Oregon's gray wolf population took several hits in 2023, causing its growth rate to drop to zero for the first time since wolves started returning to the state.
Data from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s annual wolf report for 2023 says biologists were able to count 178 wolves across the state, the exact number they counted the previous year.
In all, the state documented 33 human-caused wolf deaths, the highest number it has recorded since it started keeping track in 2011. State and federal officials are investigating 12 wolf deaths as potential poaching cases and confirmed one additional case as illegal poaching. Those deaths include at least seven wolves that were poisoned and two wolves that were shot and killed.
Four wolves were hit by vehicles, and their deaths are not being investigated as poaching. Oregon also lost 10 wolves to Colorado last year after they were trapped and relocated to restore that state’s own population.
Ranchers armed with state permits killed another 16 wolves after their packs were found to have killed livestock. That’s more than double the number of state-sanctioned wolf kills from 2022, and the highest number since wolves started repopulating Oregon in the early 2000s.
Some wolf advocates say they are concerned the increase in state-authorized wolf kills makes poaching seem more acceptable.
“They have got to rein that in this year and into the future if we’re going to make sure that Oregon’s wolf population can continue to recover,” Cascadia Wildlands conservation director Bethany Cotton said.
Although state-authorized wolf kills more than doubled, wolves last year preyed on slightly fewer farm animals and working dogs than they did in 2022, dropping from 76 to 73. Wildlife officials attribute the discrepancy to where those depredations were concentrated. Oregon can only issue wolf kill permits for areas in Eastern Oregon, where there was a 22% increase in livestock depredations.
The ODFW also changed the way it investigates ranchers’ reports of potential depredations.
“We’re empowering field biologists to make livestock depredation determinations on the ground, streamlining the notification process and more quickly approving lethal control,” department spokesperson Michelle Dennehy said.
As part of that streamlining process, Dennehy said, the department will stop reporting the total number of livestock depredations it investigates. As a result, the 2023 annual wolf report doesn’t include the number of unconfirmed livestock depredations. In 2022, ranchers reported 121 potential livestock depredations, and state officials tied just about 37% of those cases to wolves.
Copyright 2024 Oregon Public Broadcasting
