SPOKANE — Two wolves that were part of a group that had been attacking livestock have been killed.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Monday that the agency killed an adult male wolf and a yearling female from the WA139 group territory in southeastern Washington.
State wildlife officials said earlier this month that the WA139 group had been involved in four separate attacks on livestock since May, a total that allowed the agency to consider lethal removal.
Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind approved removing up to two last Wednesday. That authorization has now expired.
The state will consider further removals if it confirms more activity from the group that shows “a renewed pattern of depredation” on livestock, according to a news release Monday.
It marks the first time this year that the state has killed wolves following conflicts with livestock. The last removal occurred in October 2022 when officials killed a member of the Smackout pack.
The WA139 group formed early this year after a collared wolf from the Tucannon pack split off and wandered into northeastern Oregon. Biologists tracking the wolf’s activity eventually learned there were more wolves traveling with it.
Staci Lehman, a state Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, said last week that the group consisted of four or five adults and an unknown number of pups.
The group spent several months in Wallowa County, Oregon, and was involved in seven cattle deaths there, according to Fish and Wildlife. An Oregon rancher killed one of the wolves.
In the spring, the group moved back into southeastern Washington. The state documented their first attack on livestock in Washington on May 21, when four calves were found dead in Asotin County.
Additional attacks on livestock were confirmed in June, July and August.
Fish and Wildlife said the affected ranchers tried nonlethal measures to keep the wolves from attacking cattle, but that those efforts failed. The agency did not provide details Monday on how the two wolves were killed.
