Wolf (Canis lupus)

[Tshokwane]

Credits to Yellowstone Wolf Family Tree.

BECHLER'S FIRST ALPHA MALE –

THE ASTONISHING LIFE of WOLF 192Mg

The wolf that would later become known as alpha male 192 began his life born into one of the most prosperous and beloved early packs of the Yellowstone wolf restoration, the Rose Creek Pack.

That April, several females in the pack gave birth to an amazing number of pups – twenty-two!

Our two-pound bundle of gray fur was born to the pack’s new black alpha female, wolf 18, and existing gray alpha male, wolf 8, and he was one of nine pups to survive the year.

Our pup was born in a den on what has become a famous Yellowstone feature known as “Mom’s Ridge” – named for the famous Rose Creek black alpha female, wolf 9, who denned there first in 1996 and is the Mitochondrial Eve Wolf of the park and responsible for at least 70% of the genetic base of all Yellowstone wolves.

Mom’s Ridge is a long, high escarpment located just west of Slough Creek in the Lower Lamar Valley area of Yellowstone National Park’s Northern Range. This lower river valley area is also nicknamed, “Little America.” There are several theories about the origin of the nickname, but the one I like to share is that, during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration – the New Deal Era in which the United States was scraping its way out of the Great Depression – the country was dotted with Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) camps. These CCC camps provided jobs – fixing roads, bridges and trails across the country. One of those CCC camps was located in Lower Lamar Valley, and the camp was very ethnically diverse – much like the diverse Melting Pot of the United States during those early days of immigration – hence the origin of the nickname.

For those of you who have hiked out to 9’s Den in 
Little America, this is the very same den wolf 9 dug out and used to give birth to her litter the very same month and year her grandson, our hero, was born. Sadly, the location chosen by wolf 9 was too far removed from the main pack activity to the north on Mom’s Ridge, and her attempt to move her pups north across the Northeast Roadway and Lamar River met with tragedy.

Our pup was originally numbered as wolf 82 by the Yellowstone Wolf Project, in the days when every wolf was given an identification number – whether they had a radio collar or not. Two of his black-coated brothers and littermates were also given numbers that year – originally numbered wolf 79 would be radio-collared as wolf 193 and wolf 80 would be radio-collared as wolf 194 – and these three males would later disperse many miles from their natal (birth) pack and diversify the genetic base of the wolves of Yellowstone’s southern regions for the next decade and more.

Young wolf 82 dispersed from his natal Rose Creek Pack as a yearling, and was radio-collared as wolf 192 in 1999 as a member of the Roosevelt Group. Years 2000 and 2001 of his life were spent as a lone wolf and occasional member of the Roosevelt Group and then the Tower Pack in the western landscapes of Little America. During this same time period his brothers and littermates, wolves 79/193 and 80/194, dispersed and eventually joined the Mollie’s Pack. Wolf 193 would become the long-time alpha male of the Mollie’s with wolf 194 as the beta male of the pack until he joined the famous Druid Peak wolf, U-Black, to form the Specimen Ridge Pack on the slopes beneath the Petrified Forest near his homeland in Little America.

Then, in August 2002, our adventurous and much-traveled wolf 192 was discovered all the way down in the southwestern Bechler corner of the park – named Cascade Corner for all of its waterfalls – and was leading the newly identified Bechler Pack as alpha male!

His leadership of this pack was “highlighted” even more by the “whitening” of his coat. You see, our wolf carried a genetic trait that turns certain gray-coated wolves’ fur white as they age. This trait has appeared in a handful of females over the 23-year history of wolves restored to Yellowstone, but wolf 192, the hero of this story, is the only known male to display this trait.

The Bechler is one the most remote areas of the park, and only the hardiest of wolves, our lone whitening male with his years of experience traveling through the vastness and tempests of Yellowstone amid myriad other packs, could coalesce and lead a group of wolves for in an area of the park that receives the deepest snows each winter – as much as over 600 inches!

For an amazing eight years, he reigned as alpha of the Bechler Pack and fathered many litters of pups until he died of natural causes on June 3, 2009, He lived to be twelve-years-and-two-months-old, making him one of the oldest known wild wolves in Yellowstone National Park.

A testament to the astonishing life of wolf 192 is also evidenced in the book, “Wild Wolves We Have Known,” where Doug Smith, Rick McIntyre and Dan Stahler write about their more memorable wolves. Of the many choices Dan could have selected over his many years of experience with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, he chose to write his section on wolf 192.

Because of the remoteness of the Bechler Pack, little is known of their exploits over the years, and so there isn’t much to share about their adventures through the seasons. But if our white wolf is any example, this surely must be a most remarkable pack!

This story came together in part through researching the Yellowstone Wolf Family Tree. You can find out more about wolf 192 and the other amazing wolves of Yellowstone National Park by becoming a guest of the Yellowstone Wolf Family Tree. Visit http://www.wolfgenes.info
, select the Ancestry tab and follow the Invitation section instructions to become a guest of the tree.

(Photo of wolf 192 and his long-time alpha mate in the deep snows of the Bechler Area and with his packmates courtesy of NPS.)

Leo Leckie
Yellowstone Wolf Storyteller

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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