Oregon White River Wolf Found Dead, Cause Still Undetermined

PORTLAND, OR – Wildlife officials are investigating the death of a wolf from Oregon's White River pack. The wolf, a male, was 1.5-years-old.

Oregon State scientists from the university' veterinary lab studied the wolf after death in an effort to determine the cause.

It had not been shot or poisoned and there was no clear cause. The fear that the death may have been related to trauma from when the wolf had been captured and fitted with a tracking collar.

The wolf was found dead in November, one month after it had been captured.

Its death was first reported on Saturday by OPB News.

Wolves had been eliminated from the state in the 1940s and had only started returning to Oregon over the past 20 years.

There are believed to be about 120 wolves in the state.

The wolf belonged to the White River pack known to be by Mount Hood. Last August, wildlife cameras captured a male with two young cubs.

This wolf was not that male.

Oregon Wild, a conservation group taking part in the often contentious negotiations over the state's wolf management plan, says the death should be seen as a warning sign.

"The loss of this wolf is more significant, as it is from one of only two known packs outside of NE Oregon," the group wrote on their Facebook page on Monday.

"It emphasizes that this is still a small, fragile population, something Governor (Kate) Brown and the ODFW Commission must keep in mind as they consider a wolf plan that diminishes protections for this native species."

File photo shows the breeding male of White River wolves with two pups, taken Aug. 19 by remote camera on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Photo courtesy of Wildlife Department BNR-Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.