BAKER CITY — The recent illegal shooting of the breeding female wolf from the Lookout Mountain pack makes it less likely that the pups she had this spring will survive, a state wildlife biologist said.

Oregon State Police announced on Tuesday, Oct. 18, the female wolf was found dead on Oct. 3 near Little Lookout Mountain, about 9 miles northeast of Durkee.

The black wolf was fitted with a tracking collar that sends out a “mortality” signal if the collar doesn’t move for an extended period.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), which manages wolves, reported the signal to OSP. Troopers found the dead wolf on public land.

They believe the wolf was shot and killed in that location on Oct. 2, according to an OSP press release.

The Oregon Wildlife Coalition and conservation partners are offering an $11,500 reward that leads to an arrest and/or citation. Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact OSP through the Turn in Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888 or dial *OSP (mobile). Reference case number SP22266783.

The Lookout Mountain pack was responsible for injuring a 450-pound calf recently, according to an ODFW

investigation.

Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist at ODFW’s Baker City office, said that based on data from the female wolf’s tracking collar, he believes she was still alive when the calf, which survived, was attacked, probably in late September.

The female wolf’s death follows the death of the pack’s breeding male wolf in July of this year, Ratliff said.

He said there was no evidence of foul play in the male wolf’s death.

Ratliff said there is no longer a functioning wolf pack in the Lookout Mountain area.

The group of wolves in that area consists of a yearling wolf born in the spring of 2021 (the gender is not known) and an unknown number of pups born in the spring of 2022, Ratliff said.

None of those wolves has a tracking collar.

With no adult wolves to be the pack’s main hunters, Ratliff said the yearling and pups will have more trouble finding food, and thus will be more likely to die than if they were part of a pack with adults.

“They’re likely going to concentrate on scavenging and the easiest prey items,” he said.

Although adult wolves typically kill deer and elk, they can also subsist on smaller prey such as mice and squirrels, Ratliff said.

A wolf that was killed in Baker County in 2009 was examined and its stomach contained almost exclusively maggots, he said.

“They will eat anything to survive,” Ratliff said.

He said that by midwinter, one of the most accessible prey for wolves could be newborn calves.