Another Wolf May Have Given Birth Biologists Looking For Pups In Area Where Female Found Hanging Around

Yellowstone National Park biologists next week plan to hike 10 miles north of the park in an attempt to determine whether another transplanted wolf has given birth.

One of the 14 Canadian wolves brought to the park in January gave birth in late April or early May to eight pups. Biologists have moved the wolf and her pups back to the one-acre acclimation pen in Lamar Valley where she spent her first eight weeks in Yellowstone near Rose Creek.

Park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said this week that the dominant female of the Soda Butte pack has remained in one area in the Stillwater drainage north of the park for six weeks.

A ground search of the area in the AbsarokaBeartooth Wilderness on Thursday did not turn up any pups, according to spokeswoman Marsha Karle, who said biologists would return next week.

In each of 20 recent monitoring flights, Matthews said, biologists have found the female within two or three miles of the same spot. Such a steady occupation could be an indication she had given birth, but biologists have seen no signs of newborn pups from the air, she said.

“It’s very interesting that she has remained there for that long a period of time,” Matthews said. “(Biologists) don’t know for sure what’s going on.”

Three other Soda Butte pack members also have remained in the Stillwater drainage, while its fifth member, another female, has returned to the Soda Butte area in Lamar Valley.

Meanwhile, Matthews said, the Rose Creek female and her pups were doing well. The wolves were moved back into Yellowstone after the female’s mate was shot. A Red Lodge, Mont., man has pleaded innocent to charges in connection with the wolf’s death.

She said it was uncertain when the wolf and her litter would be released from the pen.