Wolf populations had humble beginnings

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK - The revival of wolf populations in Northwest Montana likely had its genesis with a single pack just north of Glacier National Park.

A female wolf named Kishinena in British Columbia was caught and radio-collared in April 1979. She was the first radio-collared wolf in the Rocky Mountains as part of the Wolf Ecology Project headed up by Robert Ream, at the University of Montana.

While she spent most of her time in British Columbia roaming the North Fork drainage, Kishinena did wander into Glacier park on occasion.

She was a successful wolf, raising pups on the park's doorstep, recalled biologist Ursula Mattson, who first tracked the wolf as part of the project. Mattson left the project in 1979, and by 1980 Kishinena had lost her collar.

Biologist Diane Boyd, who began working with the project in 1979, tracked wolves north of the border for several years.

Park Ranger Jerry DeSanto reported seeing a pair of wolves in Glacier park in February 1982.

In October 1985, Boyd caught and collared a wolf in the park - and many others after that. In the mid-1990s, she did genetic testing of North Fork wolves and found they were direct descendants of wolves she had caught a decade earlier, although Boyd said no samples were taken of the first wolf that was caught in 1979.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, by 1995 six wolf packs lived in Northwest Montana - all natural migrants from Canada. In 1995 and 1996, a total of 66 wolves from southwestern Canada were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.

By 2010, the estimated population of wolves in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, eastern Washington and a portion of Oregon was about 1,650, most of which lived in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Yellowstone alone had nearly 100. Northwest Montana, according to the report, had about 326 wolves.