Some residents are suggesting that the state be petitioned to create a no-hunting zone around the town to ensure homeowners feel more safe. The wolf’s death has also raised tension in the small community of Silver Gate – where wildlife watching and park visitation generate income – and the nearby town of Cooke City, where the hunter lives. The Care2 petition says the wolf was “cruelly killed” by a “trophy hunter” and adds that the “murder was completely legal.” Wildlife advocates have even started an online petition calling for a no-shooting zone on state lands surrounding Yellowstone. News of 926F’s death has, like her mother, generated stories in a variety of national publications as well as on television and radio.

She was referred to as “the most famous wolf in the world” by one Los Angeles photographer.

832F was also shot by a hunter outside Yellowstone, near the small Wyoming community of Crandall in 2012, the first year that state held a wolf hunt. Photos and videos of 926F have graced several online eulogies.ĩ26F’s fame came not only from her visibility in the Lamar Valley, but because she was a daughter of 832F, also known as ’06 for the year she was born. The wolf had been named Spitfire by some wolf watchers, evidence that throughout its life the wolf spent a lot of time in fairly close contact with a portion of the 4 million people who annually visit the park. 24 just outside the small community of Silver Gate, near Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance. The latest controversy has swirled around a female wolf known as 926F. “And hunting is part of their management.” Wolf 926F “We value wolves like any other species,” Pankrantz said. The park wolves often wander in and out of Yellowstone in search of prey, to establish new territories or to avoid other wolf packs.

Montana allows wolf hunting outside Yellowstone but has limited the number of permits in the region after other Yellowstone wolves were killed by hunters. “There’s no indication it was killed illegally,” said Adam Pankrantz, the FWP warden captain based in Bozeman.īut he added that his office will continue to investigate “any possible leads provided to us.” “If a breeder is killed, the odds of the pack dissolving go up and breeding goes down,” Smith said.īILLINGS – The November killing of a Yellowstone wolf outside the park has generated “hundreds” of emails and phone calls to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials suggesting that the hunt was not lawful. Following a wolf’s killing, does a pack stay together? Do they have pups the following year? In cooperation with biologists in Grand Teton and Denali national parks along with the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve in Alaska, Yellowstone wolf biologists are examining how pack size plays a role in the animals’ social stability. Wolf 926F’s death could play a role in helping biologists better understand what happens to wolf packs following a member’s death from hunting.

There are nine packs in Yellowstone and a preliminary count puts the wolf population at 80 animals, down about 15 to 20 wolves, possibly because of a fourth outbreak of distemper last year that killed pups.įor 10 years Yellowstone’s wolf population has been fairly stable at about 100 animals in 10 packs, Smith noted. The average size of a park pack is 10 wolves.ĩ26F’s pack may have been pushed closer to the town of Silver Gate by the larger, 11-member Junction Butte pack that has spent a lot of time in the Lamar Valley. The female was one member of the small Lamar Canyon pack, which consists of two other adults and four to five pups. The average age of a Yellowstone wolf is about 5 to 6 years old, according to Doug Smith, Yellowstone wolf biologist. 926F was elderly for a wolf, about 7 1/2 years old, when she was shot by a hunter in November.

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