The wolf pack that suddenly left Yellowstone has unfortunately killed about five cow calves near Sage Creek (south of Dillon). Now federal trappers want to return them to Yellowstone Park where they had been since their release from the Nez Perce pen last June.

The sudden dispersal of the pack has been attributed to number 27F, who appears to have regained the status of the pack's alpha female. She may  have been seeking a mate through dispersal.  No. 27 is an older wolf, captured in B.C. in 1996, and who is the mother of no. 29M and 37F in the pack.

In 1996, while trying to feed five pups that she whelped alone, number 27 killed about 12 sheep on the Beartooth Front near Nye, Montana.  Under the "two strikes" policy on livestock killing, she will now be killed.

Number 27 is not only the mother of 29 and 37, but also of no. 30F, now the alpha female of the Thorofare Pack, and number 26F, alpha female of the Washakie Pack. One of her pups born near Nye, no. 48F was recently located as a long wolf in Yellowstone's Thorofare country.  The fate of her other two pups born near Nye, nos. 49? and 50? is unknown.

The to-be-captured pack (which has not been given a name), also includes three of the Sawtooth yearlings and probably three pups-of-the-year born to no. 29 and 37. Government agents hope that with the absence of number 27, who has been a wanderer since the moment her pack was first released in March 1996, this new pack will remain in Yellowstone.

Readers will find numerous stories about the wanderings of no. 27 and the difficulty capturing her in my 1996 files.
 

 

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