Three wolves in the Imnaha Pack of north eastern Oregon were captured and fitted with radio collars last week.

Collars were placed on the 115-pound alpha male, another adult male weighing 97 pounds and a 70-pound female pup.

“The wolves were in good body condition and the capture went well,” said
Russ Morgan, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf coordinator.

Morgan believes there are 10 wolves in the pack, including five pups. The pack’s alpha female migrated from Idaho and was previously fitted with a radio collar.

Oregon wildlife officials are also tracking a pack in the Wenaha Wildlife Management Unit near Troy, Ore. The Imnaha and Wenaha packs are the only confirmed wolves in Oregon, but wildlife officials are continuing to look for more wolves and have found evidence of individual wolves dispersing in the state.

A video of the Imnaha wolf pack was taken last year.

Hunters have reached the harvest limit of 15 wolves in the McCall-Weiser Wolf Hunting Zone.

The zone is now closed to wolf hunting. The McCall-Weiser zone is the second wolf hunting zone in the state to close because of the harvest limit being reached. The Upper Snake Zone closed on Nov. 2 when the harvest limit there of five wolves was reached.

Through Sunday, hunters in Idaho had killed 97 wolves. The state-wide harvest limit is 220.

Up to date wolf harvest information is available here.

Is there anything cuter than baby animals?

Well, yes … when those baby animals romp around in the wild in front of a hidden camera. I received this clip by e-mail this afternoon, then found it on YouTube. I’m not sure who shot it, but the trail cam is pretty high quality, so it was probably a wildlife biologist from some agency.

Through Monday, 487,735 steelhead had been counted passing Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. That is the second highest total  in the past 71 years and is on pace to beat the record count recorded eight years ago.

In 2001, 636,640 steelhead were counted at the dam. That total is for the entire year. Through Aug. 31 of that year 474,832 steelhead had been counted at the dam.

Pre season predictions do not call for the record to be broken but they also did not call for the run to be this big and there is still at least a month left when daily steelhead counts can be expected to number in the thousands.

I’ve been procrastinating work and watching the Web cam placed at the Bonneville Dam fishing viewing window.  In some cases I can identify the species pretty quickly, in others I’ve gotten help from fish biologist Larry Barrett of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

See how well you do. There is a key at the bottom.

1.

2.

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5.

KEY

1. Steelhead

2. Fall chinook

3. Top fish is a coho buck id’d by hooked nose and lightness around the guns. Bottom fish is either a fall chinook or coho.

4. Fall Chinook leading two steelhead

5. Steelhead in front, coho in back