End of an Era, Druid alpha female 42F killed by other wolves

2-2-2004

The famous "Cinderella wolf," 42F, the alpha female of the Druid Peak Pack is dead.

Her mortality was confirmed today by Park wolf biologist Dan Stahler who found her bloody body from the air on the south side of Specimen Ridge.

Just last Saturday she and 21M and the rest of the Druids had been in Little America on a bison calf. She and 21M were seen mating for over 20 minutes. On Sunday, however, 21M was traveling alone and 42's radio signal could not be heard until Rick McIntrye picked it up faintly on mortality mode.

Stahler said that from the air her carcass looked a lot like 217F's with lots of blood, typical of a wolf kill rather than an elk-killed wolf. Already her body was being converted in raven and eagle.

Many wolves had been in the general Little America area lately and confrontations seemed likely given that it is the height of mating season.  The big surprise was the arrival of the brawny bison-eating Mollie's Pack from the deep snow Pelican Valley. They were seen in Little America too on Sunday, and today 7 of them were on the backside of Specimen Ridge not far from 42's carcass. The thinking is she was killed by Mollie's Pack, a great irony because 42F and the rest of the Druids drove Mollie's Pack (then named Crystal Creek pack) out of the Lamar Valley back in 1996.

There is a slight possibility she was called by the Agate Pack. Her carcass is in an area they frequent, but they were located some distance away.

Her death will shake up things in the Druid Pack. Again this winter, the Druid daughters are restless. The U-Black seems to have left the pack and the Half Black was seen mating with Slough Creek 378M.

42F was called the Cinderella wolf because of the years she suffered under her sister 40F, until finally 42F and one or more of 40F's daughters killed imperious 40F in May 2000.

"Number 40F, Druid Alpha Female, killed by her pack members." May 11, 2000.

Of the original Druid sisters 40F, 41F, and 42F, now only 41F survives. She is struggling with age, trying to keep up with her Sunlight Basin Pack east of the Park. 41F is also the last of the Yellowstone wolves, reintroduced from Canada, left alive.

Stahler said that 42's body would be examined on Feb. 3, or what was left after the scavengers. Perhaps her skull will be recovered, but new policy is that in general dead wolves in Yellowstone will be left to meld into the environment.

---

  Copyright © 2004  Ralph Maughan