A pack of Anchorage wolves has killed two pet dogs and attacked three others in the past two weeks while their owners were walking them, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Three attacks have occurred since Nov. 28, and the wolves stalked but didn't attack a pair of dogs in a fourth incident Saturday on a gravel road northwest of the Elmendorf Air Force Base flight line.
The first attack took place Nov. 28, when Kirsten Kidd and Perry Crane were walking three dogs near Eklutna around midday, according to a statement by Fish and Game. A large black wolf appeared on the trail about 50 yards ahead of them, and Shellbee, a pointer mix, took off after it, followed closely by the other two dogs, a Saint Bernard and a golden retriever.
When the wolves attacked Shellbee, the other two dogs ran back and Kidd, Crane and the two dogs backed away down the trail.
Wildlife officials found Shellbee's chewed collar in a nearby trampled, bloodstained area two days later.
A second attack occurred after dark Dec. 4. Korah Heagy and her border collie were on a lighted loop of the Beach Lake trail system in Chugiak when a gray wolf appeared on the trail ahead. The collie rushed the wolf but retreated after a brief fight when Heagy called it, Fish and Game's statement says. The collie was not injured.
Another fatal attack took place about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, when Lisa Hubert was walking her Nova Scotia duck-tolling retriever on Artillery Road near the Eagle River gate on Fort Richardson. Her dog barked once in the dark and disappeared. Hubert caught a glimpse of one wolf streaking across the road.
Hubert and her husband, Kim, returned the next morning and found their dog's head and collar about 50 yards off the road.
The pack, known as the Elmendorf pack because it frequents the base, is made up of one black wolf and up to five gray wolves, according to military wildlife agents.
A pack of wolves near Fairbanks has killed three dogs in recent weeks.
Fish and Game officials say wolf attacks on dogs seem to increase in winters with little or no snow. Biologists say that may be because moose are harder for wolves to kill when there's little snow to bog them down and make them easier targets.
See tomorrow's print edition of the Daily News for full coverage of this story.
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