Unknown Alpha Male discovered in the Chief Joseph no. 2 Pack

January radio collaring operation update:
Unknown alpha male discovered in Chief Joseph II Pack

(1-25-99)

The first stage of Yellowstone radio collaring is now complete. Efforts to complete this year's project will resume next week (Feb.). Today, I obtained the results so far. Here are the data.

Crystal Creek Pack-
122M. 1/2 years. Gray. 125 pounds
174F. pup. Gray. 105 pounds
175F pup. Gray. 110 pounds

Notes: No. 175F is the largest female pup yet to be collared in Yellowstone.

Druid Peak Pack-
42F. adult. Black. Suspected beta female. 109 pounds.
105F. 1 1/2 years. Black. 90 pounds.
163M. pup. Gray with white legs. 110 pounds

Notes: It is widely assummed that 40F is the alpha female, but the collaring 42F might help clarify the situation. Yes, it turned out to be true that all the wolves in pack except the alpha male and the pup are female.

Leopold-
148F. pup. Black. 93 pounds.
151F. pup. Gray. 100 pounds.
152F. pup. Gray. 98 pounds.

Rose Creek-
153F. pup. black. 90 pounds.
160F. pup. Accidentally mortally wounded by tranquilizer dart

Notes: Number 153 is a black wolf with several gray spots and a white patch on her chest. The wolf team was saddened by the multiple fractures induced by the dart. After careful examination it was determined the pup would not recover, even after veterinary care, and so she was euthanized.

Chief Joseph II-
164M. pup. Black. 110 pounds.
165M. Determined to be 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years old. Black. 125 pounds.

Notes: 165M is believed to be no. 16F's mate and the alpha male. Did he father the pups?

Doug Smith does not want to go after a pack more than once because of the trama. However, the Rose Creek pack has separated (split?) into two groups. There is no radio collar in one of the groups, so this group may get a collar or two next week. They would particularly like to collar no. 18F (one of no. 9's daughters from 1995) who is now herself, the mother of many of the members of the pack. Her relationship to the alpha male, no. 8M, could be more clearly ascertained.

Although no. 16F and her pups have been observed from the air several times during the year, no one ever got a really close look at the pack even though it sometimes inhabited the fringes of towns of Gardiner and Jardine, Montana. The 125-pound black male discovered with Chief Joseph II was a big surprise. He has been given number 165M, although it is suspected he may really be a former member of the Leopold Pack (98M?) who dispersed late in 1997. Kerry Murphy of the wolf team examined him and on the basis of tooth wear determined he was not a pup. The other pup caught was certainly well nourished, and I doubt that no. 16F could have raised the pups to such vitality on her own. I think this lends evidence that 165M, if not the father, has been with the pack for some time.

It had been assumed, and it may still be the case, that the father of no. 16's 1998 litter was (like her 1997 litter), no. 34M, alpha male of the Chief Joseph (no. 1) Pack.

Wolf 16F is one of original litter of eight whelped by no. 9F (matriarch of the Rose Creek Pack), after Chad McKittrick shot her first mate (no. 10M) back in April 1995.

Remaining to be collared are Chief Joseph Pack, (they were very difficult to capture last year because they knew to head for the timber), the Nez Perce Pack, and the wolves in Jackson Hole.

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Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209