I did an earlier story about the accidental trapping of R24F in a snare meant for a grizzly bear. She is the alpha female, and the only adult wolf in the new Teton Pack. Her younger mate (no. 133M) was killed on the nearby highway early this summer.
When she was removed from the snare, she was examined and weighed. Her weight was only 70 pounds -- about 20 or 30 pounds less than expected for an adult female wolf in the area. Her teeth were also badly damaged. Ed Bangs was quoted in the Jackson Hole News speculating that her tooth damage probably happened when the Soda Butte Pack was held in a pen back in the summer of 1996 when she was a yearling wolf. "My guess us that as a yearling she chewed on the wire at the time and damaged her teeth," Bangs told the News.
Under political pressure, the Soda Butte Pack had been removed from the Beartooth Front back in 1996, despite ideal wolf behavior. The pack, which then consisted of alpha female 14F, alpha male 13M ("Old Blue"), yearling 24F, and pups 43M and 44F, was penned for about four months. They were first in the old Crystal Creek Pen and then in a new enclosure at Trail Creek, across Yellowstone Lake in the remote SE corner of the Park. Here is a link to that 1996 story -- "The Soda Butte Pack including 3 new pups is captured." Here is one about their release from the enclosure in Oct. 1996. "Soda Butte Pack is re-released." Despite the pressure, no. 24 has been a model wolf, a wolf that sought food from a bear snare where human scent was present rather than attack the nearby livestock. In early August, about two weeks ago, wildlife officials decided to provide her with supplemental food due to her low weight, coupled with her tooth damage, stress from being in the snare, and five growing pups to feed.
Since the supplemental feeding program has begun, there has been a lack of road-kill for her, according to the August 11 issue of the Jackson Hole News. Grand Teton National Park reports that during the typical summer an elk, deer or moose is killed on Park roads about every other day. Since the supplemental feeding was ordered, however, there has been only one elk and one deer road-killed. She has been feeding on the carcasses, but so have coyotes and bears.
The area near Uhl Hill and Elk Ranch where her pack resides is notable for the number of grizzly bears. Last winter I saw coyotes every time I visited the area.
This all takes place next to 950 cow/calf pairs of livestock. In fact, a calf was recently found dead and eaten at Elk Ranch by a grizzly bear. It turned out the grizzly ate a calf that had died of natural causes. However, there have been two earlier grizzly kills of calves this summer in the Elk Ranch area.
Of course, this again suggests the question, why are cows allowed to graze in one of America's greatest national parks and so threaten our most magnificent wildlife?
Added 8-25. Here is an AP story on No. 24 and her pups. It appears to be a rewrite of a recent story that was in the Jackson Hole Guide, a weekly which is not on-line. The Guide story also had photos of her and her pups.
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