Link To New Article On Death Of Alpha Female #42

Wolf Delisting News

Wolves Battle Over Territory

Click Here to read Billings Gazette article-----"And then there was 1: matriarch wolf dies"

When I first learned that #42 had been killed I felt tremendous sorrow. Sorrow for all the harsh years she endured under the tyranny of her domineering sister. Sorrow for her beloved mate, #21, who right from the start always treated her with the kindness and affection she deserved. And sorrow that her reign as Alpha of the Druids came to such a brutal end.

You'd think that after all these years one would be prepared to accept that any wolf can be taken from us at any time, but somehow it never seems to get any easier. And the deaths of certain wolves just seem to hit people harder than others. #42 was a very special wolf among wolves and anyone who knew her will tell you this. She will be deeply missed not only by her packmates but by the many, many people whose hearts and lives she touched through the years.

I have not updated this page in nearly 2 years and the reasons for this are many, but one reason is because there seems to be very little good news to write about anymore. The glory days of the wolf recovery program are long over and because the wolves have met the 3 year criteria for being delisted from "endangered" to "threatened", the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service will soon be turning over the management of the wolves to 3 states, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

The plans from Montana and Idaho have already been approved but Wyoming's plan was rejected. A big part of this rejection was due to it allowing for far too many wolves to be "shot on sight" or be killed by other means, such as blowing up dens. In their original plan Wyoming had classified the wolves as "trophy game" and "predators", depending on what land they were found on. Their plan sounds more like it would jeopardize the very survival of the wolves rather than trying to manage them.

The following is an excerpt from one of the articles listed below.

"Under the Wyoming plan, wolves would be protected in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and subjected to regulated hunting as trophy game in adjacent wilderness areas. But outside the parks and wilderness areas, the wolves would be classified as predators that could be shot on sight or killed through other means such as those employed against coyotes".

Until a lawsuit that Wyoming has filed against the federal government for rejecting their plan is settled the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service will retain control of the wolves in all 3 states.
Below are links to 2 stories pertaining to Wyoming's ongoing battle with the government.

Wyoming lawmakers reject compromise plan on wolves

Final Wolf Management Bill Dies

Because of the tremendous success of the wolf reintroduction program in and around Yellowstone National Park, there seems to be very little land left for new wolf packs to find territories.

This lack of space has not only led to the deaths of many lone wolves caught offguard and ill-prepared, it has also led to pack boundaries being crossed and serious territorial battles waged between rival packs.

There are presently at least 5 packs all vying for territorial rites to land from the Lamar Valley to the original Rose Creek pack's old territory, including the upper and lower Slough Creek areas.

One example of just how serious this has become may be the tragic death of Alpha female #42. Her death probably occurred when she was briefly separated from her pack and encountered an old rival pack.

#42 is believed to have been killed by Mollies Pack (formally the Crystal Creek pack) during one of the packs seasonal excursions into the Lamar Valley from the Pelican Valley, where ironically, it was exiled to back in 1996 by the then newly arrived Druid Peak pack.

But revenge was probably not the motive for the killing of #42 since she was the sole surviving wolf from both 1996 packs and therefore did not know her attackers, nor they her.

It's more likely that the current members of Mollies pack know prime territory when they see it and it doesn't get much better than the Lamar Valley and its surrounding area. The pack's recent and increasing forays into the Lamar could mean that it may be planning a coup to try to reclaim the same territory once roamed by its founders.

Although this is old news by now I'm writing it for those who did not hear about it.

In the spring and winter of 2002, another heartbreaking battle over territory claimed the lives of both Alphas of the Leopold Pack in separate attacks.

The Alpha female of that pack, #7F was wolf #9's Canadian-born daughter who had dispersed almost immediately upon release from the Rose Creek acclimation pen in March 1995. #7F was believed to be either 8 or 9 years old when she was killed in May 2002.

The Alpha male of the pack, #2M was an original member of the 1995 Crystal Creek pack (now called Mollies Pack) who had also dispersed soon after the pack's release from the Crystal Creek acclimation pen.

Male #2 was killed sometime near the end of 2002. He was 8 years old.

These 2 wolves were the last surviving wolves from the 1995 reintroduction. (Presuming that #9 has passed on)

A brief history of the pack

The Leopold pack was Yellowstone's first pack to freely form in the fall/ winter of 1995-1996, several months after female #7 left her pack and male #2 dispersed from his.

Together they claimed a relatively small, but beautiful and game plentiful piece of land in a remote corner of the Park called the Blacktail Deer Plateau.

Female #7 had her first litter in April 1996 and continued to have litters every year. The pack never got into any trouble with livestock, kept a safe distance from rival packs and were considered one of the most stable and well behaved wolf packs in all of Yellowstone.

But as the off-shoots of the Druid pack grew and more new packs were formed, the Leopold pack was driven further and further to the outer limits of its territory. The pack found itself surrounded by both new and old established packs on all sides. A confrontation was inevitable.

After the death of his lifelong mate, apparently male #2 was unable to recover. His behavior appeared irratic and disorganized to observers. #2 was seen alone and miles away from the rest of the pack on more than one occasion and it soon became clear that he had lost his Alpha status.

He was occasionally seen with a few other wolves, but he was last seen wandering alone in an area known to be inhabited by 2 new packs, and one night soon after that he apparently wandered into one of the pack's territories and was killed.

It is believed that female #7 and male #2 were both killed by the same pack. The new Geode pack which is headed by ex-Druid female #106 was believed to be in the area at the time of both deaths.

Two other famous wolves known to have been killed by rival wolfpacks in the spring of 2003 and in late January of 2004 include ex- Druid female #105, and a younger ex-Druid female known by wolf watchers as "half-black".

"Half-black" was born in either 2000 or 2001 and dispersed from the Druid Peak pack in late fall 2003 to mate with a male from the Slough Creek pack.

Biologists speculate that "half-black" probably followed her new mate up into an area bordering on the Slough's territory and was confronted by the pack and killed. Her body was discovered on January 31, 2004.

Female #105 was one of 5 pups born into the Druid Peak pack in 1997. She was the sister of female #103 and female #106.

Female #105 (who had just given birth to her first litter) is believed to have been killed in late April or early May 2003 by the Rose Creek pack in a rivalry that dates back to a year before her birth.

That is when the famous 1996 territorial battle between the Rose Creek pack and the new Druid Peak pack took place right in front of hundreds of onlookers. The Rose Creek pack, who was the Park's dominent pack back then, ultimately won that battle and the only known fatality was (sadly) one of the 1995 pups, #20M.

A "non-territorial" accident claimed the life of yet another famous ex- Druid on March 28th.

Female #103 who was a founding member of the new Agate pack was found dead early Sunday morning. She was apparently struck and killed by a vehicle near Tower Junction, a few miles west of the Park. She was found along with 2 other wolves and all three were pronounced dead at the scene.

Female #103, who had a non-working collar, was thought to be missing from her pack for quite some time and biologists presumed that she had either died of natural causes or had been killed by other wolves, so it came as quite a surprise when her body was discovered early on the morning of the 28th.

#103F was one of 5 pups born in April 1997 to either deceased Alpha female #40, or most likely to her now-deceased sister, beloved #42F and #38, the pack's original Alpha male. #38M and the Beta male of the pack, #31M, were both gunned down by poachers in late December 1997 after the pack had taken a short foray out of the Park.

It was right after this that a very young, brave male called #21M, who was the last of the famous 1995 Rose Creek pack pups to disperse, approached the pack and was soon accepted as its new Alpha male.

Female #103 had at least one litter sired by Alpha male #21 before she dispersed from the pack in 2002 and helped form the Agate pack.

Since any future updates I post will likely be sporadic please visit Ralph Maughan's website. for up-to-date reports on all Yellowstone and Idaho wolf related news.