Two wolves roaming Boise Foothills kill 11 sheep

The foothills are the backyards to many bikers and joggers. Mike Sheppard covers several miles of trail daily and was surprised to hear wolves were moving in. "Typically not a whole lot to see as far as animals and wildlife goes," says Sheppard. Idaho Fish and Game found the sheep carcasses near the 8th Street gate known as the Hulls Gulch upslope. After identifying the kills there was no doubt they were wolf killings. These sheep belonged to a rancher from Wilder who says year after year the wolves are killing even more. "We're just moving onto the forest foothills, this of course is a little early to get hit, I think last year we had two kills on the Boise front side and this year I think we've already been hit four times," says Frank Shirts. And like many ranchers they feel the numbers are growing. "We're going to lose 150-200 head this year," says Shirts. He also says keeping track of hundreds of sheep is hard enough without adding wolves to the equation. Losing and replacing sheep could cost ranchers thousands of dollars, but some think curtailing the predators comes at the wolves expense and feel the ranchers are in the wolves territory. Wildlife officials say they can confirm that the sheep were killed by wolves "because of the way that lambs or ewes are killed." Coyotes normally kill sheep in the lower throat area while wolves attack adult sheep by biting their back and around the neck...more