by Judy Lehmberg, BioPics Photography, www.vernelehmberg.com
I know many of you know the history of wolves in Yellowstone but I have been thinking about them a lot since ‘06 was killed in December of 2013 by a Wyoming hunter. We lost a number of Yellowstone wolves to hunters that winter when wolves wandered outside the park. And now the number of adult wolves in the park is around 70, well less than half the number that were here a few years ago. It kills my soul to think about that. I watched, contributed, and hoped for the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone and now I feel the recent decline of Yellowstone wolves is a huge step backwards and is being aided by hunters outside the park.
The history: By the mid 1920s all Yellowstone wolves had been killed off. Once the wolves were gone elk populations increased and the vegetation, especially cottonwoods and aspens, declined accordingly. The park service began trapping and moving the elk and eventually killing some of them. It was enough to allow many elk to survive but the aspen and cottonwood did not recover, so the beaver population declined. The loss of wolves also caused an increase in coyotes that led to a decline in pronghorn antelope. Everything truly is connected to everything else.
In 1944 Aldo Leopold called for the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. Nothing happened. By the 1960s scientific understanding of ecosystems was changing attitudes towards wolves and the “Big Bad Wolf Syndrome” abated somewhat. The gray wolf was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1973. A plan for wolf recovery to Yellowstone was completed in 1980 but not much happened. A number of environmental groups began calling for Yellowstone wolf introduction and several people, notably Renee Askins who started the Wolf Fund dedicated their lives to getting wolves back to Yellowstone.
After years of political wrangling, lawsuits, countersuits, etc. wolves trapped in Canada were released into holding pens in January, 1995 in the northern part of Yellowstone. Wolves that never knew each other were enclosed in 3 fenced areas in the Lamar Valley. The release was timed to coincide with wolf mating in hopes the wolves would form families, packs, and a female in each group would become pregnant. The enclosures were opened in March, 1995 when pregnant females want to find a den site and give birth. This was all designed and timed to try to keep the wolves from going back to Canada. And it worked!! The wolves in each of the 3 enclosures did form packs and produced pups. One of the packs, the Rose Creek Pack, had an alpha male, number 10, and an alpha female, number 9. After they left their enclosure they also left the park. Number 10 was shot and killed by an idiot from Red Lodge, Montana around the time number 9 was trying to find a den and have her puppies. She ended out having her puppies in a little area she scraped under a tree outside the park. The park service wolf people found her and her puppies and returned them to her enclosure so they could bring her road kill. (She would not have been able to survive and hunt while taking care of her puppies alone.) She and her puppies were released from the enclosure that fall.
One of number 9’s pups was number 21. Twenty-one was my all time hero of a wolf and I still see vehicles in Yellowstone that have license plates that say “Wolf 21” or some variation. If you love wolves and were paying attention to Yellowstone wolves in the late 1990s and early 2000s you understand. Number 21 wasn’t the biggest, toughest wolf on the block but he got things done. He became the alpha male of the famous Druid Peak Pack. One year he got 3 of the Druid females pregnant (he didn’t read the wolf manual where it says one alpha male and one alpha female per pack) and they had 21 pups. The next year there were 37 Druid wolves, the largest wolf pack ever known to exist.
The Druid Peak Pack doesn’t even exist anymore but at one time they ruled the Lamar Valley and captured the hearts of thousands of wolf lovers. I have always thought that the number of wolf pups number 21 sired was just retribution for the guy who killed number 10, the father of 21. But it all makes me very sad to see how far we came with wolf reintroduction and what we have lost in the last years as hunters have killed so many Yellowstone wolves. I thought this was one battle we won, but I was wrong. We must find a way to make wolf hunting illegal.
Thank you for the brief history. I have followed the wolf saga since the re-introductions with #7, #9’s daughter from Alberta being my all-time favorite wolf. #7 founded the famed Leopold pack with
#2. Then there was the whole soap opera-like story with #40, #41, #42 and #21. I did get to see
#39 (such a beautiful white wolf) and the sisters #40-42 and in 2003 #21 and #42 before they died in 2004. #21 is also my hero.
And there other signature wolves: I advise others to look into the whole interesting history!
Was it #253 (“Limpy”?) who traveled all the way to Utah and was brought back to the Druids?
And #302 (Casanova)…I was fortunate to take several classes through the Institute with Doug Smith and his books as well as Jim Halfpenny’s are great.
I haven’t been back in over 5 years but will be there in late September to take another class. It’s been too long!
And I do enjoy your and Deby’s posts–it’s how I keep up!
Thank you for your comments. I loved the soap opera story of 40, 41, 42 and 21. I didn’t find out that 21 had died until almost 6 months after his death. I knew he had to be near the end so I purposely didn’t look at any website that might have information about him. The last time I saw him, the summer before his death, he was carrying a young sandhill crane back up to his pups. I great provider to the end, even if he couldn’t bring down the big animals then. I was sorry it was a sandhill, my favorite bird, but was glad he was still taking care of his family. Maybe we will run into you in September?
This brought tears to my eyes. Thank God that the park service intervened and brought #9 back to the enclosure to raise her pups or many people would never have gotten to witness the rise and fall of the Druids. I never saw those wolves and with the way hunting is going I may never experience those wonders. Thank you for this Judy.
You are right Deby, the Druids wouldn’t have existed it the park service hadn’t brought #9 and her pups back to the enclosure. And thank for pointing out ’06 was killed in Dec, 2012 not 2013. I think ’06 is #21’s great grand daughter? She acted like she had some of his genes. If you are interested in the whole story read the book in Barbara’s comment. I thought it would make me feel better to write this, but it just makes me feel worse, although as I am typing this the wolf plane flew over our trailer. It reminds there would be zero wolves in Yellowstone if it weren’t for the dedication of many people and the continued resilience of wolves. Thank you!
Judy I am reading “The Killing of Wolf Number Ten,” by Thomas McNamee and I am at the part of the book where Chad McKittrick has shot and killed #10 and #9 is on her own. After all these wolves, and the others, went through to survive the bureaucratic release/not release (they were kenneled for 38 hours) and a hunter destroys/changes history. I wonder what could have happened if #10 would have survived. As you stated ’06 was killed in 2013 by a hunter so we learned nothing when #10 was killed. My family and I were visiting Lamar Valley for a few days in early June and were fortunate to see two wolves running together on the far side of the river. They had spooked a herd of antelope. My son, thirteen, was in awe at the sight of these truly beautiful wild animals. What can we do to stop this senseless killing for trophies. This needs to stop.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments Barbara. I just finished reading McNamee’s book. That is what got me to thinking about all of this. As I said in the comment above I think it is the best account of the reintroduction, and I have read them all. You were lucky to see wolves in June. It is getting harder to see them with their numbers so low.
I just ordered the book. Thanks for the recommendation, Barbara and Judy.