Monthly wolf report- July 2024

This update provides an overview of gray wolf conservation and management activities in Washington during July 2024.

Program updates and coordination

• WDFW is accepting limited applications for statewide contracted range riders in the 2024 season. Applications and contract updates can be found in WDFW’s website. 
   
  • Due to a directive from the fiscal years 2024-2025 budget provisos, WDFW is working to transition a majority of contracted range riding (CRR) in northeast Washington to Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) grant funded local non-profits providing those non-lethal deterrent services. WDFW will continue to offer Damage Prevention Cooperative Agreements for Livestock (DPCA-L) in areas where these services are not provided and as funding allows. WDFW-contracted range riders (CRR) will only be employed when a clearly identified gap exists that cannot be covered by one of the non-government groups providing range riding, or under a cost-sharing DPCA-L.  
     
• WDFW encourages anyone who might have relevant information on poaching to report it confidentially by calling WDFW's poaching hotline, 877-933-9847, or by texting a tip to 847411. 

Gray wolves are listed as endangered under state law throughout Washington. In the western two-thirds of the state, they are also listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Under state law, the illegal killing of a wolf or other endangered fish, or wildlife species is a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

• WDFW continues to support the Conflict on Workinglands Conservation Innovation Grant (CoW-CIG) research team’s evaluation of the effectiveness of range riding at reducing conflicts between livestock and carnivores. The Conservation on Working Lands Conservation Innovation Grant (CoW-CIG) is a collaborative team consisting of livestock producers, Western Landowners Alliance, Heart of the Rockies, Defenders of Wildlife, Wildlife Services, and other state and federal wildlife agencies, and Utah, Colorado, and Montana state universities. The team is tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of several nonlethal tools at reducing conflict between livestock, wolves, and grizzly bears.  

Outreach and education 

No updates on this for July 2024.

Current population status and proactive conflict mitigation

The year-end minimum population count for 2023 was at least 260 known wolves in 42 known packs including at least 25 successful breeding pairs. Annual wolf population surveys are conducted in the winter because wolf populations experience the least amount of natural fluctuation during this time. Counting the population at the end of each year allows for comparable year-to-year trends at a time of year when the wolf population is most stable. A link to the 2023 Annual Wolf report can be found in WDFW’s website. The year-end minimum population count for 2024 will be released in April 2025.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife commission made a decision on July 19, 2024, to retain the state status of gray wolves as endangered under Periodic Status Review (PSR) for the species. WDFW will continue to work closely with partners, stakeholders, and communities, just as over the past decade, on the recovery, conservation, and management of wolves in Washington, with a focus on reducing conflict between wolves and livestock, emphasizing proactive nonlethal conflict deterrence, achieving statewide recovery objectives, and supporting wolf expansion into all suitable habitat statewide.

WDFW will revisit the state status of wolves as part of a future periodic status review process or sooner if the recovery objectives of the state’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan are met within five years. The recorded commission meeting can be found on the TVW website.       

Reports of remote camera images or videos, wolf tracks, or sightings from the public are extremely helpful in locating previously undocumented wolf activity and potential new packs on the landscape. Please take photos of wolves or wolf sign (learn how to differentiate between wolves and coyotes; use some way to measure the size of a track) and upload them to the wolf observation reporting page. 

Definitions: A “pack” is defined as two or more wolves traveling together in winter, and a “breeding pair” is defined as at least one adult male and one adult female wolf that raised at least two pups that survived until December 31. In any given year, the number of packs will always be greater than or equal to the number of breeding pairs. The known territories and more information for each pack can be viewed by clicking the pack name. 

Beaver Creek pack
WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in this pack territory.   

Big Muddy territory
WDFW Biologists conducted monitoring activity in this territory.

Butte Creek pack
No activity to report.

Carpenter Ridge pack
No activity to report.

Chewuch pack
WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in this pack territory. 

Chopaka pack
WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in this pack territory. 

Columbia pack
No activity to report.

Couse pack
Updates for the Couse pack were provided on July 11 and July 15.

Diobsud Creek territory
No activity to report.

Dirty Shirt pack
No activity to report.

Dominion pack
Updates for the Dominion pack were provided on July 30 and July 31.

Five Sisters pack

No activity to report.

Goodman Meadows pack
No activity to report.

Grouse Flats pack
WDFW staff investigated an adult cow mortality in this pack territory. Upon investigating, staff determined the cow mortality was due to a confirmed wolf depredation. 

Huckleberry pack
No activity to report.

Leadpoint pack
Updates for the Leadpoint pack were provided on July 30 and August 1.

Lookout pack
No activity to report.

Loup Loup pack
No activity to report.

Maverick pack
No activity to report.

Mt. Spokane pack
WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in this pack territory.

Naneum territory

No activity to report

Napeequa pack
No activity to report. 

Navarre pack
No activity to report.

Onion Creek pack
No activity to report.

Ruby pack

No activity to report

Salmo pack

No activity to report. 

Scatter pack 

No activity to report.

Shady Pass pack 
No activity to report. 

Sherman pack

No activity to report.

Smackout territory 
No activity to report.

Sprague Lake territory 
No activity to report.

Stranger Pack 

No activity to report.

Sullivan Creek pack 

WDFW staff investigated an injured calf. They confirmed the injury was caused by a wolf. Because this pack territory is in the part of the state where wolves are managed by federal authorities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was notified of the determination.

Togo Pack

No activity to report.

Touchet pack 

WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in this pack territory.

Tucannon Pack

WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in this pack territory.

Vulcan pack 
No activity to report.

Wedge pack 
No activity to report. 

Other Monitoring Activities Statewide:

WDFW biologists conducted monitoring activities in the former Teanaway and Naneum pack territories. Biologists also placed cameras south of highway 12 in Yakima County to follow up on wolf reports from the public.  Biologists checked monitoring cameras in the White River drainage north of highway 410. 

Note: The Dollar Mountain, Frosty, Nason, Nc’icn, Keller Ridge, Strawberry, Whitestone, and Wilmont pack territories are within Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (CTCR) lands and are managed under tribal authority. Information regarding these packs is proprietary and reported at the discretion of the CTCR. 

Mortalities

• Three wolf mortalities were documented in July including one in Couse pack, one wolf killed in Leadpoint pack, and one wolf that has been killed in Okanogan County west of Highway 97, is under federal investigation. 
• Since the beginning of the year, WDFW has documented seven wolf mortalities in 2024.

Depredation activity

In general, about 80% of known wolf packs in Washington have not been involved in any documented livestock depredation in any given year. WDFW staff documented 11 depredation events by wolves on a total of 16 livestock in July 2024. The average number of depredation events for the month of July is 3.6 based on depredation records from 2019-2023.

Please report any suspected livestock depredations or the death or harassment of wolves to the WDFW Enforcement Hotline at 1-877-933-9847.

Below is a summary of packs with documented depredation activity within the past ten months (some packs have depredation history prior to the current ten-month window; this timeframe is considered based on guidance from the wolf-livestock interaction protocol (PDF)).