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Yellowstone wolf '2M' was last of the first
At the ripe age of 8, last wolf reintroduced in 1995 is killed by members of a competing pack.

By Rebecca Huntington

With his black coat turning silver, wolf 2M fell prey to his own success in Yellowstone National Park when a rival pack killed the aging male, the last of 14 wolves reintroduced in 1995.

Wolf 2M made history when biologists drove him into Yellowstone as part of the first shipment of eight wolves transplanted from Canada. When he died on the last day of 2002, there were 148 wolves in the world's first national park, achieving the goal of restoring the missing predator.

"When he came through the gate there were no wolves here," said Doug Smith, Yellowstone wolf project leader. "When I think about bringing him into the park eight years ago ... this was a different place."

The label, 2M, is a misnomer for a wolf who was responsible for some historic firsts in the park. Not only did he arrive in the first shipment but he was the first male to form a pack naturally.

Moreover, Yellowstone never had a wolf numbered one, Smith said. The wolf with that moniker never made it from Canada, leaving 2M as the animal with the lowest number.

A prolific father, the alpha male helped rebuild Yellowstone's wolf population. With his mate of six years, he produced eight litters with at least 29, and possibly as many as 39, pups surviving to become yearlings.

"That's a lot of wolves that have grown up around him," Smith said of 2M's family and the other 13 packs that now populate Yellowstone.

But even a scion like 2M lived a risky life in the wild. He formed and remained the alpha male of the Leopold Pack until late November, when a younger male displaced him. Without his pack, he had trouble defending himself.

"He had kind of lost one of the great territories in the park and that put him at great peril," Smith said. "Wolves are very aggressive to other wolves if you're not in their pack."

Within a month of losing his pack, 2M was dead. His radio collar began emitting a mortality signal on New Year's Eve. Two days later, Smith hiked into the Blacktail Deer Plateau to check on his carcass. He could still see signs of the attack by the Geode Pack ­ the same group that killed his mate last spring.

"They caught him on the top of the hill, you could see evidence of the fight rolling down the hill, the snow strewn with blood," Smith said.

His violent death came the same year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service met its recovery goal for wolf populations in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, paving the way for removing wolves from the endangered species list. But while 2M's death marks a successful end to one chapter of wolf reintroduction, the status of wolves remains contentious.

Wyoming officials have spent much of the past year debating whether to classify wolves as predators outside Yellowstone, Grand Teton, federal wildlife refuges and wilderness areas of the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone National Forests.

The arguments are much the same as those that raged over the 1995 transplant program and expose the very emotions that led to extirpation of the species in the early part of the 20th century. Between 1914 and 1926, more than 136 wolves were killed inside Yellowstone. By the 1940s, wolf packs were rarely seen and by the 1970s scientists found no evidence of wolves in the park.

Wolf 2M arrived in Yellowstone with five other members of what was called the Petite Lake Pack on Jan. 12, 1995. After being driven ceremoniously through the park's stone gate at Gardiner, the 70-pound, black pup was moved into the Crystal Creek acclimation pen, a one-acre, chain-link enclosure. The pen was designed to acquaint the wolves with their surroundings so the pack would remain in the area after release.

Fourteen wolves were transplanted to Yellowstone in 1995, followed by 17 more the following year. Two of the wolves reintroduced in 1996 are still roaming Yellowstone with the Druid Peak and Sunlight Basin packs, Smith said.

In the Crystal Creek pen, the wolves were fed about 15,000 pounds of elk, bison and mule deer during their 10-week stay. Once released, they became the Crystal Creek Pack, roaming Yellowstone's Lamar and Pelican valleys.

Wolf 2M stayed with his pack for about 10 months before striking out on his own. By January of 1996, he had paired up with 7F, a female yearling from the Rose Creek pen.

The pair started the Leopold Pack, the first naturally formed pack in Yellowstone, Smith said. The pack was one of the most stable with consistent numbers and a home-range ­ Blacktail Deer Plateau ­ entirely within the park, he said.

Two of their pups eventually formed new packs, the Swan Lake and Cougar Creek packs. The Leopold alphas remained together until the Geode Pack killed 7F.

Wolf 2M was nearing 9 years old at his death while most wolves die before age 8, Smith said. Park personnel kept the former alpha male's skull as a relic of reintroduction.

"It's an important treasure for people to be able to see," Smith said.

But the rest of the body will decompose where 2M died.

"He was being fed on by eagles," Smith said. "The most fitting end is to let his carcass go back into the system."

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