ODFW confirms another wolf attack near Richland

Published 2:00 pm Monday, May 16, 2022

RICHLAND — Wolves from the Cornucopia pack injured two calves north of Richland recently, the third attack on cattle in that area in the past few weeks, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

ODFW biologists investigated the latest incident on Monday, May 9, in the Summit Road area.

A rancher found two injured calves while checking cattle on a 5,400-acre Bureau of Land Management grazing allotment. Biologists estimated the calves were injured one to two weeks earlier.

Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash, who also responded to the incident, said earlier this week that he thinks one calf, which had the largest open wound, would be euthanized.

Both calves had multiple bite scrapes up to 3/16th-inch wide on the inside, rear and outside of their hindquarters above the hock, along with tissue trauma, according to the ODFW report.

One calf — the one Ash mentioned — had a pair of three-inch open wounds on the inside and outside of the right hind leg above the hock, according to the report.

The report reads: “These two attacks appear to be from the same event and were attributed to the Cornucopia pack.”

Biologists also examined a third calf, which had a few scrapes on the lower portion of the left hind leg, mostly below the hock.

Because there wasn’t enough evidence on the third calf to determine the cause of the scrapes, the incident was classified as “possible/unknown” rather than a confirmed wolf attack, according to ODFW.

Also on May 9, biologists examined the carcass of a 125-pound calf that a rancher found the morning of May 8 in a private, 40-acre pasture near the rancher’s house in the Houghton Creek area north of Keating.

The carcass was mostly intact and most of the hide was present, but some internal organs and some muscle tissue on three legs were missing. Biologists concluded the calf had died the night before it was found.

There were no bite scrapes on the hindquarters, flanks or elbows, areas “where wolves commonly bite,” according to the ODFW report. Also, the “damage on the back were smaller than expected for wolf. Some domestic dogs were causing damage nearby, but since the cause of death cannot be confirmed as coyote or domestic dog, this determination is ‘possible/unknown.’ ”

Ash said earlier this week that he’s concerned about the number of recent attacks on cattle, and he suggested ODFW consider either killing some wolves or giving permits to ranchers who have had cattle attacked at least twice, allowing them to hunt wolves.

Under Oregon’s wolf management plan, livestock owners don’t need a permit to kill a wolf that is biting, wounding, killing or chasing the owner’s livestock or working dogs.

But ODFW can also issue “lethal take” permits to ranchers whose animals have been attacked multiple times within a nine-month period, and who have shown they have tried nonlethal tactics to deter wolves.

Such permits allow livestock owners, or their designated agents, to kill wolves under any circumstance, even if the wolves aren’t attacking livestock at the time. Permits include the number of wolves that can be killed, and a time limit.

After a series of confirmed wolf attacks on cattle in Wallowa County in late April, ODFW issued a permit to rancher Tom Birkmaier. His agent killed a yearling male wolf from the Chesnimnus pack on May 3.

Earlier this month in Baker County, ODFW biologists concluded that wolves from the Cornucopia pack had killed one calf and injured two others north of Richland, and that wolves from the Keating pack injured a calf in the Skinner Road area of the Keating Valley.

The calf that died likely was attacked on May 4, and the two calves that survived were attacked about two weeks before biologists examined them on May 5, according to ODFW reports.

The site where the calf died, north of Richland, is about half a mile from the area where biologists examined the two injured calves on May 9.