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Yellowstone Wolf Directory
Yellowstone Wolf Directory
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Yellowstone Wolf Directory
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 The Oldest Yellowstone Wolf On Record
Exactly 16 years ago, on January 21, 2005, a black yearling female of the Cougar Creek Pack got collared. She weighed 97 lbs. What was not known back then, is that she would be an tremendously important collared animal for many reasons.
She was born in 2003 to the founding alpha female, Wolf 151F [Daughter of 7F & 2M] & 303M. The Cougar Creek Pack Formed when 151F of the Leopold joined with 3 other wolves (then uncollared) :
478F's life is going well, her parents [151F & 303M] living very long lives. 151F died in 2008 at the age of 10 years old and 303M was last seen that year as well. He was likely the same age as her. At the end of 2008, only 4 adults/yearlings, no pups [the old breeding pair did not produce pups, or if they did, they lose them very early] remained at year end. They were :
Her younger sister, 632F, paired with 647M & 687M + an uncollared gibbon female and formed the Grayling Creek Pack. 3 year old black male, wolf 689M, paired with 478F and they became the new dominant breeding pair ["alphas"] of Cougar Creek. When 689M joined, her brother 636M left temporarily to rejoin and help the pair later. They had 3 black pups in 2009, one of them would be collared as 757F in 2010. The Uncollared Adult Wolf (the remaining wolf of 2008) wasn't in the pack at year end. In 2010, the pack of 6 wolves numbered only 4 wolves at the end of the year. Her brother 636M formed the Mary Mountain Pack with Gibbon Female Wolf 794F & one of the 3 pups of 2009 went missing. The Wolf Team did not see pups although they localized (sign of a den) shortly. Also to be note, they saw that both 478F & 689M were still excellent hunters, even 478F at 7 years old. They saw her lunged at an elk neck and made the final move ! In 2011, the pack, known for all their members being black [and that was the case since 2010] continued to dominate in the Northwest Corner of Yellowstone. Their territory have a good prey base and the Gibbon Meadows pack left the park in 2010. Indeed, "they had the place to themselves". 478F gave birth to 3 black pups that year and two of them would gain importance in the future. All 3 of them were later collared as 825F, 910M & 962M. Under her leadership and her mate, 689M, the pack numbered 7 members at year end. In 2012, the pack continued successful rearing of pups under the incredible parenting given by 478F & 689M, now 9 & 6 years old respectively. They had 5 pups, 4 blacks and 1 gray. The gray pup was the first gray pup born in the pack since 636M in 2007. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This could be explained by the studies done on coat color heredity : To make it simple [not exact reality but still], there are 3 possibilities : bb (Gray), Bb (Black), BB (Black) ----- > b : Non-Dominant (gray) --------- > B : Dominant (Black) The Progeny of two parents take one of each parents coat color code. BB X BB = BB (100 % Black) BB X Bb = BB or Bb (100 % Black) (BUT BB has a 50 % chance & Bb 50 %, a wolf Bb can produce gray pups if it breeds with a wolf Bb or bb) BB x bb = Bb (100 % Black with the progeny being able to produce gray pups with Bb & bb) Bb x Bb = BB (25 %), Bb (50 % Black with progeny able to produce gray pups with Bb or bb), bb (25 % Gray) Bb x bb = Bb (25 % Black with possibility of the progeny producing gray pups with Bb or bb), bb (75 % Gray) bb x bb = bb (100 % Gray) ------------------------------------------ In 2013, the pack continued to raised pups with "a golden paw", with 6 pups born to 478F & 689M, now 10 & 7 years old. There is a possibility that two litters were delivered. Amongst them, a gray pup would late be known as 953F. The pack numbered 13 members at year end, even with the dispersal of 910M. I should note that the Cougar Creek Pack wasn't affect by the mange infestation most northern ranges pack suffered from 2007 and on. That certainly helped them survive. In 2014, The Cougar Creek Pack was one of the largest of Yellowstone because of the excellence of the breeding pair, their territory not overlapping with many packs and that the pack never suffered mange. The once all black 478F & 689M were certainly older than when they paired. Their coats turns to a half black-brindle & half gray-bluish for now 11 years old 478F & 8 year old 689M start having the facial markings of an old black dog (white muzzle, throat graying). They had 3 pups in 2014. 962M and some other wolves dispersed and join 8-Mile at the end of the year after the pack killed 871M, the alpha male of 8-Mile on Halloween. "Trick or Treat"..... [Forgive the pun]. 478F lost her long time mate to hunters that year on November 5, 2014. In 2015, the longevity queen and an famous figure in the yellowstone wolf world (quite elusive to wolf watcher as well), had possibly her last litter (2 pups). It isn't known [to me] if she was still the breeding female at that time. The caring, devoted and excellent mother as well as a beautiful wolf, passed away from what could be a very rare wolves death in November 2015 : being old and passing on while sleeping. In that matter, other iconics wolves had such chances as 13M (11 years), 21M (9 years), 126F (12 years) & 192M (12 years) to say a few. She will always be reknown for being the incredible wolf that she was as well as being the second alpha female of Cougar Creek and being the oldest wolf on record in Yellowstone History, dying at the ripe old age of 12 & 1/2 years old. To give an idea on how long and fantastic her live was : When she was born in 2003, 2 wolves from the reintroduction [41F, 42F] + 21M born in 1995 were still living & when she died, the Wapiti White Alpha Female [born in 2010] was 5 years old. Sources :
 *This image is copyright of its original author Wolf 478F resting, March 19 2015
Picture of the National Park Service
March 23 2021 [Today] : I Learn of The Passing of a Great One
1047M of the Junction Butte Pack was killed by the 8-Mile Pack.
More Information Tomorrow
1155M Illegally "Harvested" [Killed] by the Montana Governor in February 2021.
He had not completed his trapping certification.
He was only legally warned and will be able to keep the skin and skull after completing it.
How not to give the example.....
Remember that wolf 10M was illegally shot in Montana in April 1995 and the shooter was sentenced to 10 months of jail.
Yeah.... old times.
Link : 1155M's is illegally Killed Reminder/Notice !!!!!!
This thread has not been updated for a very long time and many informations is not necessarily accurate.
A long time ago, I transferred all my posts to my forum : Domain of The Wolf in the Thread "Yellowstone Wolf Directory"
Why ?
About a year or so, when i came to edit my posts, some of them are enormous, a lot of problems with spacing, the size of the text and highlighting was very very problematic.
Now on my forum, the wolf directory contains the most updated information for each wolves i discussed/summarized/wrote
[Of course i'm not always right, I'm not always accurate, I'm always missing some tidbits in some histories, in brief, i'm not perfect and nobody is]
[Bookmark that link/thread if you intent to read as this one comes up more often in google than the one of my forum]
Here's the list :
I also mentioned other wolves :
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