And read the Story on Wolf # 9 and thier pup Wolf # 7

Pack kills prolific wolf No. 7

By MIKE STARK
Gazette Wyoming Bureau

Wolf No. 7 had a rough start.

As a pup in 1994 near Hinton, Alberta, Canada, she got snagged in a trapper's snare that looped around her neck. Game managers found her that way and fitted her with a radio collar. The tracking device turned No. 7 into a "Judas" - a term researchers use for wolves that lead them to the rest of their pack.

Members of the pack, including No. 7 and her mother, were transported to Yellowstone National Park in the winter of 1995 as part of the effort to reintroduce gray wolves to the Northern Rockies.

No. 7's mother went on to become the park's most famous wolf, No. 9, the queen of the Rose Creek Pack and the most influential contributor to the park wolves' gene pool.

No. 7 didn't do too badly, either. She started the park's first naturally forming pack and produced seven litters as the alpha female of the Leopold Pack.

"She came from a rude beginning in Canada and ended up in wolf paradise in Yellowstone," said Doug Smith, the park's lead wolf biologist. "Her imprint in the park was huge."

On May 13, No. 7 was found dead on the Blacktail Deer Plateau. She was 8.

A preliminary necropsy indicated that other wolves probably killed No. 7, Smith said.

"She was historic in that she was one of the first wolves brought in, so it's kind of the end of an era," Smith said.

No. 7, No. 9 and No. 10, the alpha male, started the Rose Creek Pack shortly after coming to Yellowstone. The male was illegally killed a few months later and No. 7 set out on her own.

She spent eight months wandering as a yearling until she took up with a male known as No. 2, who was also one of the wolves brought to the park in 1995.

"That was the start of the first natural pack here," Smith said.

Wolf packs usually are named after their geographic territory. But No. 7's pack was named for conservationist Aldo Leopold, who in 1944 called for the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone. It seemed appropriate to name the park's first natural pack after him, Smith said.

"Yellowstone National Park is a place of great history," he said. "We decided to commemorate that pack."

No. 7 played a significant role in naturally boosting the wolf population in the region. Smith estimates that she gave birth to 35-40 pups in seven litters.

Wolf managers initially thought it would take three or four years of importing wolves from Canada to establish the Northern Rockies population. They cut it down to two years, in part, because of the breeding success of No. 7, said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"They did their thing just like they were supposed to," Bangs said. "After that, we thought, you know these wolves are gonna do just fine."

By all accounts, No. 7 was a successful wolf. Aside from being one of the longtime breeders, she never strayed outside the park and never attacked private livestock.

"She never stepped foot outside of the park. Her territory was 100 percent in the park. Not 99 percent but 100 percent," Smith said.

With No. 7 at the helm, the Leopold Pack eventually became one of the most stable in Yellowstone. Fourteen members of the pack were documented in January.

Smith thinks she was probably killed by a subgroup of the burgeoning Druid Peak Pack, which had moved to territory next to the Leopold Pack. It's unclear whether No. 7 was alone when she was killed. Smith suspects the attack was part of a pack rivalry, in which leaders are the first targets.

"When wolves go to war, they typically go after the most important members of the pack, and she was the anchor," Smith said.

No. 7 had recently given birth to pups, which were probably still in transition from mother's milk to solid food, Smith said.

"At this point, we think the pups survived," he said.

No. 7's death edges the park nearer to closing a key chapter in the history of reintroduced wolves there. With No. 9 missing and presumed dead, only one wolf now survives of the 14 that were brought to the park in 1995. And only one wolf from the 1996 shipment is still alive.

No. 9 and No. 7 "had a significant role in wolf recovery," Smith said. "They were centerpieces to the population."