While the federal government was spending millions of
dollars restoring wolves to central Idaho, one of its agencies was
killing a wolf nearby. The federal Animal Damage Control program
accidentally killed one of the endangered wolves in a coyote trap
near Priest River, Idaho, in early February. The trap was an M-44,
a baited, spring-loaded device that sprays sodium cyanide into the
mouth and nose of its victim. Because the device is so lethal, it
is illegal in areas occupied by endangered species. “There’s no way
we knew or could have known that there were wolves in the area,”
says the ADC’s Jeff Green. But Forest Service biologist Tim Layser
told the Spokane Spokesman-Review in January that he knew of three
confirmed wolf sightings in northern Idaho in the last 12 months.
Tom Skeele of the Bozeman, Mont.-based Predator Project was
outraged. “The (Fish and Wildlife) Service is certainly well aware
of the ability of wolves to travel great distances in a short
period of time, and that any of the wolves known to exist in
northern Idaho could easily find its way to the precise place where
ADC killed the wolf,” he says. Another wolf died of exposure six
months ago in western Montana when it was caught in a leghold trap
for coyotes.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Agency kills wolf by mistake.
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