CODY, Wyo. (AP) - Mange has struck several wolves of northwest Wyoming's Absaroka Pack, but there are no plans to treat the animals.
"It's pathetic," said Jim Oudin, a retired game warden who saw the sick wolf on Blain Creek. "It makes me ill."
The black wolf had no hair on its lower hindquarters and its tail was bare, he said. Large sores covered its legs.
Mike Jiminez, wolf project leader for Wyoming, said he also saw the sick wolf recently while tranquilizing wolves with darts to attach radio-tracking collars.
He saw another wolf with similar problems and had heard of two others but could not locate them.
Regardless, he will not treat them.
"We don't want to set a precedent of running in and doctoring sick wolves," he said. "It'll either make it or it won't."
Mange is common among coyotes and domestic dogs. It is caused by mites which burrow into the skin, causing itching, scratching and subsequent hair loss.
The disease is not fatal except indirectly because of possible infection and because animals will spend more time scratching than doing what they must to stay alive, Jiminez said. Also, afflicted wolves might not survive cold temperatures because of the hair loss.
Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the disease was deliberately introduced in Montana in the early part of the last century in an attempt to control free-ranging canines.
