814.html
Photo: Photos Courtesy Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Posted in: Washington wolves
Tags: Lookout Pack, alpha female, wolf intolerance, poaching, USFWS
Boulder White Clouds Council
Exposing The Big Game
Footloose Montana
Friends of the Clearwater
Lockwood Animal Rescue Center
Louise du Toit
LUPUSLAETUS
Mercy For Animals
Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance (NIWA)
Predator Friendly®- Because Wildlife Matters
Project Coyote
Project: Wolf
The Nature Conservancy
The Ravensong Group
WildEarth Guardians
Wisconsin Wildlife Ethic-Vote Our Wildlife
Wolf And Wildlife Studies: Jay Mallonee (Independent Wolf Biologist)
Wolf Song of Alaska
Wolves in english ! Les loups en anglais !
WWP's Gray Wolf Page
Yellowstone To Yukon Conservation Initiative
Howling For Justice 
DEAR NABEKI!VERY SAD NEWS AGAIN…SO SADNESS. IT’S THIS 1910…AND YOU ARE RIGHT,ABOUT THE BASTARDS POACHERS. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VIDEO HOWLING…I ADORE! YOU HAVE LOT OF CHANCE TO HEAR HOWLING AT HOME! LAST WEEK I HEARD WOLVES HOWLING THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE. I CRIED,I WAS HAPPY AND VERY SAD BECAUSE I THOUGHT OF YOU AND AMERICAN GREY WOLVES. I WAS IN GEVAUDAN,FRENCH WOLF’S PARC.WOLVES ARE IN HALF-LIBERTY… DAVID MECH WAS THERE TWO YEARS AGO. NABEKI,DEAR NABEKI YOU ARE IN MY HEART AND ALL WOLVES FOREVER. GOD BLESS YOU AND ALL WOLVES!I WANT BE MAGICIAN FOR SAVE WOLVES! IT’S A SHAME I HAVEN’T MAGIC POWER… HOWLS!
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Hi Agnes,
That is wonderful that you were able to hear wolves howling, it’s the best music in the world. Glad you enjoyed the wolf howling video, it was mostly the pups howling, which is so cute.
Thank you so much for your support and kind words Agnes. I know how painful this is for you, I feel the same way. The wolf hunts are creeping closer and closer, I hope Judge Molloy rules soon!!
For the wolves, For the wild ones,
Nabeki
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OMG! Nabeki did you see this linked to your post?
OMG… 😦 😦 😦
What is wrong with these people?????
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This happened a while back crystalwolf. I think it was one of the Lookout packs pups. The cretin was trying to mail it’s little pelt to Canada and a Fed-Ex employee blew the whistle on them. Wolves are so persecuted, this is just one disgusting example.
For the Washington wolves, For the wild ones,
Nabeki
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by crystalwolf., Nabeki. Nabeki said: Where is Washington's Lookout Pack Alpha Female?: http://wp.me/pDTDG-1Za […]
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Why? Why they do these things to wolfs let them be free and alive my God what is wrong with them..
Dear Nabeki it is so sweet videos.. Thanks so much..
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I wrote this for the local newspaper opinion page in response to the anti-wolf propaganda about how wolves would effect the deer herd.
My Turn
Wolves in the Methow:
a predator/prey relationship
By Gary Ott
The relationship of wolves and their prey is a topic of much debate, speculation, scientific study, political expediency, misinformation and ulterior motives.
Measuring population levels of prey species is vital to understanding the principles of how wolves influence prey numbers. Although there are several systematic methods utilized by wildlife biologists to estimate populations of deer, elk or other prey species, obtaining numbers that accurately represent populations across landscapes proportional to the movements of deer and elk is problematic at best.
Aerial infrared photography and other new technological tools are being used and developed in other places, but as yet, there is no simple and conclusive answer to accurately assessing general population levels of deer and elk in absolute numerical terms. It is especially difficult in complex terrain of mixed open and forested land. With commonly used methods it is easier to estimate whether a population is increasing or decreasing; and the ratios of males to females, and females to young. This is not to say that reasonable estimates of population levels cannot be made, but that the difficulties involved limit the certainty of the results.
Cause-and-effect relationships are even more elusive. If wolf populations are increasing and prey populations are declining, it does not necessarily follow that one is the cause of the other. Winter severity, multiple prey and predator species, hunting, trapping, poaching (of both predator and prey species), disease, precipitation, the availability of browse, and other habitat conditions, contribute to the complexity of the problem of trying to separate and weigh the proportional effect of predation by wolves from other factors. If this is not complicated enough, the conclusions made from studies of one place may not be transferable to other landscapes, climates and ecosystems.
On the other hand (or in spite of this reality), anti-wolf advocates in Western states make extraordinary claims; not only of knowledge of both wolf and prey populations but also of the cause-and-effect relationship between the two. Casual observations cannot accurately assess populations of deer and elk herds that respond to a wide range of factors that influence, not only their population level, but also their movements across landscapes that are disproportionate to the experience of an individual. And yet, logical sounding conclusions of cause-and-effect relationships are defended as if they are proven fact and not the result of assumptions based on insufficient information, and a biased perspective. Contrary to the statements of anti-wolf factions, the re-establishment of wolves (and their population increase) in Western states has coincided with prey population levels that have, in some places increased, while in others areas deer and elk numbers have decreased or remained fairly stable.
Wolves are very keen at recognizing prey individuals that are most vulnerable due to disease or other physical infirmities. Wolves’ preferential selection of these animals can be beneficial to the health of the herd in several ways. The overall fitness of the herd can be more important to its long-term well being than the number of individuals that comprise it.
Wolves sometimes kill more prey than they immediately consume. Excess predation is commonly described as wasteful and accounted for by attributing it to a moral depravity that more appropriately applies to human aberrant behavior and not the behavior of animals. While we cannot know why excess predation occurs, it appears to be a reflex reaction to prey behavior or occurs in the confusion of a pack attack on a herd. Although we may not understand the driving force behind excess predation, it may serve more than one purpose. Wolves commonly compete with bears, wolverines and other predators for prey. Excess predation may reduce the chance of a conflict with a bear or other predator over a single carcass. Wolves also remember and return to feed on carcasses (that may be preserved by freezing) hours, days, or sometimes months later.
Uncertainty is not in the realm of opinionated points of view, but some degree of uncertainty is a realistic standpoint for those who are interested in understanding the possible future of wolves and their prey in the Methow Valley. Reproductive families of wolves have been in the North Cascades and here in the Methow Valley before –as recently as the early 1990s. What happened to them? Will the Lookout Mountain pack also mysteriously disappear or will their offspring and/or other immigrant wolves form additional packs? How many packs can the Methow Valley support and what effect might they have upon the deer population?
There are some facts that are fairly consistent among many studies that may be of use to better understand the possibilities. Average pack size in the northern tier Western states is six or seven individuals. Pack territories can be expected to average around 300 square miles (the Lookout Mountain pack fits this model at about 350 square miles). This would suggest that four or five packs (maximum) could potentially exist in the Methow area.
Studies of predation on deer in other states indicate that per wolf, approximately 15 or 16 deer are taken per year. This level of predation is on a scale that is nearly the number that we take out with our cars, not even close to the numbers taken by hunters, and a much smaller fraction of the numbers that snow conditions and winter severity can account for.
But of course, this is still assuming that wolves survive, reproduce and remain here.
Gary D. Ott lives near Beaver Creek.
This was originally published in the May 5, 2010issue of the Methow Valley News.
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Wow thank you so much Gary…beautifully written and so informative. What kind of response did you get?
N.
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I received many positive comments from people who talk to me and some ridiculous blog comments referring to “cult of wolf worshiping Marxist” from others.
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Hi Gary,
I was thinking of posting your letter on the front page of the blog, it was so excellent. I want people to hear from my readers. I’d like to have a guest poster at least once a month or more. Let me know.
N.
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I would be honored if you posted it on the front page. Gary
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Thanks Gary, it’s such an excellent letter, I look forward to posting it!!
N.
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Gary, are you familiar with Ralph’s wolf blog? You should post that amazing article you wrote over at his blog.
wolves.wordpress.com
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