Aerial flights have finally confirmed pups for two of the most remote of the wolf packs in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Two pups-of-the-year have been spotted with the new Thorofare Pack (the adult wolves are 30F and 35M).. Four pups have been seen in the new Washakie Pack, born to wolves 15M and 26F.

The Thorofare Pack is the most remote wolf pack in the GYE, inhabiting the upper Yellowstone River country. This is deep roadless wilderness toward the SE corner of Yellowstone Park and the adjacent Teton and Washakie Wilderness.  Some folks may remember that the alpha male of the Thorofare pack, no. 35, is the large black wolf who lost his mate to a hot spring in April 1996. His dead mate had been carrying six pups.  They had been called the "Lone Star pair" because they were released near Lone Star Geyser. After the loss of his mate, no. 35 ranged widely, even exploring eastern Idaho.  He finally meet lone wolf 30F, originally part of the Half Way pack in British Columbia and released from Yellowstone's Nez Perce enclosure in March 1996.  They seem to have paired in mid-summer somewhere in the Teton Wilderness and then moved to their remote site where they have remained since.

The Washakie Pack consists of no. 30F's sister, no. 26F and wolf no. 15M.  Number 26F too was part of the Half Way Pack in B.C. and released from Yellowstone's Nez Perce Pen in early 1996.  Number 15M was part of the original reintroduction in 1995. Captured in Alberta near Jasper National Park, no. 15 was released in Yellowstone as part of the Soda Butte Pack.  He became separated from his pack when it was captured in the early summer of 1996 to remove it from the Beartooth Front. He was later captured and put in the much-used Nez Perce Pen.  Upon his release in September 1996, no. 26F was nearby, apparently waiting. In fact, biologists were well aware of her presence nearby.  They quickly paired and eventually moved far to the SE of Yellowstone Park into the East Fork of the Wind River. In late winter, however, they moved to the DuNoir area about fifteen miles north of Dubois, Wyoming, and denned in a drainage on the Ramshorn, a prominent peak and ridge on the edge of the Washakie Wilderness.