Friday, July 18, 2008 - Page updated at 03:00 PM

AP Newsbreak: WA biologists capture two wolves

Biologists say they have captured two wolves in western Okanogan County and fitted both with radio collars to track their movements and learn more about them.

YAKIMA, Wash. —

Biologists say they have captured two wolves in western Okanogan County and fitted both with radio collars to track their movements and learn more about them.

State Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Madonna Luers says the biologists also took hair samples Friday for DNA testing to confirm the wolves are not hybrid animals.

But she says one of the wolves was a lactating female nursing pups, and that domesticated hybrid animals are not known to reproduce in the wild.

Test results are expected back in a couple of weeks. If the animals are confirmed to be actual wild wolves, they would be the first reproducing pack in Washington state since they were eradicated in the 1930s.

Washington state Fish and Wildlife biologists were assisted by wolf experts from Idaho in the captures.

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