LA GRANDE — Oregon State Police are asking for the public’s help in finding the person or people police believe killed the alpha male wolf from the Frazier Mountain pack in southern Union County.

On Jan. 29, OSP Fish and Wildlife troopers found a wolf tracking collar on Catherine Creek Lake, about 11 miles southeast of Union, according to a press release.

The collar had been attached to the Frazier Mountain pack’s alpha (breeding) male wolf.

Police didn’t find a wolf carcass.

They believe someone killed the wolf, probably during January, and then removed the collar.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Turn In Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888 or *OSP (*677) from a mobile phone. Tipsters should reference case number SP25-032551.

Anyone with information may remain anonymous. If the information leads to a citation or arrest, a TIP reward of cash or preference points will be offered.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife or its agents have killed four wolves from the pack over the past month or so. The agency authorizing killing all the wolves from the pack, which has attacked and killed cattle several times over the past year, said Lauren Mulligan, administrator for ODFW’s information and education division.

“The Frazier Mountain pack has continued to depredate on livestock despite ongoing conflict prevention measures and repeated aerial hazing,” Mulligan wrote in an email to the Baker City Herald on Jan. 15.

The most recent confirmed attack by Frazier Mountain wolves was in late December, when wolves killed one adult cow and injured a second on an 1,800-acre private land pasture near Catherine Creek.

ODFW employees investigated that incident on Jan. 7, and they estimated that the cows had been killed seven to 10 days earlier.

Around Dec. 7, wolves from the pack injured two adult cows on private land below Thief Valley Reservoir, according to ODFW.

Frazier Mountain wolves killed an eight-month-old calf around Nov. 18 on private land near Beagle Creek, and wolves attacked cattle on Oct. 6 and 9 on a public grazing allotment near the Powder River, killing an adult cow and an eight-month-old calf in separate attacks.

As of the start of 2024, the pack, which has also traveled into Baker County, numbered at least six wolves, according to ODFW’s annual survey.