History of the Greater Yellowstone wolf restoration

How the Wolves were restored to the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem-

By Ralph Maughan
Copyright ©

The original wild wolves in Yellowstone were deliberately killed by the federal government during the period when it was government policy to exterminate the wolf everywhere, even inside national parks. The last wild wolves in the Park were killed in 1924 when two pups were killed near the hot spring cone, Soda Butte, near the mouth of the Soda Butte Creek Valley in the NE corner of the Park. A few wolves persisted in Wyoming until 1943 when the last was shot in the Owl Creek Mountains on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Even after this time, occasionally one or two wild wolves did migrate into NW Wyoming, but there is no evidence that they successfully formed packs. From an ecological standpoint, such lone wolves had no influence on the functioning of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

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THE 1995 WOLF REINTRODUCTION AND THEIR FATE

After a long and heated debate which lasted almost a decade, in January 1995, fourteen wolves were captured in Rocky Mountains of western Alberta and brought to Yellowstone National Park. Fifteen additional wolves were captured and sent to central Idaho. The Yellowstone-bound wolves were placed in three “acclimation” enclosures (large pens). Each was about an acre in size, and they were all located in, or near, the Lamar Valley in the northeast part of the Park. The three enclosures were the Rose Creek, Crystal Creek Bench, and Soda Butte enclosures.

The wolves were released after three months of acclimation. Each pack was named after the enclosure that had been their acclimation pen. So the three packs were named the Rose Creek Pack, Crystal Creek Pack, and Soda Butte Pack. Late in 1995 the Leopold Pack formed naturally when two of the 1995 wolves paired. It was the first naturally formed wolf pack in the Yellowstone area since the 1920s.

All of the original wolves were given numbers, R2 through R15, with an M or F added to indicate sex, e.g., wolf R10M. The wolves were checked for many diseases, vaccinated, and then radio-collared. Minor surgery was even done on one wolf to repair a natural injury in Alberta.

The process of holding the wolves together for three months, acquainting them with the local diet, local sounds and smells, and giving them time to mate, was termed “soft release”. The soft-release method was in contrast to the method used with the Idaho wolves — “hard release.”

In Idaho the wolves were taken to the release site and the doors to their portable kennels opened. The wolves entered the unfamiliar and deep central Idaho Wilderness immediately. The Idaho wolves (numbered B2 through B16) were, therefore, roaming inside the winter wilds of central Idaho by mid-January 1995. Release of the Yellowstone wolves did not begin until late March of that year. March is still very winter-like inside Yellowstone National Park.

When the 3 Yellowstone packs were released, at first they didn’t move far; but then they made wide explorations, which when averaged, was generally to the north. Only the Crystal Creek Pack settled inside the Park, although the other two were physically returned to the Park — the Rose Creek Pack early on and the Soda Butte over a year later. See the individual pack histories below.

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The History of the first four Yellowstone wolf packs 1995-1998

The first four packs date from 1995. Three of these packs came from the enclosures, and one pack formed naturally near the end of the year. Below is their history from 1995 through 1998.

THE ROSE CREEK PACK – 1995
It originally consisted of wolves R7F, R9F, and R10M.
This was an artificial pack in the sense that the three wolves were not from the same wolf pack in Alberta. The black adult female, no. 9F and her reddish-brown pup, no. 7F were from one pack. The large, and bold gray male, no. 10M, was from another. It was hoped 9 and 10 would mate. In fact no. 9 was in estrus when placed in the Rose Creek pen. After a couple hours of growling at each other, 9 and 10 did accept one another and they eventually mated that January.

Nine and ten split from number 7
Upon release, 9 and 10 soon separated from no. 7 (or perhaps it was the other way around). Number 7, who was only a yearling, generally remained in the Park’s northern reaches, where she soon became aware of wolf R2M, the most timid of the nearby newly-released Crystal Creek Pack. But things would change for both no. 7 and no. 2 in about nine months.

Number 9F, pregnant, migrated with no. 10M northward from the Park, over the very rugged and snowbound Beartooth Mountains, to a mountain (Mount Maurice) just above the town of Red Lodge, Montana. This mountain was the last in the Beartooth Range before the Montana plains.

Number 10 is shot while number 9 whelps eight pups 
There on Mount Maurice number 9 stayed looking to den while her mate explored the arid, abandoned coal-mining country just below the mountain to the east in Bear Creek. Unfortunately for no. 10, he was gunned down on April 24, 1995 by Chad McKittrick, a local who was out bear hunting, had gotten his rig stuck in the mud at Bear Creek and saw the wolf.

Her mate did not return and no. 9 gave birth to 8 pups underneath a pine tree on the mountain slope. She had not dug a den for them. It was on private land. Although there was some discussion about letting her raise her litter with biologists bringing her supplementary food, her proximity to Red Lodge and their presence on private land made raising a litter on Mount Maurice problematic. Consider that the wolves were not really expected to have pups the first year. The eight pups were a great unexpected bonus. In fact they were 1/3 of the Yellowstone wolf population. Finally, prospects for another batch of 15 wolves from Canada in 1996 and 1997, as originally envisioned, were far from certain due to deteriorating political conditions in Congress. Therefore, the survival of her pups was vital.

It was decided an attempt would be made to raise them all summer back in the Rose Creek pen. They were captured, but it wasn’t easy because 9F had found a rock cave as shelter for her pups. It was almost by luck that it was found.

Capturing them turned out to be a good decision. Her eight pups (four of which were still alive as of July 1998, and still 2 or 3 in Oct. 2000) helped create the Park’s first big wolf pack.

Life back in the Rose Creek enclosure in Yellowstone 
No. 9 and her pups thrived in the pen, although there was a near disaster — an August windstorm blew some large Douglas fir trees down across the pen, allowing the pups to escape. Most of the pups were recaptured and returned to the pen, but the rest remained nearby, were fed, and kept out of trouble even though grizzly bears were beginning to show interest in the den area. The pups also became acquainted with wolf R8M, a sub-adult male from the Crystal Creek Pack, who was ready to disperse from his pack — to leave his pack.

National Park Service Photo
One of the Rose Creek Pups in the summer of 1995.

Rose Creek gets a new alpha male, wolf R8 
Upon the release of no. 9 and her pups in mid-October 1995, no. 8 quickly joined, completing the pack. He got a big boost in wolf social status by both completing the pack and becoming the alpha male in the Park’s largest pack — ten wolves. With the exception of one of the pups (no. 22) that ran into a UPS delivery truck during the winter months, the greatly-enlarged Rose Creek Pack prospered throughout the winter and the spring of 1996.

In May 1996, no. 9F gave birth to three more pups at her den site on the lower Lamar River, about a mile upstream from its confluence with the Yellowstone.

1996-1997: Rose Creek dominates the northern part of Yellowstone but now with competition from the aggressive Druid Peak Pack-

The Rose Creek Pack was by far the largest pack of the three released. It had eleven members in Oct. 1996, despite deaths and dispersals. The Pack had 22 members in June 1997!

The pack was visible to Park wolf watchers throughout the spring, early summer, and then the fall and winter of 1996. As the fall of 1998 approached, Rose Creek still had about 20 members.

In June 1996, the Rose Creek Pack had a dramatic territorial battle with the newly introduced (1996) Druid Peak wolf pack. This took place in Slough Creek right in front of many Park wolf watchers. The Druid Peak pack was driven off, but another of the 1995 pups (no. 20M, by then a yearling) was killed as a consequence of the fight between the packs. It seems that 20M, a too-enthusiastic youngster, pursued the fleeing, but very aggressive Druids too far by himself.

Throughout 1996 and late winter and spring of 1997 the huge pack dominated the lower Lamar Valley, Buffalo Plateau and Slough Creek. After June 1997 the pack was not visible to the public, however. Its pattern changed. It moved up onto the wilderness top of the Buffalo Plateau, but that fall (October 1997) they returned to the lower elevations, and occupied Slough Creek, the lower Lamar Valley, the west side of Specimen Ridge, Hellroaring Creek, and the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone. There numbers had dropped from 21 to 15. A number of pups had perished, almost certainly of natural causes. The summer of 1997 had been hard for a pack with many mouths to feed. Ironically, the reason for this was that the previous winter had been very good for wolves due to the hardship of the abundant elk who perishing by the thousands in a severe winter. The pack went from feast on winter-killed and weak elk, to relative hardship with a smaller surviving elk population.

Once again, the pack became were quite visible, but the viewing interest of most Park visitors had by then shifted to the almost always visible new Druid Peak Pack which hung out near the confluence of Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River where it is easy to watch wolves.

As a sidelight, we were fortunate to spend most of one grand October 1997 day on Specimen Ridge with the Rose Creek pack all around us, howling, chasing elk, and in general providing we humans a great show.

The 1995 pups, grown, begin to disperse, but others remain and more pups are born to Rose Creek-

During the winter of 1996-7, some of the pups of 1995, now almost two years old, began to disperse. No. 23M (uncollared) dispersed and was never again tracked. No. 16F dispersed and mated with no. 34M, a wolf brought from British Columbia in early 1996 and who had been part of the new Chief Joseph Pack.. No. 17F also dispersed and mated with the same wolf no. 34. The two females denned in widely separate locations and each whelped five pups in April 1997.

Number 19F remained with the pack, and in April 1997, she denned, whelped a litter from an unknown mate from another pack, but she was soon killed (probably by the nearby Druid Peak pack) and her tiny pups soon died of malnutrition and exposure.

In the spring of 1997, wolf 9F, by now the Park’s most famous wolf, chose a den in full view of the NE entrance road. In early May, thousands of folks saw her and her seven pups before she moved the den to a less visible location in mid-May. Her daughter no. 18F, also mated with 8F. Number 18′s den site was a more isolated one under a rock near the Lamar River. She outdid her mother and whelped eleven pups! Unfortunately for number 9, none of her 7 pups survived, in part because of the location of her den. More on the fate of no. 9F’s 1997 litter.

In June the big pack moved back up onto the Buffalo Plateau on the northern boundary of the Park and stayed there, out of sight, until October when they returned again to lower Lamar River/Slough Creek area.

Late 1997-1998 
In November 1997, Rose Creek wolf no. 21M, one of 1995 pups, dispersed. He briefly paired with female wolf no. 39F, who had once been the alpha female the rival Druid Peak Pack; but he soon seized the opportunity of actually joining the rival Druid Pack and becoming its alpha male. This was possible because both of the adult males in the Druid Pack had been illegally shot that November when the Druids made a foray to the east of the Park.

Shortly after the dispersal no 21M, one of the 1996 Rose Creek pups, no. 52M, dispersed too and joined with another former member of the Druid Peak Pack, no. 41F. They became known as the Sunlight Pair and lived in the Sunlight Basin area outside, east of the Park. By the end of 1997, of the original 1995 pups, only 18F remained with her mother, stepfather, and newer brothers and sisters in the Rose Creek Pack.

Article on the fate of eight pups born to no. 9 and 10 in April 1995. Updated to November 2001.

1998-

In 1998 both no. 9 and no. 18 denned together. They jointly produced eleven more pups. It is not possible to say which pups belonged to which mother, but by late May the Rose Creek Pack was back to an incredible 24 wolves! During the summer of 1998, like 1997, they remained out of sight on the Buffalo Plateau. The pack returned to the lower Lamar, Slough Creek country in October 1998.

Almost all of the pups survived 1998, with the size of pack reported at 22 in December 1998. Nos 8 and 9 were still the alpha pair, although 9′s formerly black coat had turned to silvery gray except for her ears and tail. In late 1998, their territory was the Yellowstone River between Hellroaring Creek and the confluence of the Lamar River plus the expansive Slough Creek drainage in the Park and to its north. Number 53M of the pack was a distinctive black wolf. He was nicknamed “Chow,” for the big ruff of fur around his neck. It made him look very powerful.

THE SODA BUTTE PACK- 1995
They were released in Soda Butte Creek, but they did not linger near their 1995 release pen in Soda Butte Creek. Like no. 9F and 10M from Rose Creek, they also explored the country north of the Park. But unlike the Rose Creek Pack, which was returned to the Park after the murder of no. 10, the Soda Butte Pack spent most of the summer of 1995 deep in the rugged Beartooth Mountains and along their productive foothills, called the Beartooth Front.

Soda Butte alpha female no. 14F had one pup in 1995-
This pack was almost never seen by tourists.

That first spring–April 1995–the alpha female (no. 14F) did whelp one pup. This female pup was numbered no. 24F. This was probably 14′s first litter. A physical examination upon her capture in Alberta showed no evidence of prior pregnancies. The 1995 den site was in Flood Creek, a very remote wild place in the Beartooth Mountains.

Wolves 11F and 12M disperse, but end up shot-
During the winter of 1995-96, very large Soda Butte male no. 12M, who had at first been thought to be the alpha male, dispersed from the pack. Later a pack female (no. 11F), dispersed too. Unfortunately, both were shot dead in separate incidents. Number 11 was killed a few miles north of Meeteetse, Wyoming, after being mistaken for a coyote. Number 12 dispersed far to the south of Yellowstone and was shot near Daniel, Wyoming, about 40 miles SE of Jackson. The killer of no. 12 has never been brought to justice. Jay York, who shot no. 11, quickly turned himself in and was assessed a meager fine of $500 by Dave Freudenthal, US Attorney who would later become the Democratic governor of Wyoming and very unfriendly to wolves.

This well-behaved pack sets up residence on the Beartooth Front-
Influential locals object anyway and the pack is removed back to Yellowstone-
By the spring of 1996, the remainder of the Soda Butte Pack had set up permanent residence on the Beartooth Front. In fact, they denned on private land in the West Rosebud River drainage — a scenic foothill area near many ranches. Although the pack never killed livestock, politics dictated that the pack with its three new 1996 pups-of-the-year had to be captured and removed from the area.

Successful capture of all but wolf no.15M was made in June 1996. I was extremely critical of this capture because I believe it inadvertently created a stream of events that indirectly resulted in the death, a good while later, of no. 15M, no. 27F, no. 37F, and no. 26F. Of course, hindsight is easy; but my postings show my criticism at the time.

The recaptured pack was put in the empty Crystal Creek acclimation pen for much of the summer.

Soda Butte Pack Re-released in the SE corner of Yellowstone-
In order to move the pack as far as possible from the Beartooth Front and also to try to populate the wildlife-rich, remote, but still wolfless, SE corner of Yellowstone, in August 1996 the Soda Butte Pack was taken across Yellowstone Lake to a new wolf enclosure near Trail Lake. This is near where the Yellowstone River flows into Yellowstone Lake. It is very far from any roads or human habitation. The pack was at the Trail Lake pen for about two months. Unfortunately, during this time, one of the 3 pups, a female pup, died of natural causes. The remaining five wolves in the Soda Butte Pack were released to the wilds on Oct. 7, 1996. Released were the alpha pair, 13M and 14F; yearling 24F; and pups 43M and 44F.

The pack moves to Heart Lake and stays there-
After the pack’s Oct. 7 release, they moved rather quickly about 15 miles to the NW to near Heart Lake. Although this is a very deep snow area, the pack wintered at Heart Lake. There is a major geyser basin there and elk and moose winter in the geyser basin. However, wintertime elk numbers are far smaller at Heart Lake compared to Lamar Valley on the Park’s lower elevation northern range. Outside of the geyser basin, there was very little for wolves to eat.

During March 1997, the Soda Butte alpha male, no. 13M, the oldest wolf introduced to Yellowstone, died of natural causes. For a considerable period biologists did not realize he was the alpha because of his age and his retiring nature when humans were around. (“Old Blue” was his nickname due to his curious bluish-gray fur). Story on the death of no. 13.

In May 1997 five new pups were born — nos. 123, 124, 125, and 126. These were the last progeny of Old Blue.

In November 1997 after a year near Heart Lake, the pack suddenly began to explore, quite possibly because they need more prey. They ranged SE of Yellowstone into the Washakie Wilderness and then back to Heart Lake. Then they moved south through the Pinyon Peak Highlands in the remote Teton Wilderness to emerge for the first time where people could see them since their time on the Beartooth Front. They were spotted on Mount Randolph just above the Buffalo Valley, through which runs the U.S. Highway 26 from Moran Junction to Dubois, Wyoming.

Folks expected the pack would follow the huge elk migration south into Jackson Hole where 8- to 12,000 elk winter. Incredibly, instead, they went back to Heart Lake inside Yellowstone where the eight member pack survived on a shrinking supply of elk and moose. However, during mid-winter the pack returned to the vicinity of Trail Creek, where they had been re-released in Oct. 1996. There they encountered the big alpha male (35M) of the new Thorofare Pack. The Soda Butte Pack tore him apart and took over the Thorofare Pack’s territory which has a fair amount of wintering elk, but especially moose. 

In 1998 the Soda Butte pack had no pups. Number 14F had no mate, and she was the sole leader of the pack.

They remained in southern Yellowstone through the summer and fall of 1998. Late in 1998, no. 14′s lone pup from 1995, no. 24F dispersed from the pack, pairing with a yearling (133M) from the new Washakie Pack. This pair, soon dubbed the “Teton Duo” established in the area near Moran Junction (Elk Ranch Reservoir) on the eastern edge of Grand Teton National Park as their winter 1998-99 range.

Soon, however, the rest of the pack descended into Jackson Hole and were seen on the National Elk Refuge for several weeks chasing and killing elk. Big excitement! In late winter they again  surprised everyone and returned to Yellowstone! Speculation was that 14F was seeking a mate and there were no possibilities on the Elk Refuge because there were no wolf packs that far south.

THE CRYSTAL CREEK PACK -1995
From tourist fame to obscurity- 
The third of the 1995 wolf packs, named “Crystal Creek pack” thrilled thousands of Yellowstone tourists with its unexpectedly high visibility in the Lamar Valley throughout the summer of 1995. In fact they were the only pack free and inside Yellowstone Park at the time.

They played, preyed on elk, chased and killed coyotes, and interacted with grizzly bears in front of thousands of tourists, but they bore no pups, despite digging a number of dens. Unfortunately for the pack, although not for wolves in general in Yellowstone, three of its younger members dispersed during the fall and winter of 1995 — nos. 2M, 3M, and 8M. I have already told how 2M paired with 7F, and 8M paired with 9F to reform the Rose Creek Pack.

The Crystal Creek alpha female (no. 5F) did den in 1996; but it is very likely that the new and aggressive Druid Peak Pack killed her pups. The new Druid Peak pack also attacked and killed her mate, wolf no. 4M. The Druids may have also injured her. This, and its battle with the Rose Creek Pack, described above, gave the new Druids a well deserved reputation for aggressiveness.

By the middle of 1996, this once proud pack was down to just the pair of no. 5F and 6M, who was captured with the rest of the pack in Alberta and was thought to be her son. Years later genetic analysis showed that he was not her son.

The Crystal Creek Pack gets a new lease on life with pups in 1997- 
By the fall of 1996 the surviving pair of wolves had moved out of the Lamar Valley and upstream into the Lamar River’s remote headwater canyon. During the winter they moved into the eastern center of Park, to the Pelican Valley just to the north of Yellowstone Lake. In late February through early April they had drifted a bit northward and were located near White Lake on the Mirror Plateau. In the spring they moved back to the Pelican Valley and in April the Crystal Creek pair became the first Park wolves to make a confirmed kill of a bison. However, after a day, a hungry grizzly just out of hibernation claimed their kill. This was to become, and still is the bane of this wolf pack’s existence — the numerous grizzly bears!  In May, no.5F whelped her first pups that survived since she was brought to Yellowstone. She had a litter of six, and so the pack was reborn. They spent the summer of 1997 in the Pelican, but by fall they began to explore the country to the east. In early 1998 they moved out of the Park just east into the rugged North Absaroka Wilderness. However, they soon moved back to the Pelican Valley where they had a second litter of 8 pups in 1998.

Radio collaring operations in February 1998 revealed that the alpha male, no. 6M had grown from the 75 pounds of January 1995 to 141 pounds! He had just eaten. however. One of Crystal Creek’s pups of 1997, then just ten months old, weighed 115 pounds, and he had not eaten.

Despite the pack’s rejuvenation, to tourists it remained in obscurity. The Pelican Valley is a broad and wildlife rich valley, but no road runs through it; and visitors on foot or horseback must follow strict rules due to the high density of grizzly bears in the area.

Many more pups in 1998, but big no. 6 suffers a natural mortality.
By the summer 1998 the pack had not just been reborn. It had grown large. No. 5′s litter of eight pups in the spring of 1998, brought the pack’s size to 16 wolves. In late August 1998 the Park’s wolf team got a mortality signal on the alpha male. He was found dead near an elk he had killed in the upper reaches of Pelican Valley. It appears he too was killed in the struggle with the elk.

Finally, a new alpha male — from the Druids!Once the mortal enemy of the Crystal Pack, the Druid Peak Pack suddenly made a swing southward in late September 1998, and one of the Druid pups born in 1997, now just 1 1/2 years old, left his pack to join Crystal Creek. Not only did this bold yearling, no. 104M join, he became the alpha male. The time of enmity was long ago in wolf time. Only the alpha female 5F could have had memories of the Druids and the loss of her mate and pups back in 1996 in the Lamar Valley. . . and the then-alpha male of the Druids, no. 38M, was long dead, victim of a coward’s bullet.

THE BLACKTAIL DEER (LEOPOLD) PACK (the first naturally formed pack in Yellowstone)
At first there was just “Rosie”-
The original Rose Creek Pack consisted of only three wolves — R9F, R10M, and R7F (R9′s pup from the previous year in Alberta). Little no. 7, who weighed only 77 pounds when released, stayed with her mother, no. 9, and wolf no. 10, for just a short time. The adult pair soon traveled over the Beartooth Mountains to their fate (described above) near the town of Red Lodge, Montana.

No. 7F, often described as a “beautiful reddish/gray wolf” and often called “Rosie”, was able to fend for herself all summer and fall. She remained in the Park, keeping to its northern portion, especially the expansive Blacktail Deer Plateau, which is a bit west of the territory that was claimed by the Crystal Creek Pack; and, after October, west of the territory of the newly invigorated Rose Creek Pack. She visited Gardiners Hole, the Mammoth Hot Springs area, and even Electric Peak in the Gallatin mountain range.

During the fall and winter, three of the second year males of the Crystal Creek pack dispersed, searching for mates. As we have seen, no. 8M from the Crystal Creek pack became the new alpha male in the Rose Creek Pack, replacing dead no. 10M..

Crystal Creek’s wolf 3M unfortunately dispersed into Paradise Valley, a settled area north of the Park, and killed several sheep. He was trapped and released near Fishing Bridge in the center of the Park, but he was soon back at the sheep ranch. As a result he was dispatched by a helicopter gunship from the federal agency Animal Damage Control (since renamed Wildlife Services to cover up what they really do — kill wildlife for ranchers). This was in violation of the rules of the wolf reintroduction that gave wolves three chances, but local politics dictated that the rules should be bent.

Some believe no. 3 was really looking for a mate. There is a compound near the sheep ranch that houses a large number of captive “buffalo wolves”, said by the owner, to be the “last of their kind”. No. 3 may have been attracted to the area by their howling. In fact Ferguson indicates that Jack Sharp, the owner of wolves, has a photograph of no. 3 standing at the wolf compound.

Rosie (no. 7) and number 2 pair and form the first natural wolf pack in Yellowstone in seventy years-
Wolf no. 2M of Crystal Creek did find a mate — “Rosie”, no. 7. While number two had been part of the Crystal Creek Pack, like no. 7F, he had always been more of a loner than a pack member. In December 1995 he left his pack for good, joining no. 7. They were soon observed double scent-marking (a sign of bonding affection), and they remained together for the rest of their lives. They kept almost entirely to the Blacktail Deer Plateau, where they were seldom seen. In April 1996, no. 7F gave birth to three pups. This new pack, the first naturally-formed pack in Yellowstone in about 70 years, was named the “Leopold” Pack in honor of the great wildlife biologist and conservationist, Aldo Leopold.

The rarely-seen pack prospered in 1996 and 1997.
For the next 10 years the Leopold Pack continued to range over the Blacktail Deer Plateau. The three pups of 1996 were soon the size of their parents. One male was in fact larger, but one of the three, no. 54M an uncollared wolf, dispersed in the autumn of 1997.

In April 1997 Rosie had a second litter. This time is was five pups. So in two years this pair became a pack of 10 wolves.

The Leopold Pack was, and still is almost never seen by Park visitors because it has almost exclusively favored an area closed to visitation due to the density of grizzly bears. Occasionally, however, the pack will move west or north and has been seen near the road at Blacktail Ponds and to the west of the Blacktail Deer Plateau on Swan Lake Flat.

Five more pups in the spring of 1998-
In the spring of 1998, Rosie gave birth to her third litter. Once again she had five new pups, and the pack had grown to14 members. Even so, the pack was rarely seen by Yellowstone tourists. By late 1998, visual observation was eleven wolves, so some pack members may have died and/or dispersed.

Summary of the fate of the 1995 wolves (the last was killed Dec. 31, 2002)

THE 1996 WOLF REINTRODUCTION
AND THE FATE OF THE WOLVES

By mid-summer 1995, it appeared that the wolf reintroduction program was in great jeopardy. U.S. Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, notorious for his hatred of wolves and most other wild animals, was able to get the reintroduction budget cut by 40%. On top of this, by December 1995, all U.S. government agencies were running on partial budgets, or were totally shut down due to budgetary conflict been the new Republican Congress and President Clinton.

Nevertheless, another reintroduction was still planned. This time wolves from British Columbia rather than Alberta were to be captured, but it seemed doubtful that money could be raised. Fortunately, donations and personnel from a number of private groups such as Defenders of Wildlife, the Wolf Education and Research Center, private individuals, plus significant cooperation from the Province of British Columbia, did enable another round of wolf trapping and their transport to Yellowstone and central Idaho for the second year of reintroductions.

In 1995 the plan had been to trap 30 wolves — 15 for Yellowstone and 15 for Idaho. In fact, only 29 were trapped. In 1996, 38 were trapped, essentially as many as could be trapped given the resources at hand. I believe this was because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believed this would be the last opportunity they would have, given the furious anti-environmental views being expressed in the new Republican Congress, even though the program was supposed to include wolf reintroductions for three more years after 1996.

The 38 wolves were trapped in a very remote part of NE British Columbia. Twenty of these wolves went to central Idaho, and seventeen went to Yellowstone. One wolf was dispatched after it bit a biologist who was handling the cage. This provoked a minor controversy.

In preparation for the new wolves, the Park Service dismantled the Soda Butte Creek enclosure and erected two new ones; one on the Blacktail Deer Plateau in the northern part of the Park and one at Nez Perce Creek. Nez Perce Creek is on the western side of the Park, a place where none of the 1995 wolves had visited. It is also near Lower Geyser basin, whereas there is little thermal activity in the northern, especially the northeastern part of Yellowstone, where the 1995 wolves were released.

-List of the 1996 wolves and their acclimation pens-