HALFWAY — A wolf or wolves from the Cornucopia pack inflicted fatal injuries on a working dog on a cattle ranch near Halfway this week.

And a state wildlife biologist who monitors wolves in Baker County said wolves from the Cornucopia and Keating packs — a total of at least 15 animals — have been making some unusual movements over the past month or so.

“It makes it harder to predict what’s going to happen, and it makes it harder on producers,” said Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Baker City office.

Six wolves — three from each pack — are fitted with GPS tracking collars, but Ratliff said that in the past week or so two of those collars, one from each pack, ceased working.

The collars don’t allow anything approaching real-time information about the wolves’ location, Ratliff said.

(He said that uploading data from the collars to satellites uses a considerable amount of the collar’s battery power, so if they reported the location frequently the collars wouldn’t last long.)

The collars typically report their location once a day although sometimes more often — the time varies to give a wider range of data — which is usually enough to allow Ratliff to spot trends and, when necessary, to alert ranchers that wolves have been frequenting a specific area.

That’s been the case recently in the north end of the Eagle Valley, north of Richland, Ratliff said.

Ranchers have frequently been hazing wolves in that area. Ratliff said he has hazed wolves there as well.

So far there have been no reports of wolves attacking livestock in that area, he said on Thursday, March 17.

The fatal attack on the working dog, a 40-pound heeler, happened across the divide in the south end of Pine Valley, near Pine Town Lane.

The dog’s owner found the animal by its kennel the morning of Tuesday, March 15, Ratliff said.

The dog died later, after being treated by a veterinarian, and Ratliff said the owner, after burying the animal, called ODFW.

Ratliff said the dog was disinterred and, after examining its wounds on Wednesday, March 16, he confirmed that it had been attacked by a wolf or wolves.

He said it’s not certain where the attack happened, but he doesn’t think the dog, given the severity of its injuries, could have traveled very far after the attack.

According to the ODFW depredation report, the dog had “premortem bite punctures to the head and throat with associated muscle tissue trauma. Bruising of the hide and muscle trauma were found on the back, hips, and groin. The location and size of the tooth marks are consistent with wolf attack injuries on dogs.”

According to the report, radio collar data from a yearling male wolf from the Cornucopia pack placed the wolf a half-mile from the ranch where the dog lived, at 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on March 15.