It was one of three founding members of the first pack confirmed to have established a den and given birth to pups in the Wood River Valley since the federal government reintroduced gray wolves to the northern Rockies in 1995.
On Sunday, a passing cyclist riding northwest of Ketchum spotted the carcass of the Phantom Hill wolf pack's graying alpha male in a roadside ditch next to state Highway 75. The body of the well-traveled wolf was found about 80 yards south of the turnoff to Baker Creek Road.
The cyclist called the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to report the discovery, said Randy Smith, wildlife manager for Fish and Game's Magic Valley Region.
It's been two years since federal and state wolf biologists discovered and named the Phantom Hill pack. In that time, the highly visible pack has grown to at least 10 members.
Smith said it won't be long before one of the surviving males of the pack steps up and takes over.
"They'll vie for that alpha-male position," he said.
Smith and other officials say it's unclear how the new pack will behave after the loss of their leader. Earlier this spring, the pack took a detour from what was considered their exclusive north valley range above Ketchum. Over a several-week period, the all-black pack members were spotted by numerous valley residents as they showed up in places such as Deer Creek, Greenhorn Gulch and in the foothills above Sun Valley's Elkhorn neighborhood.
Fish and Game eventually took action to haze the pack away from residential areas. At the same time, they also placed a radio collar on another member of the pack, bringing to three the number of Phantom Hill wolves collared for tracking.
Since its arrival two springs ago, the Phantom Hill pack has gained notoriety for its close proximity to wandering sheep bands that graze Sawtooth National Forest lands each summer. During the spring of 2007, officials implicated the pack in the deaths of at least a dozen domestic sheep.
Last summer, in an effort to avoid a similar situation and the need to kill members of the pack, state and federal biologists, Sawtooth National Forest officials and the nonprofit organization Defenders of Wildlife teamed up to keep the wolves and sheep apart. The Wood River Wolf Project, helped keep depredations down to a single sheep during the summer of 2008.
Three field assistants were paid with private and local government money to keep an eye on the roving sheep bands. This summer, Defenders of Wildlife has hired five field assistants to continue the work.
Last Friday, participants met for a one-day training session at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters.
Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com
