Female wolf number 17 of the Chief Joseph Pack has been found dead in the northwest corner of Yellowstone Park in Fawn Creek. She apparently was killed when she ran into a sharp branch while chasing elk. The stick penetrated her chest and killed her. For those who have done much hiking where there is dead, fallen timber, you will understand how such an accident could happen.

It turns out that number 17 was found literally impaled on a branch. She had been dead a week or two when her carcass was finally located.

It turns out that no. 17 gave birth to five pups last May at her den near Gardiner, Montana, not just one as reported earlier. The pups have reportedly remained with no. 17's mate, no 34M.

Number 17's sister, no 16F, has now been identified as having five pups also. Her den is in Daly Creek in the extreme NW corner of the Park. I do not know if no 16 has joined with no. 34M since her sister's death. If she has, that would make a pack of 12 wolves in the NW corner of the Park.

Both no. 16 and 17 were born on Mount Maurice in April 1995, shortly after Chad McKittrick shot their father, wolf number 10. They, and their six brothers and sisters, were brought back to Yellowstone and raised in the Rose Creek pen with their mother, the now-famous no. 9F. When released, she and her pups soon joined with no. 8M of the Crystal Creek Pack to establish the very successful Rose Creek Pack, which despite dispersers such as 16 and 17, now numbers 21 wolves.

In other wolf news, one more pup has been observed with the Crystal Creek Pack. The alpha female, no. 5F, therefore gave birth to at least two pups -- her first known litter since she was brought to the Park from Alberta in 1995.

The size of the litters with the Thorofare Pack and the Waskakie Pack still have not been determined. Both are in remote locations. The Washakie Pack is the only pack that is located entirely outside of Yellowstone Park. It is on the southern boundary of the Washakie Wilderness about ten miles north of Dubois, Wyoming.

Not all Yellowstone wolves can be located because some are not collared and others may have dispersed beyond tracking range, but the wolf total including the recent deaths is about 90 animals.

The new pack which fortunately remained together after its release from the Nez Perce Pen in June has remained in the Hayden Valley, and it has been observed by tourists. This pack lost one of its members recently when it (a Sawtooth yearling, no. 66) was killed by a hit-and-run driver on the Grand Loop Road between Canyon and Norris Junction.