Here is the continuing story of the wolves in Denali.

By Tim Mowry

Published Tuesday, May 6, 2008

From Newsminer.com

A biologist on Friday removed a cable snare embedded in the neck of a wolf that officials at Denali National Park and Preserve were worried might be an eyesore for tourists and a public relations nightmare for the park service this summer.

National Park Service biologist Tom Meier removed the cable snare loop after shooting the wolf with a tranquilizer dart from a helicopter. The wire cable was embedded about an inch into the muscle of the wolf’s neck, Meier said.

“It was pretty deep, but it didn’t seem that infected,” he said. “It didn’t smell at all.”

The wolf, a large, gray male, was one of two wolves that roamed outside the park and were evidently caught in trappers’ snares on state land in February. The wolves somehow managed to free themselves and return to the park, but the snare loops remained around their necks, causing significant swelling on both wolves’ necks and a bloody, gaping wound on the animal that was captured Friday.

Veterinarian Denise Albert, a local vet who has worked as a veterinarian on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, cleaned the wound and gave the wolf antibiotics. Considering that the wolf still appeared to be in good physical condition after more than two months with the snare around its neck, Meier said it should survive.

“I would imagine in a couple weeks it will be as good as new,” he said.

Meier didn’t weigh the wolf because he didn’t want to hang it upside down due to its injury, but he estimated the wolf’s weight in the 90- to 100-pound range.

Park service officials had been attempting to locate the wolf and remove the snare since it was first reported in the park in late February. The wolf had been seen several times wandering around the entrance to the 6 million-acre park 130 miles south of Fairbanks, but it always disappeared before biologists could get to it.

On Thursday evening, however, after the wolf was seen in the company of another smaller wolf — most likely its mate — by several park service employees near the Savage River Campground at 15 Mile Denali Park Road, Meier assembled a team to capture the wolf Friday.

He contacted Fairbanks helicopter pilot Troy Cambier, who flew to the park Friday morning, and local pilot Dennis Miller, who served as a spotter pilot in his Supercub. It was Miller who first spotted the tracks of the wolves on Friday and tracked them to a ridge near the Savage River bridge.

After Meier darted the wolf from the helicopter, he and Albert landed to remove the snare and check the wound.

The wolf rejoined the smaller wolf that it was traveling with after the operation and the two wolves were seen along the park road on Saturday and Sunday.

The park service interceded because the wolf’s injury was not due to natural causes. Trapping is illegal inside the park and on some state land outside the park but wolves can be taken legally along the Stampede Trail just north of the park boundary.

As he expected, Meier said the cable snare was not heavy enough to hold a wolf, which explains how the wolf may have been able to escape after it was trapped. It’s likely the wolf either broke the cable or chewed through it, he said. Meier estimated the cable to be 1/16-gauge, and standard wolf snares are 1/8-gauge, he said.

Removing the snare will be better for the wolf and tourists alike, he said. Park service officials were worried that the sight of the injured wolf, which may be one that was seen regularly by tourists last summer, would unsettle tourists visiting the park. Shuttle buses will begin ferrying tourists into the park May 20.

“This is turning out to be one of those wolves that people see a lot,” Meier said, referring the wolf’s proximity to the road.

Park spokeswoman Kris Fister said finding the wolf and removing the snare involved “a fortunate set of circumstances.”

Without the fresh snow that fell on Thursday night, park officials said it’s unlikely the wolf could have been tracked down. Meier agreed.

Independent research biologist Gordon Haber, who has studied wolves in Denali for more than 40 years and has long advocated for expanding the no-trapping zone for park wolves on state land, was glad to hear Meier removed the snare, but he said the problem of park wolves being trapped on state land remains.

“Just because they freed one wolf, that’s great, but that’s attacking the problem from a very superficial point,” Haber said.

Wolves in Denali are too valuable scientifically and socially to allow them to be trapped so close to the park, he said.

The park has a population of about 100 wolves in 18 packs.

The other wolf with a snare around its neck has not been spotted in more than a month.