UMATILLA COUNTY — Wolves with the Ukiah Pack killed two sheep in late May on private land in Coyote Canyon, a ravine tributary to McKay Creek, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) reported.

A sheepherder found a dead 180-pound ewe and 70-pound lamb in a 5,000-acre pasture about 1 mile from his camp on May 30. The sheep had bedded down for the night in the private pasture.

The ewe had been mostly consumed, while the lamb was entirely intact. ODFW estimated both sheep died no earlier than the evening of May 29 or the morning of May 30.

ODFW personnel shaved, skinned and examined the carcasses. Both sheep suffered multiple bite punctures and pre-mortem hemorrhaging, indicating a predator attack.

The ewe had pre-mortem tooth punctures up to 5/16-inch diameter on the neck, with pre-mortem hemorrhaging in the remaining muscle tissue, according to the ODFW report.

The lamb had numerous ¼-inch pre-mortem bite punctures and multiple tears in the hide on the neck, throat and left hindquarter above the hock. Trauma to the neck penetrated to the bone on both sides and dislocated the neck. Pre-mortem hemorrhage on the left hindquarter was up to 1.5 inches deep.

According to ODFW, the severity and location of injuries to the sheep are consistent with wolf attacks.

Second confirmed depredation in Grant CountyODFW have also confirmed another attack on cattle by wolves from the Desolation pack.

On June 1, biologists examined a six-month-old, 350-pound calf in a private, 1,200-acre pasture along the Middle Fork John Day River in Grant County. The calf had a healing open wound measuring six inches by three inches on its hindquarters above the udder.

This is the same pasture where ODFW concluded that wolves from the Desolation pack had killed two calves on May 19.