Reward money for finding poachers is increasing, as well. For the recent killing the bounty is over $30,000
A Metolius wolf trots past a trail camera in Jefferson County. The Metolius wolves spend most of their time in Jefferson County, adjacent to Deschutes County, where the latest killing took place. Photo: ODFW
By Kendra Chamberlain. March 27, 2025. Federal and state wildlife agencies and conservation groups are all pitching in to find out who killed a gray wolf in early March.
The death, reported near Sisters, Ore., is the latest in a string of illegal wolf killings in Oregon over the past four years.
The dead, adult male wolf was reported to officials on March 10. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) each responded to the report.
But officials aren’t sharing much information about the incident.
The gray wolf was found near Sisters, where the species is federally listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Sisters is located roughly 20 miles inside the state’s west wolf management area. The wolves in this area are managed for conservation under Phase 1 of the state’s wolf management plan.
Under the plan, the west wolf management zone needs to reach four breeding pairs for three consecutive years before transitioning to Phase 2.
In 2022, for the first time, the west wolf management zone contained four breeding pairs. That number dipped to three breeding pairs in 2023. ODFW will release the latest wolf count in April.
The exact location of the wolf, how it had died or even how long it had been dead, is being kept under wraps.
“All the details about the investigation that can be provided are in the news release,” USFWS spokesperson Megan Nagel told Columbia Insight in an email.
Big reward
What is known is that the wolf was the male half of a breeding pair known as the Metolius wolves.
The pair took up residence in the area in 2022, and had just had its first litter of pups, giving the family pack status.
Now, the female will have to fend for herself and her offspring. Wolves are extremely cooperative when raising pups, so the loss of the adult breeding male could be devastating for the survival of the rest of the pack.
Map: ODFW
The poached male was known to state wolf biologists. During his brief tenure in the area, he’d been captured on trail cameras ODFW uses to monitor wolf populations in the state.
“It’s just so devastating that they were so close to being a real family. And then this happened,” Susan Prince co-founder of the Wolf Welcome Committee, told Columbia Insight.
Prince and others launched the Wolf Welcome Committee in central Oregon in the fall of 2021, just before the Metolius pair arrived.
Prince said public education is one of the best methods to combat poaching.
“Even before there were wolves here, we were doing a lot of public education about the value of wolves and predators in the ecosystem,” she said. “We realize there’s a lot of embedded fear in this country about predators specifically.”
In July 2024, after the birth of the pair’s litter of four pups, The Nugget Newspaper, based in Sisters, published a story beneath the headline, “Metolius wolf pack triples in size.” The article noted that the actual number of wolves statewide has not increased year-over-year, and that the number of documented packs in the state is actually decreasing.
The USFWS is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the wolf’s death.
The Oregon Wildlife Coalition has a standing reward offer of $10,000 for wolf poaching; and the Center for Biological Diversity is putting up another $10,000. The Wolf Welcome Committee, is chipping in $500.
That puts the total reward at $30,500.
I hope that the killer is found. Blessings to the wolf pack.