I first came across the above image on Facebook with a caption stating that wolves apparently killed 19 elk near a feederground in Wyoming. My initial reaction was to assume this was some heinous act of poaching rather than a slaughter performed by wolves.
I was wrong.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has since confirmed that the 19 elk were in fact killed by wolves at the feederground located close to Bondurant, Wyoming.
“Yesterday morning, we discovered several elk killed by wolves near one of our feedergrounds near Bondurant. We went and investigate it and it turned out to be a total of 19 that we found and documented. There were 19 total – 17 were calves, two were adult cows,” WGFD Regional Wildlife Supervisor John Lund told County 10.
What is being labelled as a “surplus killing” is something wildlife officials have witnessed in the past, but admit it to be a very rare occurrence.
“This is a rare event. A lot of people call it surplus killing,” said Lund. “It has been observed on other occasions, just not very often. This was one of those events. Several wolves came in over one night and killed 19 elk. Normally one or two elk a night here and there is no big deal, but 19 in one night is fairly rare.”
Lund also went on to mention that he believes to know which wolf pack is responsible for the cull.
“The one [pack] that has been hitting this feedground as far as we can tell is called the Rim Pack. I think there are nine wolves in that pack,” said Lund.
Mike Jimenez who acts as the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also chimed in on the rare occurrence of these surplus killings.
“By and large, wolves don’t kill for sport,” said Jimenez. “We did an eight year study and we looked at elk feedgrounds. What we found is that generally wolves did not kill what they did not eat.”
The unfortunate reality of this situation is that Lund and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department have their hands tied when it comes to managing the wolves. The WGFD has management responsibility of the elk on the feedergrounds, but the wolves on the other hand, are managed under the authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
