Wolves kill heifer near Lookout Mountain
Dec. 6—Wolves killed a nearly 2-year-old heifer on a privately owned pasture in the Manning Creek area northeast of Durkee last weekend.
Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's (ODFW) Baker City office, said the heifer, which weighed an estimated 1,100 pounds, was killed either late Friday, Dec. 2 or early the next day.
It was the first confirmed attack by wolves on cattle in the Lookout Mountain area since late October, when wolves killed at least one, and possibly two, calves near Big Lookout Mountain.
Ratliff said the heifer killed this weekend was in a holding pasture along with about 100 head. The animals were grazing there preparatory to being moved to calving pastures, he said.
Ratliff said he believes, based in part on tracks he found near the heifer's carcass, that there are four wolves in the area — one yearling, born in the spring of 2021, and three pups born in the spring of 2022.
There was previously a wolf pack in the Lookout Mountain area, but based on ODFW definitions the pack no longer exists because there is neither a breeding male nor breeding female.
The pack's breeding female was illegally shot and killed in early October.
The breeding male was found dead in July, but there was no evidence of poaching in that case.
None of the remaining wolves has a tracking collar, so ODFW officials don't have an easy way to monitor the wolves' whereabouts.
