Oregon State Police are investigating the unlawful killing of the breeding male wolf from the Cornucopia pack in eastern Baker County.

The wolf died from a gunshot wound on or about Sept. 24, according to OSP.

This incident occurred northwest of New Bridge in the Skull Creek drainage of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Forest Service Road 7741 accesses the Skull Creek drainage and the wolf was found off the 125 spur road. That’s about 1 mile east of Eagle Forks campground. Anyone with information can contact OSP Sgt. Isaac Cyr through the Turn in Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888.

Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) trapped the wolf and fitted it with a GPS tracking collar in December 2018.

According to ODFW, the breeding male and female of the Cornucopia pack bred for the first time in 2019. The breeding female is a radio-collared wolf that dispersed from the Pine Creek pack, also in eastern Baker County, and the breeding male that was killed in September had dispersed from the Walla Walla pack in Union, Umatilla and Wallowa counties.

The pair produced three pups that survived to the end of 2019, according to ODFW. Data from the wolves’ collars showed the pack used a 162-square-mile area in the Pine Creek and Keating wildlife management units, with 92% of the location points on public land.