Big pup was shot and now Nez Perce wolf 72M with 237F
The Green River Pack has been terminated. Only the alpha female, 237F, was spared.. Her newest male companion (apparently yet another disperser from Teton Pack) was killed along with her pups this time.
According to USFWS latest "Gray Wolf Progress Report" they believed that every time 237F paired with a new male, they started killing cattle. To prevent the loss of cattle the latest new male and the livestock-conditioned pups were killed. The alpha female will apparently get a new chance (and probably with hook up with another dispersing male this winter). I don't have figure on how many cattle they are thought to have killed this summer and fall. The cattle are now gone from the area until next June.
The upper Green River area has been a place where a fairly large number of cattle have been killed, although mostly by the much harder to replace grizzly bears.
Update Nov 3. All these new alpha males coming to join 237 and then being shot by the government. . . It turns out that the last male wolf shot was a different story. Last April wolf 237F and her original mate 162M had a litter of 5 pups, and yes the pack began to kill some cattle. 162M was shot. Later, dispersing Teton Pack wolf 267M joined 237F and the story was repeated. Her final "companion," however, was not yet another dispersing male, it was her very large pup, and perhaps her only surviving pup from last April.
Wyoming USFWS wolf manager Mike Jimenez saw fewer pups in the Green River Pack as the season progressed. It is likely they died of any number of things. For example, the area is full of grizzly bears, there are also cougar in the area, and a lone female has a hard time protecting the pups. There might have also been parvo-virus. Perhaps one or more were illegally shot. One pup did survive, however, and prospered so well he looked like an adult wolf.
I was technically right when I said the government shot the remaining pups, but it should not have been in the plural.
- Now there is yet another amazing development. As a recent story indicates, the Nez Perce Pack is missing again. Perhaps it is disintegrating. Yes. 237F does have yet another new adult companion. He is wolf 72M, long thought to maybe be the alpha male of the Nez Perce Pack of central Yellowstone. He was born way back in 1996 on the Rocky Mountain Front in northern Montana. He and his brother and sister pups were taken from their pack and brought to Yellowstone and held with a collection of recaptured original Nez Perce wolves. When released in 1997 all but 2 of these 9 now-yearlings did poorly. The two survivors were 70M and 72M who stayed with the pack and prospered, building the pack to a high of 24 wolves.
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