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The Diamond Pack currently has 10 members – including a successful breeding pair – confirmed by an aerial survey,
First documented in 2008, this pack continues ranging along the Washington-Idaho border in northeast Pend Oreille County. Based on location data from four radio-collared wolves over the period 2009-2012, this pack uses a territory of about 350 square miles – mostly in Washington – where its members den in spring.
No wolves were captured in this pack during summer 2012. Trail cameras set up in summer 2012 recorded images of wolves, including at least four “young of the year.” The alpha male, radio-collared in July 2009 but not transmitting since 2010, was also observed by trail camera this summer. One adult female in this pack is currently equipped for monitoring.
In September 2012, one wolf that had been ear-tagged as a yearling in 2010 was legally killed by a hunter in Idaho.
Wolves in this area were first documented in 2008 with photographs from remote cameras and confirmed in 2009 with the capture and radio-collaring of the pack’s breeding male, DNA analysis of the breeding male links him to the naturally re-colonizing southern Alberta-northwestern Montana wolf population. Two small pups were also captured, ear tagged, and released at that time. The captures occurred in the vicinity of Diamond Peak, for which the pack was named. The breeding pair produced six pups that year and at least four survived to 2010.
In the summer of 2010 a yearling female was captured and GPS-collared. Three other yearling wolves were captured and ear-tagged, and one small pup was caught and released. The pack produced six pups in 2010 and totalled12 wolves at the end of the year.
In June of 2011, three wolves were captured and radio collared: 1)The female collared as a yearling in 2010 was recaptured to change the collar; in November 2011, she was located with a radio-collared yearling male from the Cutoff Peak Pack in north Idaho, but neither of those wolves’ radios were heard on survey flights in December 2011. 2) A female that had been ear-tagged as a yearling in 2010, was recaptured and radio-collared; this wolf was legally killed by an Idaho trapper 300 yards from the Washington border in December 2011. 3) An adult female was captured, radio-collared, and continues providing location information. There were three pups confirmed during 2011 and a total of 10 wolves were counted in this pack at the end of 2011.
Yearling female captured June 2010 |
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Two-year old female Diamond Pack gray
wolf
captured June 2010 |
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