PINE RIDGE, S.D. — A federal wolf specialist says a gray wolf found dead on South Dakota's Ridge Reservation came from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Mike Jimenez with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says information from a tracking collar identifies the wolf as a 3- to 4-year-old male that was part of a pack in the southeast part of Yellowstone. He said the wolf made the 400-mile journey to southwest South Dakota in less than two months.

The wolf was found dead along U.S. Highway 18 near the town of Pine Ridge, apparently struck by a vehicle late Sunday or early Monday. South Dakota does not have a resident wolf population, but the animals sometimes wander in from other areas.

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South Dakota does not have a resident wolf population, but the animals sometimes wander in from other areas.

It is amazing how many wolves and Lions wander in from other areas.

I belive a lot of states DNRs do not want to admitted to a resdent population of one or the other because of the problems that brings.

Man thats not too far from where we hunt in North west Nebraska and it took game and parks over 10 years to admit we had lions in the area.

That's the second wolf in SD this year. The first was from the eastern population in MN/WI.

We do not have a resident population yet, but I imagine it is coming soon.

Tracking collar? Wasn't it working? I don't know much (read nothing) about tracking collars, but wouldn't that tell the story of how the wolf got 400 miles east in two months?

Capturing a wolf live and fitting it with a tracking collar certainly can't be easy or cheap for da gubmint to do. What's the point if you end up with all these wandering critters and it's only when they get run over by a truck that you know where they are at?

Matt, those collars don't work like you see in the movies. They are not tracked 24-7 by a satalite or anything of that nature. The collars usually put out a fairly short range signal. Long range signals take lots of power....read big batteries.... It's common place for the Game and Fish to fly over an area in a plane first inorder to find the critters, before they then try to track the ground for further study.

The new gps tracking collars are much better, but also much more expensive. The mountain lions that have been fitted with them in SD give their location at set intervals. They also give a different signal when it hasn't moved/motion for 30 minutes.

SDH, sounds like a great improvement.
How close do you need to be inorder to pick up the signal?

I believe they monitor them from the office computer. I will have to ask more specifics the next time I am at the GFP office.

That wolf had to wander that far to avoid being killed by the packs covering most of MT and WY. Back in the 1990s a group of wolves were rumored to have been quietly killed in SE MT not long after the reintroduction. They are highly mobile and the loners will keep expanding throughout the west now. The problems of declining elk and deer herds will not be far behind!