ELGIN — Five goats were killed by at least one wolf in the Elgin area during a two-day period in late November, according to a report from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The first death was reported Nov. 27, when the owner reported that morning the animals had broken out of their night pen within a 44-acre private pasture. One goat was found dead and one was injured.

The morning of Nov. 28, four more goats in the Elgin area were found dead and two more were injured. The five dead goats, which each weighed 30 to 150 pounds, were two adult females, two yearling females and one kid.

ODFW determined wolf attacks were responsible for the goat deaths and injuries.

“The size, location and severity of injuries are consistent with wolf depredations,” according to the ODFW report.

GPS location data indicated a radio collared wolf was at or near the site of both attacks.

Both wolf attack events are attributed to the Balloon Tree Pack, according to the report.

Other attacks

The Balloon Tree Pack was responsible for killing 12 ewes and injuring two guard dogs protecting sheep north of Elgin earlier this fall, according to ODFW investigations.

That pack’s breeding pair produced pups for the first time in 2020, with at least three surviving through the end of that year.

An employee of a sheep rancher found three dead adult ewes on Sept. 29 on a private, timbered pasture, according to ODFW.

Officials from ODFW and from the federal USDA Wildlife Service agency arrived on Sept. 30 and found four more dead ewes.

Wildlife Service employees then found three more dead ewes on Oct. 1, and one dead and one injured ewe on Oct. 4. Workers euthanized the injured ewe that day.

All the sheep were in the same pasture. Officials estimated the sheep were attacked the night of Sept. 28.

ODFW employees examined seven sheep carcasses on Sept. 30, three on Oct. 1 and two on Oct. 4.

All suffered wounds before death, with tissue trauma up to 2 inches deep and tooth scrapes consistent with wolf attacks on sheep, according to ODFW reports.

On the morning of Oct. 1, a sheepherder found two injured Kangal guard dogs on an industrial timberland grazing allotment.

The herder told ODFW employees that at about 2 a.m. on Oct. 1 he heard an apparent fight between his guard dog and an unknown predator, with barking and growling.

Biologists examined both guard dogs.

One had a 6-inch-long area of matted blood on its throat and the left side of its neck that was dripping blood. The dog was agitated and could not be held for further examination, according to an ODFW report.