Current Numbers: 5
Status: Active. Designated in 2017.
After public reports of wolves in the area, the pack was discovered in 2017. The pair produced at least four pups that survived to the end of the year. In 2018, the pack produced at least three pups that survived to the end of the year. All of the members of this pack are uncollared, after OR64 dispersed in April 2018.
In 2019, the pair raised at least two pups that were counted in the annual survey. In April 2020, an Oregon rancher legally shot a wolf that was believed to be a member of this pack. In eastern Oregon, a landowner may legally shoot a wolf caught in the act of chasing, biting, or wounding livestock.
The 2020 annual survey did not detect any pups, and the pack was not counted as a breeding pair. ODFW reported radio-collar location data with a 459 square mile use area for the pack: 70% of location data points located on public lands and 30% on private lands.
The pack reproduced during 2021, but no pups survived to the end of the year, so the pack was not considered a successful breeding pair. Four wolves were documented in this pack during the winter count. A collared two-year-old female of the pack was killed by other wolves in April. Wolves are territorial, and intraspecific strife can occur where wolf packs overlap each other.
In 2022, the Middle Fork Pack produced five pups that survived until the end of the year. The pack was counted as a breeding pair, with eight wolves documented during the winter count.
In 2023, the Middle Fork Pack produced at least two pups that survived until the end of the year and was counted as a breeding pair, with 11 wolves in the pack.
The Middle Fork Pack was not a breeding pair in 2024. A total of five wolves, no juveniles, were documented during the winter count.
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