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SALT LAKE CITY — She was an alpha female known as 832F to scientists, but lovingly called " '06" by local tourists, after the year of her birth. She was the most famous wolf in all of Yellowstone National Park, and led the Lamar Canyon wolf pack.
832F wandered outside of the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park Thursday, where she was shot and killed — legally — by hunters in Wyoming. That was made possible by recently-passed federal and state regulations that allow the killing of wolves as game.
The changes have made headlines and caused controversy, with hunters and ranchers treating wolves as a threat to be eliminated, while conservationists and scientists are alarmed by the hunts that come so soon after wolvers were re-introduced into the area in 1995.
832F is so named because she was a research wolf. Scientists had fastened a $4,000 collar to her neck with GPS tracking technology that allowed them to track her movements and better understand both her habits and the life of the pack.
832F was also popular with tourists because of her immense size and ability as a hunter. Park wildlife experts said that she could take down animals on her own, according to the New York Times. Wolf advocates said that she was a devoted mother to her cubs as well as being leader of a relatively large pack.
Related:
Legislative proposal would make Utah wolves a game animal
Wildlife managers and public policymakers are gearing up for the day that wolves make a strong showing in Utah.She's the latest in a series of collared research wolves shot by hunters, with four being killed in the last few weeks.
Marc Cooke with the group Wolves of the Rockies alleged hunters were targeting collared animals, either for bragging rights or out of spite for wolf restoration in the Northern Rockies. Shooting a collared wolf is not illegal if it's done within state hunting regulations.
"The proportion of collared wolves is too high to believe this is not being done deliberately," Cooke said. "It's wrong, and the world needs to know this."
Yellowstone has roughly 88 wolves that hunt and live within its borders where they are protected from hunters. But seven of them have been killed while wandering outside the boundaries of the park this hunting season, almost ten percent of the population.
Advocates point out that while the re-introduced wolves have done well, there still is not a large enough population to sustain legal hunting.
Wolf trapping season in Montana begins on Dec. 15 which could further exacerbate that figure.
In 2008, Wolf 253, another famous wolf, was shot in Wyoming on the same day that legal protections on wolves were lifted by the Bush administration. Wolf 253 was known for his limp and could easily be spotted by tourists.
In 2002, he was found in a coyote trap near Morgan, Utah, 200 miles from his normal residence and the rest of his pack. Scientists took him back to his pack in Wyoming where he quickly re-joined them.
Utah has considered legislation that would classify wolves as a game animal, aimed at making it legal to kill them once federal protections are removed. But at least two Utah groups oppose removing protections and actually advocate re-introducing wolves into Utah.
In September, The Western Wildlife Conservancy and the Utah Environmental Congress were among 18 signatories that penned a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, urging the animal remain protected in the lower 48 states.
Contributing: Associated Press, Amy Joi O'Donaghue
