2017 March 2, 2017 Wolf dies in unintentional take in northeast Oregon Dept of Fish & Wildlife SALEM, Ore.—Wolf OR48, a Shamrock Pack adult male, died on Feb. 26 on private land in northeast Oregon after an unintentional take by the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. The wolf died after encountering an M-44 device, a spring-activated device containing cyanide powder. The device was in place as part of Wildlife Services operations to control coyotes and prevent coyote-livestock conflict on private land in northeast Oregon. “The death of this wolf shows the risk involved when wolves are in areas where Wildlife Services conducts these types of operations,” said Doug Cottam, ODFW Wildlife Division administrator. “This is a situation we take seriously and we’ll be working with Wildlife Services with the goal of preventing it from happening again.” ODFW and Wildlife Services are evaluating the incident and discussing how to prevent unintentional capture or take of wolves while addressing livestock damage problems. “Wildlife Services’ specialists care about wildlife and work hard to prevent the unintentional take of animals when addressing human-wildlife conflicts,” said Dave Williams, state director for USDA Wildlife Services in Oregon. “We have begun an internal review of this incident to see if any changes to our procedures are necessary.” |
| Wolf OR48 was collared on Feb. 10 of this year in Wallowa County and was part of the Shamrock Wolf Pack. At the time of collaring, he weighed over 100 pounds and was estimated to be just under two years old. Wolf OR48 was not the breeding male of the pack. |
Source: ODFW Gray Wolves
Comments
I hate killing of volwes!
Introduction
Poisoning of wildlife is a wide
spread and major investigational
problem for wildlife law enforcement
officers. Protected wildlife killed
through pesticide misuse or environ-
mental contamination is just as dead as
if they were illegally killed with a gun.
The impact on the population may, in
fact, be greater because of secondary
and even tertiary poisoning or impacts
on breeding potential of populations
lasting over a period of time. Wildlife
poisoning is indiscriminate and may
pose a significant hazard to endangered
species, domestic animals and even
human beings.
In law enforcement cases, acute and
sub-acute toxicities (poisonings) are
most frequently encountered. It is
usually impractical to pursue individ-
ual cases which involve chronic
toxicosis such as DDT, PCB, or heavy
metal poisoning because of wildlife
mobility. This also limits the type of
poisons which must be considered in
field cases. Organophosphate and
carbamate pesticides are by far the
most commonly encountered acute
wildlife poisons followed by strychnine,
avitrol, barbiturates, cyanide, com-
pound 1080, anticoagulant
rodenticides, and zinc phosphide.
Richard K. Stroud DVM MS
Veterinary Medical Examiner
US Fish and Wildlife Forensic Lab
Frank Kuncir
Special Agent USFWS
Division of Law Enforcement
Because of the high degree of variability in both the
animals and the field conditions under which wildlife are
poisoned, the pursuit of wildlife poisoning cases may require a
more sophisticated level of investigation, scientific proof to
support the case, interpretation of the data and presentation to
the court than traditional wildlife illegal take cases. While the
forensic pathologist can provide a diagnosis of cause of death
due to poisoning, it is the responsibility of the investigating
officer to provide the properly preserved samples and the
background information through field investigations on which
the diagnosis and finally the prosecution phase of the case is
based.
No Problems pursuing this one… The USDA did it