Yellowstone Gray Wolves: Fatal Ambush of Alpha Female Spitfire

Summary: The fatal ambush of Yellowstone National Park alpha female Spitfire Nov. 24, 2018, exposes human violence against gray wolves, not vice versa.

Spitfire at Soda Butte, Yellowstone National Park; Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016; photo by David Taylor: The 06 Legacy @The06Legacy, via Facebook Dec. 2, 2018

A trophy hunter achieved the fatal ambush of alpha gray wolf Spitfire two days after Thanksgiving, Nov. 22, 2018, and 51 days after worldwide Blessing of the Animals Day Oct. 4, 2018.

The Lamar Canyon icon Nov. 24, 2018, became the third family member betrayed by Yellowstone National Park's unbuffered borders with Cooke City and Silver Gate, Montana. A trophy rifleman cut Yellowstone's 10-pack, 100-wolf population with a bullet to the black-headed, black-legged, lush-coated seven-year-old mother of Little T and grandmother of five pups. The crowd-pleasing, defenseless, long-legged, radio-collared 926F, research-serving tourist-draw died the same death as her research-collared mother, 726F, Dec. 6, 2012, and uncle, 754M, Nov. 11, 2012.

Wolf biologist Doug Smith explains, "Wolf hunters talk about seeing a pack of park wolves outside the boundary and being able to pick the one they want."

One spring month, two springtime months and the 18 following months fit into feasibly nine- to 20-year life cycles as respectively breeding, gestating and parenting months.

Six weeks into 63-day gestations, physically and sexually mature two-plus-year-old female gray wolves get 15.75-inch- (40-centimeter) high, 25.59-inch- (65-centimeter-) wide dens ready in sandy, well-drained hillsides. Abandoned badger setts and porcupine dens, as wolf burrows, have maternal and pup chambers at respective 6- and 12-foot (1.83- and 3.66-meter) slants from den entrances. Hypothetical one- to 11-pup litters infrequently include less or more than 5 to 6 black-brown, blind, deaf, helpless, nursing, semi-crawling, squeaking, squirming, wriggling 16-ounce (453.59-gram) pups.

Gray wolves juggle hearing and sight as two- to three-week-olds; howls as three- to four-week-olds; meat and walking as three-week-olds; rendezvous sites as seven- to eight-week-olds.

Hillside timber, surface water and unsheltered meadows keep gray wolf packs together until 10- and 18-month-olds know body language, hunting and socialization skills and physical maturity.

Sexually mature two-year-old females linger on 30.12- to 810.82-square-mile (78- to 2,100-square-kilometer) birth-pack home territories that males leave the year before their sexual maturity as three-year-olds. They manifest black-edged ears; four-molar lower and six-molar upper jaws, each with six incisors, two 1.97-inch- (5-centimeter-) long canines and eight premolars; five-toed forefeet; four-toed hind-feet. Gray wolves, named scientifically Canis lupus (wolf dog) by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), net 4.97-plus-mile- (8-plus-kilometer-) loud howls and 23.61-plus-mile (38-plus-kilometer) hourly speeds.

Alpha 25.98- to 31.89-inch (66- to 81-centimeter) shoulder-high males obtain 39.37- to 59.06-inch (100- to 150-centimeter) head-body and 11.81- to 19.68-inch (30- to 50-centimeter) tail lengths.

Alpha 19.49- to 28.82-inch- (49.5- to 73.2-centimeter-) shoulder-high females present 33.46- to 53.15-inch (85 to 135-centimeter) head-body and 10.04- to 17.72-inch (25.5- to 45-centimeter) tail lengths.

Yellow-eyed, wide-headed, short-eared, pale-chested, pale-bellied, bushy-tailed females and males queue up respective 48.50- to 138.89-pound (22- to 63-kilogram) and 59.52- to 149.91-pound (27- to 68-kilogram) weights. Gray wolves recognize smells and sounds from 1.24- and 1.86-mile (2- and 3-kilometer) distances; remain active dusk through dawn; reside north of 20 degrees north latitude. Six- to 20-member packs survive two-plus weeks without edible beavers, birds, blackberries, boar, caribou, deer, elk, figs, frogs, fruits, grapes, moose, muskox, potatoes, reindeer and voles.

Federals, locals and riflemen took gray wolves off endangered species lists, turned down buffered borders and terminated Spitfire, for whom tourists, scientists, everyone throngs Lamar Canyon.

Spitfire (Yellowstone wolf 926F) in Yellowstone National Park in 2013; photo by Spencer Wilhelm/Wolf Conservation Center: Wolf Conservation Center @nywolforg, via Facebook Nov. 29, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Spitfire at Soda Butte, Yellowstone National Park; Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016; photo by David Taylor: The 06 Legacy @The06Legacy, via Facebook Dec. 2, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/The06Legacy/photos/a.1912135485749283/1954628158166682/

Spitfire (Yellowstone wolf 926F) in Yellowstone National Park in 2013; photo by Spencer Wilhelm/Wolf Conservation Center: Wolf Conservation Center @nywolforg, via Facebook Nov. 29, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/nywolforg/posts/10156169934442635?__tn__=-R

For further information:

The 06 Legacy @The06Legacy. 2 December 2018. "Thank you so much David Taylor for sharing this memory of 926F with us. Here she is running wild and free in the valley of the wolves with her pack nearby. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/The06Legacy/photos/a.1912135485749283/1954628158166682/

Horton, Alex. 2 December 2018. "A Hunter Killed a Legendary Yellowstone Wolf. Years Later, Her Cub Died the Same Way." The Washington Post > Science > Animals.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/12/02/hunter-killed-legendary-yellowstone-wolf-years-later-her-daughter-died-same-way/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0164881833f2

Linnaeus, Caroli. 1758. "11.2. Canis. Lupus." Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I: 39-40. [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/726932

Malcolm, James. "Gray Wolf: Canis lupus." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 14, Mammals III:. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Rahman, Khaleda. 3 December 2018. "Yellowstone's Beloved Wild Wolf 'Spitfire' Is Killed by a Trophy Hunter After Wandering Outside the National Park." Daily Mail > News.
Available @ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6454433/Beloved-wild-wolf-nicknamed-Spitfire-killed-trophy-hunter.html

Robbins, Jim. 30 November 2018. "A Famous Alpha Wolf's Daughter, Spitfire, Is Killed by a Hunter." The New York Times > Science.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/science/wolf-spitfire-killed.html

Schweber, Nate. 8 December 2012. "'Famous' Wolf Is Killed Outside Yellowstone." The New York Times > Science > Earth.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/science/earth/famous-wolf-is-killed-outside-yellowstone.html?module=inline

Smith, D.W.; D.R. Stahler; E. Stahler; M. Metz; K. Quimby; R. McIntyre; C. Ruhl; H. Martin; R. Kindermann; N. Bowersock; and M. McDevitt. 2013. Yellowstone Wolf Project: Annual Report, 2012. National Park Service, Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, YCR-20130-02.
Available @ https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/upload/wolf_ar_2012_final.pdf

Wolf Conservation Center @nywolforg. 29 November 2018. "Beloved Yellowstone Wolf 926F, known to some as Spitfire, Shot Dead Just Outside Yellowstone. Her mother, wolf "06", was killed the same way. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/nywolforg/posts/10156169934442635?__tn__=-R

"Wolves." Encyclopedia of Mammals. Volume 16, Wha-Zeb: 2394-2419. Tarrytown NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.