National Park After Dark - Caught in the Crosshairs: Yellowstone National Park

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

The relationship humans have with animals stretches back thousands of years. Animals provide us joy and companionship, can be the source of sadness or elicit fear. They can be our closest friends or our fiercest enemies, but out of all the species we share our planet with, there is one that evokes a greater range of human emotion than any other. An animal who has divided us and also unified us. Join us on another journey to Danielle’s favorite park, Yellowstone, where she shares the story of the American Wolf.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Olive & June: Use our link for 20% off your first mani system Skylight Frame: Get $10 off your purchase using code PARKProse: 15% off your first hair care order by using our linkFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monday AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff,

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. To oversimplify, relationships are complicated. Where there is love, understanding, and compassion,

there can also be frustration, misunderstanding, and anger. No relationship is ever hurdle-free. They take consistency and commitment to make them work. And while we typically think of our romantic partners in terms of relationships, in actuality, we have multiple. There are the ones that we have with our family, friends, and coworkers, of course, but I'm talking about the ones that we have with animals. Whether you have had an animal companion,

worked with animals, or simply just read about them or have seen them on TV, the human-animal relationship is one that stretches back to the earliest memories of humankind. We have loved them and feared them, studied their behavior, and used them for study. We have consumed them and hunted alongside them. We have fought to protect them, and fought to eliminate them. The relationship humans have with animals is complicated for a myriad of ways, but mostly because our regard for certain species is not universal.

The same animal that is celebrated by some is slaughtered by others. But there is one species of animal that evokes greater human emotion than any other. One who has been a magnet to which people from all walks of life are either pulled to or repelled against. one whose call strikes deep into our souls and one whose eyes can be gazed into only to see a direct reflection of ourselves. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Is this a wolf episode? Okay, don't even say you know it's a wolf episode because I've just been talking about it for days.

So yes, it is a wolf episode. We've been waiting for this for so long. You never would have known that based on the intro, right? I just know because of you, I think. Yeah. And maybe you hinted at it slash told me. Welcome back, everyone, to National Park After Dark. It feels like it's been forever since we've recorded.

And it kind of has been in our world because we just got back from finishing our moment. Yeah, at the Crescent Hotel in Arkansas in Eureka Springs, which I have to say really is a hidden gem. I had a really lovely time there. Yeah. And for anybody, I know that we have a lot of call. Colorado people out there. And Eureka Springs reminds me a lot of Manitou Springs. Yeah, you're saying that. So it's just like, it was a really, really cool town. And we didn't get to do a whole lot just because we were there so briefly. But what we did do was really fun, especially the moment itself being in the Crescent was

unbelievable. Our moment was so fun sharing stories about the Crescent. What's happened there? Spooky stuff, historical stuff. Cassie made it through the night. And I didn't get haunted. Well, actually, what does that mean? Actually, actually, actually. In our moment, we have that one brief second. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We brought a ghost meter and it went off while we were talking. While Danielle was talking about a ghost, actually, it started going off. So if you're interested and you want to see the moment, it is still streaming for the next like 48 hours, I believe. It's my mind. So it should be streaming until Wednesday. Yeah.

So you can still grab tickets. We do have exclusive merch on there by Rayco designs. And she, as always, just absolutely killed it and did an amazing job. So she has a really cool design for our haunted episode. But you can go to Momenthouse.com slash NPAD. Yes. And I think that's all that we really have to say off the top because I'm just going to warn everyone right now of a couple things. Number one, this episode is long. At least in my notes-wise, it's the longest

episode I've ever written. Oh, how long? So, yeah, it's 18 pages. Damn, wasn't the record before that, like 17 pages? 15 or 16, yeah. And I did really, really try and condense everything as much as possible, and it's still 18 pages long. So hopefully you have like a road trip you're on or you're doing something that you need your headphones in for a while because I have a feeling it's going to be lengthy. So there's your first warning. That's like a happy warning. I feel like everyone's stoked when we have. We're like, we're so sorry. This is an hour and a half and everyone's like, stop doing short episodes. I want it to be an hour now. Well, whether that is good or bad news, either way, there's the warning. Number two, this one is kind of tough. It can be emotional.

It's emotional for me. I have been researching this for quite a while just because I had to take emotional breaks. It's pretty heavy for me. And for, I'm guessing, people who really love animals, it's not a deterrent because I really think that everyone should listen to this, even though sometimes, like, when we mention animals or dogs or whatever, people are like, before I listen, does anything happen to the animal? Because I can't listen if it does. Don't have that frame of mind. This episode is really, really important. And it ties into our national parks. And it's just, just give it a chance. Yeah. Give it some grace. Take. breaks if you need to. Yeah. And then lastly, and pretty important, most importantly, I'd say,

is this subject is extremely polarizing, meaning it can be divisive. And not just through my research, I know this. It's because I've lived this and I've experienced this firsthand. And we'll talk about that throughout the episode. But this can be a really hot topic, hot button issue that can kind of like separate people into like two categories. Okay. And for that reason, I really, really urge everyone to keep an open mind and keep compassion in their hearts for everybody, no matter where they fall on this issue, keep an open mind and have some understanding. I think I genuinely don't know what this story is for everyone that's listening, but I think the biggest thing about like when we do cover any controversial topics, it's never

to be like, we're spitting information at you that you have to agree with. It's that we're opening the doors for a conversation. And that's how it always says, we're going to talk about this controversial subject, but it's not to shame anyone or to discredit what you believe. It's to open a conversation and to open your minds to other views and to have like a real conversation on both sides, not just ours. A thousand percent. And I did try my very hardest to take a step back and not be influenced by my own emotions and thoughts. That being said, of course, I have a stance on this and it may show. But that's okay.

Everyone's entitled to their own thing. And I feel like I'm really building this up. So let's just get into it. Where are we going? What park are we going to? Okay. So we're going to my favorite park talking about my favorite thing. And that is we're going to Yellowstone National Park and we're talking about wolves.

That's just an opening for an intense episode. And a good one, one that you really care about. I'm really excited. I'm glad you're doing this. Tell me everything. Okay. Oh, wait. Two other things.

Real quick. Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay. We're not talking a lot about them. Just two quick bullet points. Number one, I'm going to talk about like a couple of groups of people and they're going to be vast generalizations. So when I say something about particular groups like hunters or ranchers or etc, I'm not talking about every single person who ranches or is a hunter feels a particular way. So don't take offense to that. If you don't agree with some of their stances, great. If you do, fine. Just no one come after me and be like, oh, I, you know, you said this about this type of person. And I don't agree with that. We're not putting everyone into a box.

Correct. And then lastly, lastly, promise. For the majority of this episode, I'm going to be focusing on wolves in the Rocky Mountains, the northern Rocky Mountains. So these are the states that are going to be Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Okay. Because otherwise, we are literally going to be here until like your episode comes out next Monday. Okay.

So just also another thing to keep in mind. All right. Here we go. Let's go to Yale Stone. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already

read twice. Off campus, L. every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel. Feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Spring has arrived in Yellowstone, and the park is stirring. Red warblers sink from their perches amongst the lodgepole pines. Grizzly cubs toddle behind their mothers, bison calves find their legs as they teeter amongst their herds, rivers and streams gush with increased intensity fed by the recent snow melt, and 06 opens her eyes

for the very first time. Born just two weeks prior, she has spent the first part of her life, nuzzled up with her siblings, tucked away in a den, carefully chosen by her mother to shield her young family from harm's way. She entered the world mini, coming in at a whopping one pound, her tiny eyes bluish gray, her ears crinkled little dots, no bigger than a fingernail. Now opening those little eyes, the world is fuzzy at first. Her vision won't fully develop for another couple of weeks, but the world is starting to come into focus. Her future is one of the top predators in the park was coming, but for now, just standing was an obstacle. Her first couple of weeks were limited to wiggling and slowly crawling inch by inch, a humble start, but it didn't last for long.

As the weeks passed, she found her legs and was able to stand and walk. Her grunts and whimpers turned to high-pitched squeaks as she threw her small head back in her first attempts at a howl, and low menacing growls emitted from her fluffy four-pound body. She was a growing little lady and was fed four to five times a day, leading to an average weight gain of two to three pounds every week. Life was cozy in the den, but it wasn't enough. Now, at almost a month old, her ears have perked up, she can hear, smell, and see clearer than ever before. Her teeth have come in, and she's begun weaning off of her mother's milk, now mixing it up with meat provided to her and her siblings by the adults. Her feet have grown fast, giving her a disproportionate and floppy appearance as she emerges from the den and out into the big wide world.

The big wide world for now happens to be the Agate Creek area of Yellowstone National Park. South of the famed Lamar Valley, located in the northern part of the park, not far from where the creek conjoins with and spills into the canyon that holds the mighty Yellowstone River. This area is prime wolf habitat, and it is here that 06,000. will learn the foundations of how to be a successful wolf. Not a day will pass without a valuable lesson. Over time, tussles with her littermates in the form of dominance and playfighting will establish hierarchy, and the den will slowly be abandoned. Her and her siblings will begin traveling longer distances every day, and over the following months, observing the adults will teach them how to hunt, what behaviors are acceptable, and how to stay safe, and how to interpret

different focalizations. It's true that where you're born can be advantageous, and it's no different for wolves. Yellowstone is arguably one of the most favorable locations for a wolf to be born, but it wasn't always that way. You see, 06 is the great grandchild of the first wolves to roam Yellowstone in close to a century. Her great-grandmother, dubbed 9F by researchers, was captured on the plains of Western Canada within Jasper National Part, along with a handful of other wolves, and brought 800 miles south to Yellowstone. Their return in 1995 heralded a new age and a second chance for wolves in the area, which had suffered the consequences of their absence. Gray wolves were once found in nearly every habitat from the Arctic Circle all the way down to present-day Mexico City, but found themselves

the target of a centuries-long eradication campaign, mirroring the arrival of European settlers. Prior to European colonization, hundreds of thousands of wolves lived alongside hundreds of different indigenous tribes, but that coexistence changed dramatically with the arrival of settlers. In regards to the United States, the government funded eradication campaigns as soon as we stepped foot onto the North American continent from Europe, and I mean almost literally. The first documented bounty on wolves came from the Massachusetts Bay colony in the year 1630, and spread throughout the country. throughout the years. Some colonial governments even forced different indigenous tribes to pay regular tribute to them in the form of dead wolves, despite their longstanding peaceful coexistence. As time went on, professional and civilian hunters used firearms, traps, poison, explosives,

and eventually, with the advent of aircraft, aerial shooting, to wipe out wolves. They were slaughtered by the thousands, with no exaggeration. Between the years of 1870 and 18, 177, 100,000 wolves per year were killed. State by state, bounty systems were enacted, and in some, there was even a steep penalty for freeing a wolf that was caught in a trap. On the Great Plains, poison was the preferred method of slaughter. Buffalo meat, laced with poison, would be left along a root in which a man would be riding via horseback, essentially in a giant circle.

So by the time the circle was complete and he wound up where he started, the root would be littered. with dead wolves. And of course, any other animal that came to scavenge that meat. So this included bycatch of birds of prey, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, fox, and more. I was going to say when you poison animals, it's a train after that because even a mouse can get into that. And then, like, a bird eats a mouse. And it's just like this never-ending cycle. Yeah, well, there's that, obviously if an animal consumes an animal that had ingested poison, but poison itself is nonspecific. So you can't just lay out poison and tainted meat and be like, this is just for wolves. Right. Yeah, no one else come over here. Yeah, exactly. So at this point, the wolves were

either then skinned or left there to rot entirely. And just as a side note, I said laced buffalo meat and it was buffalo for a reason because we haven't talked about it in particular. I don't think. Maybe in like a side conversation, but the U.S. government funded the decimation of another species, and that was the buffalo. At one point, there was a mass campaign to eradicate buffalo in this country as well. So not only were they using buffalo meat to poison wolves by eradicating buffalo, they were also taking away a key food source for the wolves of the plains, which made it even more difficult for any remaining survivors to survive and thrive. Yeah, they were really messing up the entire ecosystem.

food chain. So by the year 1915, the first government hired wolf hunters came onto the scene. And over the next 27 years, over 24,000 wolves were killed by them alone. While some of the slaughter was fueled by the desire for their pelts, the vast and overwhelming

majority of the eradication campaign stemmed from the livestock industry and for livestock protection. Wolves were dubbed vermin and, quote unquote, the beast of waste and destruction by Theodore Roosevelt himself, a man widely remembered for his environmental activism. Many citizens thought that they were doing God's work by stripping the land of wolves,

and photos of wolf skins, skulls, and bodies piled high can be found prevalently throughout this time in history. By the 1960s, the American people had almost successfully won their war against the wolf. Out of the estimated 600,000 wolves in the lower 48 states upon European arrival, less than 300 individuals remained deep in the wildernesses of Michigan and Minnesota. Wow. Less than 300. Even the numbers that you're just saying where you're like 24,000 were killed 100,000 a year, it's hard to even picture that number because it doesn't exist now.

You know, like you're not in Colorado and you're like, there's 100,000 wolves here. There's not 100,000 wolves anywhere in the United States. Yeah, never mind. For a year. It's just like even thinking of that number is insane. It's just hard to even think about because right now, like, that's just not a thing. Right. Of course, as we know, Yellowstone is not Northern Michigan and Minnesota.

And by the 1960s, when those 300 individuals were up there, Yellowstone had been a park for nearly 100 years. So, you know, like what's the deal with that? Yellowstone, the world's first national park, which had been designated for protection and preservation, didn't exactly extend that grace to all of its inhabitants. The last wolves born in Yellowstone National Park were killed as pups in 1926 and not by poachers. Park Rangers had pulled the trigger. Early superintendents of Yellowstone had engaged in an intense predator prey control program, which extended beyond just wolves to include bears, cougars, and coyotes as well.

Their goal in this? To protect the animals considered to be the park's main attractions, which at the time were elk, antelope, and big horn sheep. Rangers would patrol on foot or on horseback through the park to find and eliminate active den sites and the pups inhabiting them, along with their adult families. But times and perceptions had changed in the wolf's favor by the time 06 was born. In its infancy, park officials did not fully understand the science of wildlife management.

Yellowstone's earliest managers genuinely thought that without intervention, wolves would decimate the park's prey population. Of course, we know now that they were wrong. Predator and prey species such as wolves and elk, bison, and deer have coexisted for thousands of years. In fact, wolves have been the driving force behind the evolution of different prey species. Furthermore, and even more tragically, park managers didn't understand what their absence would do to the park and the very animals that they were aiming to protect. In the wake of the absence of wolves, the ungulate population exploded, and the landscape suffered tremendously.

Prey animals had little need to worry in a world without wolves. With no packs giving them chase, there was little need to move around. Herds' decimated stands of young trees and shrubs, overgraced hillsides began to erode, and riverbanks crumbled. The surge and ungulate population was not only detrimental to the landscape, the increase in numbers affected the herds themselves. starvation and disease were prevalent, and soon park managers realized that something had to be done. Between the years of 1930 and the 1960s, park officials slaughtered thousands of elk every single year. It wasn't until hunters put pressure on the program and called for its end, did the park slaughter cease. Many of these hunters lived right outside of the park and benefited from the increase in elk population because the elk migrated out of the park in the winter months, which led them right into the hunting.

enter's open season. Yeah. So the park-funded elk slaughter program ended, but the population quickly rebounded and the same problems resurfaced that they were trying to mitigate in the first place. If you don't have any predators, then you have all of these herbivores that are eating all of the vegetation, which also messes with everything else because then you have birds or you have like the voles and like small little insects and things that you might not even think about that have been living in the environment

that are now. It literally messes up the entire food chain. Take one thing out and the rest of it. And oh, honey, we'll get to that. Don't be worried. So they had this problem. And a solution in the form of wolves was actually first introduced

as early as the 1940s. But it was not seriously considered until the 1970s. The states surrounding Yellowstone were adamantly opposed to any reintroduction of wolves in any way. And these states, like I mentioned before, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

They have huge ranching, farming, and hunting communities, and a deep-seated disdain for wolves, and it ran thick. The livestock industry was big money in the area, and ranchers had unfettered access to hundreds of thousands of acres of land, some of it public, devoid of the risk of these predators for years. Also, hunting drew in millions of dollars. Professional hunting guides raked in money from out-of-state clients, and local businesses benefited from the tourism that hunting brought.

So these states are like, absolutely not. You know, we have gone decades without the presence of wolves. And I don't, I hesitate to say predators because, of course, there are predators in the area. There's, you know, cougars made a comeback. They had been wiped out almost. But they made it come back. There's obviously grizzly bears, coyotes, things like that. But nothing like wolves in the way that wolves behave.

So they were very hesitant. If the wolves were guaranteed to stay in the park, it may have been an entirely different discussion, but with an average of 50 square miles, 129 square kilometers, to over 1,000 square miles or 2,500-ish square kilometers, territorial range per pack, it was inevitable that they would migrate outside of Yellowstone. The problem with this, you ask, locals would be able to do little to combat the spread. The gray wolf was put on the Endangered Species Act, the federal Endangered Species Act, in 1974, which meant that they would be protected even outside of park boundaries. The reintroduction was approved after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended up striking a deal with these particular states.

And that deal was as soon as the wolf population was deemed stable, they would be removed from the federal endangered species list and immediately be available for hunting. Doesn't that just create an environment where they can become extinct to the area again? Cassie, with the hard-hitting questions, yes. The answer is yes. I mean, if they're like immediately off the endangered list, you can't repeat what we already did. You're just like striking a court. And it seems like such an obvious question and answer. Literally, that's the first question that you asked, like given the scenario. And it's one that is kind of like a duh. moment, like a face paw moment. Why the hell are we even like discussing this? That seems ridiculous, but it's very, very complicated and very politically fueled. And it's something that we'll touch upon,

but you could read entire books dedicated to this issue. So it is something that is quite complicated, and I'm going to try and do my best of explaining it. But yeah. So locals in these states fought the reintroduction down to the wire, literally delaying the actual opening, of the cages within Yellowstone National Park as they pleaded with a federal judge. But the cages opened nonetheless, and on January 15, 1995, 06's great-grandparents at long, long last, came home. Fast forward 13 years, and 06 was running through the park as if wolves had never missed a beat. At roughly three years old, she was already considered an adult. Although born a dark brownish-black coloring, as all wolves are, she had matured into a dappled gray.

with distinctive face markings. Faint black oval surrounded each of her eyes, wedges of white ran along the bridge of her nose and poured into her cheeks, while a streak of gray ran from the tip of her nose to the crown of her head. Behind those markings, her bluish-gray eyes had long faded

and matured into a deep gold. They darted to focus in on every minute movement in the valley below as she scanned her surroundings, the northern range. Referred to as the Serengeti of North America, the northern range lies in the northern part of Yellowstone National Park. The nickname was given to this location based on the sheer number of ungulate species that can be found in its valleys.

Elk, bison, prong, horn, mule deer, they all thrive here in huge numbers. This location also serves as the place where the largest elk herding Yellowstone spends their winters. Because of all of these things, it also holds the densest year-round wolf population of any location in North America. Other predators such as cougars and bears flock here as well because of all of the prey availability, which makes the northern range a very smart place to be, but also a very dangerous one, especially dangerous for 06, because right now she was alone. She had left her natal pack at the ripe old age of one in search of a mate and a territory of her own, which is common for wolves.

But 06 is not your common wolf. She had mated with several males over the years that she had run into along her journey, but up to this point, she never settled down and she never had a litter. At one point, she even ran into her older sister and her sister's male companion, and they hunted together and spent some time together, but it never lasted. She's like the fun aunt. She is at this point, yes. And the reason why she didn't settle down with her sister and her sister's companion is because

they were set to be kind of like a mated pair, which means that social structure-wise, she would have fallen below. She would have been lower ranking in that dynamic. And she did not have the personality for that. Yeah. So she kind of just moved along. Okay. Which this behavior, as far as being a solo wolf for so long, especially as a female, is unusual. It's very dangerous. And not to mention a lot of hard work. The success of wolves can be largely attributed to the pack as a whole. For wolves, sociability enhances the chances for survival. Their support and safety in numbers, neither of which 06 had at this point. As carnivores, wolves hunt mammals of all kinds, including, you know, beavers, small rodents,

rabbits, but those pale in comparison to their preferred meals like elk, bison, and moose. Wolves can eat up to 20 pounds or 9 kilograms in a single sitting. Wow. And they require several. pounds of food every single day to survive. Taking down a meal that provides such sustenance is tough work, even for a skilled pack of several animals. These prey animals can be massive, and they have evolved alongside predators. They evolved to become not-so-easy meals with serious evading skills, speed, and hooves that can deliver killer kicks. Being a lone wolf is hard, but being a lone female

wolf is much harder. Lone males who roam in search of finding a mate and creating their own pack, wind up being unsuccessful in that in Denver, have a better chance of being accepted into an existing pack. But on the other hand, lone females that are doing the same thing are often rejected by the sole breeding female of an existing pack, often referred to as the alpha. For this reason, a lot of lone wolves will either wind up back at their needle pack so the pack that they were born into, or they die alone. And speaking of being rejected, territorial disputes are the most common cause of death for wolves in Yellowstone National Park, whom only live an average of four to five years. That's really short. Because what is it regularly? So wolves in captivity, obviously,

much cushier life. The wolves that I worked with, it wouldn't be surprising for them to average like 10 to 14 years. We had a couple 16-year-old wolves. Yeah, four to five years on average in the wild is normal for wolves. O6's own grandmother, known as 42, by research. The last of the Canadian-born wolves was caught alone one day as she wandered away from the safety of her pack and was killed by a rival pack. So life is tough for wolves. Despite the dangers, O-6 fared very well on her own. She proved to be a skilled and thoughtful hunter, evaded trouble, and stood her ground. But after nearly two years, all by herself, in January of 2010, her days as a lone wolf came to an end.

She had been howling for days in search of a mate. and finally one appeared. Actually, two. And they were brothers, only about a year in age. They responded to her calls, and the three animals approached one another. Very wary, but interested. And they hid it off. And 06 found herself interested in the smaller of the brothers.

And she signaled this by laying her head alongside of his back. Like, oh, I choose you. She kind of reminds me of Lady Lua. Oh, yeah, the lion. Yeah, where she was alone for a long time, and she's just surviving and thriving on her own, even though that's like very rare. And then she found her mate. Yeah, I loved that story.

I love animal stories. Tell me more. Okay. So although both of these brothers were black and coloring, 06's choice in men had a sprinkle of gray on his muzzle and along his chest giving him a distinguished appearance. The brothers later known as 754 and 755, so 755 is the one of the one that. that she chose as her mate, they were actually part of a pack known as the Druids. She had been trailing this particular pack and howling nearby in kind of like an attempt to

lure some eligible males away. She had gotten their attention, but not without consequence. So she has the brother's attention, but she also has the attention of other members of the Druid pack. The female sensed what she was up to and chased after her. They weren't in any shape to lose young, healthy male members of their pack. to somebody else. That winter had been particularly rough for them. Difficulty taking down large prey, coupled with a rampant case of mange, weakened the pack. But 06 was cunning and she was quick. She was

chased, but evaded them with ease, managing to steal away the larger of the brothers, and she led him up to a nearby overlook and looked down on the druid pack from above. She could have run. Sure, gaining two wolves would help bolster her numbers, provide assistance hunting, and provide additional safety, but 06 had mastered soul life before, and it was clear that she would be just fine with one of these brothers. She had chosen her mate, though, and this brother was not him. So instead, she hung back and howled, enticing the other one to come along. Her siren song worked, and after a short time spent back with his pack, 755 eventually ran off to join 06 and his brother, leaving his family behind to start a new life. Both of these brothers were enamored by 06.

That much was clear. They both pined for her attention, but it became clear that 755 would become her mate, and he made sure to assert his dominance whenever it came to gaining her attention. He may have been the boss of his brother, but no one was the boss of 06. It was clear that she ran the show in pretty much every way. She took the lead on hunts, and on more than one occasion, served as the only hunter, as the brothers, still pretty inexperience at only a year or so old, ran in circles. or chased after the wrong animal entirely and were overall pretty much very unhelpful.

So she's like, I like you guys, but you're really not doing much. I just like your company. Yeah. She taught them the ropes, essentially. I like her. Yeah, she's cool. But for the first little while there, it must have been extremely frustrating for her. You know, like, please help.

You know, this is the one. We're going to go after this. And then they're just like chasing the entirely wrong animal. She's like, this is what I get for being a cougar going after. younger men. Like, they just don't know anything. Yeah, like rolling her eyes. But like I said, as time went on, the brothers watched and learned, as wolves do, and eventually mastered the ropes, at least to some extent. Let's not give them all the credit. By May of 2010, 06 was spending most of her time in a den, about a mile outside of Lamar Valley. She had become a mother for the first time, and her pups needed her.

This meant that it was up to the brothers to find food. Not an entirely reassure. prospect. But 06 couldn't defend the den, hunt, and nurse her babies all at one time. She can't be everywhere at once. So the brothers were relied heavily upon it during this time, especially when the grizzlies closed in on the den. But they were far off, hunting or scavenging for food, which left 06 alone. One particular encounter resulted in a standoff that lasted well over seven hours. She continuously nipped and chased after the bears in an effort to draw them away from her young. 06 in this regard, and in all others, proved to be a stellar mom. 755 became an attentive father, and 754 was the fun uncle. He joyfully and tolerantly played with the pups as they transitioned

from crawling to bounding, taking his fair share of pummels throughout the journey. He also never seemed to give up on showing 06 his affection, despite not receiving much back, sneaking in a quick Knazzle when his brother wasn't around, but quickly falling right back into place when he returned. Not only was O6 adored by her family, now dubbed the Lamar Canyon Pack. She became one of the most beloved wolves in all of Yellowstone. She had been watched from afar by park biologists and researchers for years at this point, but the location of her first den put her front and center with Yellowstone's tourists. Her den was visible, albeit by a scope, like binoculars or a spotting scope. Okay. From the Low Creek Campground Road. So at this point, you're at the campground, you're on that road.

If you take a pair of binoculars out, you can see the location of her den and her pups and her raising everybody. Like, she became a superstar. And soon word got out. People gathered hurriedly peeking through their binoculars for a chance to see one of Yellowstone's brightest stars. And Wolfwatching in Yellowstone became big business. The National Park Service predicted that there would be a rise in visitation to the park after they reintroduced wolves. And Boy, were they right. Not only did visitation rise, but so too did revenue. According to a 2021 USDA report, 10 years after Wolf reintroduction, which would bring us to 2005, Wolf-related visitation in Yellowstone, on its own, produced over $47 million in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming every single year. Wow, that's a lot of money. And it continues to grow. And that's just from people coming for a chance to Wolf Watch. I mean, I know every time I've been to Yellowstone, I've been like, I want to see a wolf.

Like, I'm looking out far into the distance. Yeah. And distance. I'm like, where is one? Like, I'm waiting for one to just, like, quickly run across the road, across my car. But I've never seen one there. I saw one when I was there. But it was extremely brief.

Yeah. Like a flash, you know, like running into the tree line. So barely. And I considered myself very lucky. I used to, when I lived in Jackson, Wyoming, there was a wolf den, like, over the ridge from where I was. So every day I would hear them howling or like every night I would hear it. And it was just like, it's like, it's almost like bone chilling and like a little eerie and so cool at the same time. It's just, you know they're about to go out for their hunt or you're just sitting there and it's

dead quiet and then you just hear wolves. It's eerie and it's magical all in the same. It strikes a cord. There's nothing like a wolf howl. Whether or not you've heard it in person, just hearing a wolf Howell recording or it on TV or something like there, I think it kind of like taps into something in the human psyche just because we've lived alongside wolves for so long when it comes to humans in general. I mean, we domesticated dogs from wolves. Like, we have such a complex relationship with them and one that goes back so many thousands of years. Like, I truly think, whether you like wolves or not, like, it hits you in a different way. Yeah. You know, like I feel differently when I hear a wolf howl versus when I hear, I don't know, like a lion roar or something.

Like they're both astounding, but there is something a little different when it comes to a wolf howl. So as we mentioned before, just briefly, there is another big business right outside of the park. For decades prior to the wolf reintroduction, hunting outside of Yellowstone, especially in the area north of the park, was regarded as some of the best elk hunting spots in the entire country. Some people would save upwards of $5,000 and wait years just for the chance to get a guided hunt in this area. At one point, there were up to 10 different outfiters all operating out of the same area. The demand was that high. And the demand was high because trophy kills were almost always guaranteed.

Elk were prevalent, and guides could easily lure the placid animals which began acting more like cattle than elk in the absence of wolves so that their client could take a shot. But when the wolves came back, there was a change in elk, numbers, and behavior. And these changes enraged hunters. Less elk, and more difficult to hunt elk, meant less revenue. In 1995, an estimated 19,000 elk roamed just the northern range of Yellowstone. And 15 years later, in 2010, that number went down to 6,000, roughly to the levels of what it had been when the park service was coaling the animals back in the 1960s. Okay. Like when the park was managing the numbers themselves.

But this decline was not just because of wolves. And game officials tried to reassure the local hunters of that. Montana and Wyoming officials were alarmed by the sheer number and sheer size of the elk herds and the damage that they were doing to the habitat. So in response, they issued more hunting permits and extended the hunting season, which at the time hunters loved. I mean, it's like we can get more elk and kill them for longer. Like, that's great. You know, they loved that at the time.

But this, coupled with a drought and habitat loss due to development of the greater Yellowstone area, which was fast becoming one of the fastest growing regions of all of the United States, all contributed to a decline in elk that they were now seeing. But of course, who are you going to pin it on? So hunters weren't having it, especially after the elk that remained were becoming more wary of their presence. For generations, the elk that had led a largely predator-free existence, were now way more wary.

They were less likely to stay out in the open, and rather they stuck to the safety of heavier forested areas and higher elevations, which made them harder to hunt. Slowly, hunting outfitters started to close up shop. They found it too difficult to maintain the high cost of operation because big game trophy hunting wasn't the same as it had been in the previous few decades. But it wasn't just about trophy hunters.

While most of the elk shot in this area were for, trophies. In this part of the country, a lot of people rely on hunting for sustenance. Why go to the grocery store when you can feed your entire family for an entire year with a good elk kill, you know, like a big bull elk. You can feed your family for a really long time. And it's even better when your walking grocery store are animals that are placid. They remain close to the road. They're unafraid of you. They're unafraid of predators in the area. They're just kind of like there for the taking. It's easy. Yeah, it's easy. A change in elk numbers and this behavior was starting to piss off hunters of all kinds. And if hunters were pissed, ranchers were livid. Combined, the two

groups composed the anti-wolf group, but they had different reasons, and sometimes they were actually enemies of each other. Cattle competed with elk for the best forage in a battle that cattle oftentimes won out on, because you see, the same area that hosted all of these hunting outfitters had just as many cattle operations, and all of which grazed their herds on open, unfenced public land owned by the National Forest Service. So the cattle would munch down all this lush green grass, and then they'd be taken away for the fall to their winter ground,

so to another location. And near this time, elk would be coming into the area from the park because they're migrating out of the park and into this area, where they would usually spend the winter, but after the cattle had been there and munched everything down, there was not much for them left, and hence they had no reason to stay. So they would move along. Or they'd find their way onto private ranch land that had a lot of yummy alfalfa meant for the cows, and they'd eat all that up.

So this, all of this stuff really started to, you know, they started to buttheads a lot. And tensions were rising between hunters and cattle ranchers. Because it's their livelihood on both sides. On both fronts. Yeah. Exactly. Sometimes ranchers would plop their cows right next to the road. highways and national forest adjacent to the park and just let them graze.

And once in a while, an unlucky tourist would hit an unlucky cow on their way to or from Yellowstone. Losing cattle is part of the ranching business. Some would be lost to weather, injury, or illness, and others would be taken by a cougar or grizzly from time to time. But with the reintroduction of wolves, ranchers started to draw the line in the sand. The wolf impact on ranching, statistically speaking, is insignificant. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, okay, I'm about to drop some numbers on you guys, but it's really important. I feel like a bomb's about to drop. It's like, puss. I really condense this stuff, like I said. This is the only statistical analysis in here. It's really important, though. So according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the year 2014 in the Northern Rocky Mountains, again, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, a total of 136 cattle, 114,

sheep were killed by wolves. But there is another set of numbers floating around, according to the National Agricultural Statistical Service of the NASS. If you were to ask them, the numbers were different. They were 2,835 cattle and 453 sheep killed by wolves in the same region in the same year. Whoa, those are wildly different numbers. Yes. So the reason for that, thank you for asking. I already have an answer. Oh, good. So the NASSS numbers are based on self-reported survey of livestock producers and do not include verification of kills, meaning that the accuracy of this data is questionable and the reports likely overestimate the number of livestock killed by wolves. So there's no verification process versus the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are confirming that

these were predated by wolves, essentially. So I guess my question, so the other numbers that we're getting from the National Forest Service and stuff, those are the 100 and what was 150? So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed 136 cattle and 114 sheep. Okay. So those were confirmed that they did. I guess my question there would be, is it a difficult process to do that? And would people not want to go through the process of having their cows identified by being eaten by wolves? That's a great question.

And I guess my answer is I'm unsure to say one way or the other. However, there is a government reimbled. program for ranchers and livestock owners, if they can verify that their livestock had been killed by or predated on by a wolf, they will be reimbursed monetarily wise. Okay. You would think maybe the incentive would be higher, but at the same time, it all depends on what your end goal is. Do you want to report, inflate the numbers and be like, see, all these wolves are slaughting all our animals, so we need to get rid of them? It's kind of like, are you after the

money or are you after something deeper, which is to get rid of the wolf problem? Yeah. And I guess like my just view of dealing with the government and going into all that and getting reimbursed and stuff, like it might just be a process where people are like, yeah, this happened. This sucks. I hate wolves. And then like not report it.

So I'm just like the numbers are so wildly different that I feel like they have to both be wrong because they're so wildly different that there has to be like something. thing. Something's up. Yeah. Well, because there is variation on those two numbers, I have a little bit of a calculation. Okay. Using the confirmed data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, those numbers that are confirmed because they're confirmed and I want to use those. And then comparing that to the data from the NASS that reported the total number of livestock in the area in those three states, the calculated percentage of cattle killed by wolves in the northern Rocky Mountain states in that year using those numbers is less than 1%. Wow. So it's still so insignificant. Yeah, whether it's 136 or 2000,

like it's not comprising a huge chunk of loss. But it is really, really important to say, I stress that it's statistically insignificant. It doesn't mean that it's insignificant period. because even though overall wolves account for a really, really small percentage of cattle losses, some ranchers are hit way, way harder than others. Predations are generally unevenly distributed and localized, meaning that some ranchers suffer greater losses to their herds while others remain almost entirely unaffected. So looking at it statistically, it's like no biggie, but looking at it from an individual

rancher's perspective, it could potentially ruin their livelihood, depending on how significantly their herd was affected, how big their operation is, how heavily they rely upon that for, you know, their livelihood, etc. So I hate to say it's insignificant. So like what the hell is the problem? Because these are people's lives and this is how people make money in these areas and it is a big deal to them. Because of this, plus a long-running and deep felt disdain for the animals, wolves outside of Yellowstone have big targets on their backs. When the wolves were first reintroduced into Yellowstone, they were protected, like I mentioned earlier, under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Occasionally, problem wolves were killed by government officials, even though they

were protected as endangered species if it was proven that they had been repeat offenders regarding livestock depredation, but outside of that, shooting a wolf was a big no-no. But that didn't stop people from doing it. O6's great-grandfather, 10M, one of the first wolves to step foot back into Yellowstone, was killed by a man named Chad McKittrick. Chad was arrested and charged with a federal offense for shooting an endangered animal and originally claimed that he thought he was shooting a feral dog. However, based on testimony from his friend that he was with at the time, Chad had decapitated the wolf, removed its collar,

and threw it in a culvert hoping that the water would destroy the evidence. The radio caller kept on transmitting, their waterproof, obviously, and he was tracked down. He faced fines of up to 150. thousand dollars and up to two years in jail. Yet while on bail, he was proud of what he had done, and he showed it off. He wore a shirt that said Northern Rockies' Wolf Reduction Program project as he rode horseback down Main Street during the 4th of July parade. Because nothing screams America more than killing endangered species. In 1996, McKittrick was convicted of three misdemeanor counts,

killing an endangered species, possessing it, and transporting it. And his sentence included three months in jail, three months and a halfway house, which... What? I don't know what that means? Isn't that for drugs? That's what I thought. And I just kind of... I'm like, you know what?

I have bigger fish to fry here. I'm just not going to look into that. He's fine. He was fine. I don't know what a halfway house is in this regard. And he was charged to pay $10,000 in restitution. At his trial, he testified that he thought the animal he can't. killed was a dog, a rabid feral dog. And using this mistaken identity argument, he appealed to the

U.S. Supreme Court. McKittrick lost there, but then later one after the Department of Justice kind of backpedaled on its policy. In fact, they adopted a brand new one. Called the McKittrick policy, this basically states that U.S. attorneys will prosecute someone accused of killing an endangered species. So it doesn't have to be just a wolf, just any animal on the endangered species act. But only when they can prove that the killer specifically intended to kill an endangered species. Okay. And I wrote internally screams. I know. So all someone has to say is like, I didn't know. Whoops. Didn't know. I thought it was a dog. How is that even better? Right. It's like so. I thought it was someone's house pet. I'm so sorry.

Like, okay. It's very close. Clearly a wolf, it has a radio color on. And then you decapitated it. And how many dogs are running around Yellowstone? Like, come on. Yeah, this guy can, yeah, the McKittrick policy is something that is, I can't even get into it. That's, I just wanted to put it out there that it exists. And it stemmed from the killing of a wolf.

While 10M may have been the first, he wasn't the last. Wolves have been poached in staggering numbers in every state that they reside in, not just around Yellowstone. Poaching continues, and every year in every state that has a wolf population, have reports of illegal trapping, shooting, or poisoning. Despite the tragedy of poaching, what troubles ecologists, wolf advocates, and conservationists more, is that now it's legal. Poaching, of course, is not, but the slaughter of wolves has essentially been greenlit. And there's a very, like, when I say long and complicated back and forth legality-wise,

I truly mean it. It makes my head spin as far as the listing, delisting, appeals, lawsuits, and junctions from both the pro-wolf side and the anti-wolf side, state versus federal protections, etc. It is so complicated. And if you want a actual breakdown timeline and detailed history legality-wise and policy-wise, I'll link it in the sources. It'll be under the International Wolf Center link. It's actually really great information. But it's, It's so complicated because there's state and federal policies and loopholes. And there's also different regions. So there's the northern Rocky Mountains.

There's the Great Lakes. There's a Mexican gray wolf population in Arizona, New Mexico that are all managed separately and differently. It's really, really complicated. Because there's so many different hands in the pot. It's like everybody makes their own rules for certain regions and people have different. You know, I mean, I'm sure that there's different amount of ranchers and different amount of hunters in certain areas. and there's more issues in certain areas than others. So it's just like creating a big...

And politics goes into this more so than science. It's just there's a lot. But if you're interested, then the link will be there for you. But for everybody else who just wants like the... Just skim the top version, please. The most simplified version of events that I can convey to you in a vast generalization in regards to the federal endangered species protection is wolves were reintroduced and put under federal endangered species protection in 1995 and 1996.

They were then delisted federally in 2008. They were then relisted in 2014, delisted in 2020, and then most recently, relisted in 2022, like a month or two ago. Wow. So it wasn't even faster turnaround this time where they're like, okay, there's so many wolves being killed. Yeah. Between all of this, there are so many back and full. of, okay, they're relisted here, but not here. You can hunt them here, but not here. They're on

the state endangered species list, but not the federal or vice versa. It's just so complicated, and it makes it really difficult to follow. So that's kind of just like the gist of it. It's always back and forth if you, you know, want kind of just like the gist of the situation. And at face value, the relisting in 2022, I mean, a lot of people who know that I'm a big wolf person sent us links. thank you for different articles saying, you're like, yay, they're relisted. And it's great news. And at face value, that seems really great. And it is in a lot of ways. But these listings aren't always all encompassing. And like I said, it's complicated. But this most recent one that came just months ago does not apply to the wolves in the Northern Rockies, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as parts

of Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, in Northern Utah. So it's like, wolves are protected. it again in places that they don't live. I was going to say, where does it protect then? So the Great Lake States. Okay. So it's huge. Minnesota area. Wisconsin.

Michigan, yep. So it's big for them because they were hit really hard. It is a win in some ways, but I just want to make it known that, like, read the fine print. Yeah. It's a win, but more could be done. Exactly. Those animals that are not included in this relisting will continue to be managed. by states and not the federal government, which is the problem. Because wolf hunts are hardly

responsibly regulated and more often than not wildly out of hand. States are responsible for drafting their own management plans, meaning once protections are lifted at the federal level, it's essentially open season and shit hits the fan. For example, in the first five years following their delisting and legal hunting commenced, trophy hunters took 2,000. 500 wolves in the Northern Rockies and 1,500 of them were in the state of Idaho alone. In the first five years of delisting. Wow. That's a, I feel like I've said wow a lot, but just these numbers are.

They're staggering. And I know it's kind of boring sometimes to hear numbers, but it truly is important to grasp the scope of what we're talking about here. It does. It puts a lot into perspective because like I said earlier, the numbers that you're saying are so large that I didn't even realize that this is how. Like I knew it was a big number, but then you hear the actual number and it's like, hold on. What?

And it's just so, so sombering because this isn't a species that it's like, okay, they're off the endangered species list. They're not endangered anymore, but they're not fully recovered yet. So maybe there should be like a middle ground before we're like, all right, hunt them all. Yeah. We're going from zero to 60 really fast. And that's why we keep having these back and force with listing and delisting because we're not managing the numbers responsibly. While it's difficult to give exact estimates of wolf populations,

it's really difficult to get exact numbers. Both Montana and Idaho reduced wolf populations down to at least 100 below pre-hunting levels. So we don't know the exact numbers of wolves that are in these states at this point at this time after the delisting and the hunting commenced, but we know it was below what we started with. Okay. So we're already on the track. to re-endangering. We're in the step back. Yeah. More examples.

In 2018, when Wyoming allowed wolf hunts 365 days a year, across 85% of the state, and bonus, they were classified as shoot-on-site vermin, so you didn't even need a hunting license. 2018. Over 500 wolves have been killed in Montana and Idaho just last spring. In Wisconsin, hunters overshot their quota by 80% harvesting 218 wolves in less than three days. Three days. Last February, as soon as hunting season began. Within three days, they overshot their quota by 80%. Wow. In 2017, in Jackson Hole near the Teton's, 44 wolves were killed in the first 40 hours of open season, and not to mention the additional 32 that were killed across the rest of the state. And I could literally go on and on and on, but I just wanted to give you some, like, things to digest a little bit. That's so many. It's so many, and it's so fast.

and no other species that is managed, like elk that hunters manage in a responsible way, like they would never go 80% over their elk quota in days. Yeah. Because they want herds healthy and at good numbers and healthy levels. This is exterminating. It's not managing. Exactly. It's organized extermination is exactly what it is.

So in the way in which these states can hunt wolves is also very strong. sad. It includes guns, snares, throwing explosives into dens, aerial shooting, ATVs and snowmobiles that can chase them, and snares, and steel leghold traps can all be used. Of course, among the plethora of red flags and concerns that this raises, the biggest remains that these management policies are based in politics and not in science. From a scientific standpoint, it is understood that wolves not only have a complex impact on their environment, often referred to as a trophic cascade, their recovery is also complex. Just to scratch the surface, fragmented habitat and isolated populations created through such drastic hunting practices is not only an overall blow to their

population numbers-wise, it also decreases genetic variability within the species and creates indirect effects such as stress leading to abortion of litters or packs splitting up after being destabilized, which leaves them at an increased risk of premature death. And we know all of this hugely thanks to the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone and their subsequent study. By closely observing wolves like 06 and her ancestors, biologists and ecologists have gained invaluable insights onto the benefits of wolf presence from an environmental and a tourism perspective, have gained better understanding of their complex social structures which revolve around family, and have rediscovered what had been lost to time, that wolves are a

And this is where we're going to get into what you mentioned at the very beginning of the episode. And that is that wolves are what we call a keystone predator, meaning that they are a species that has a disproportionately large effect on their natural environment relative to their abundance. So they may not be a lot of them, but their impact is huge. And the effect that they have is referred to as a trophic cascade. From an ecological standpoint, wolves are magic. After wolves have been extirpated from Yellowstone, elk and other prey species push the limits of the park's carrying capacity, and their lack of movement throughout the park led to an overgrazing of young plants such as Willow and Aspen. And if we are to take any lesson from our Disney younger years, 90s babies, grandmother Willow from Pocahontas was so right.

Everything is connected because elk aren't the only species that rely on Willow and Aspen. The overgrazing hit species such as the beaver pretty hard, who rely on willow and aspin to survive the winter. So when wolves came back onto the scene and elk were on the move again, willow stands recovered. Bevers once again had an abundant food source and their populations rebounded. And with their rebound came new dams being built. This had an effect on the stream hydrology within the National Park,

which benefited fish and songbirds who found nesting habitats in these new rebounded willow stands. Other species who rely heavily on carrion, such as scavengers like magpies, coyotes and ravens, and even bears, have benefited from wolves. Elk themselves benefit, too, as they say, only the strong survive, and that's especially true in the face of predator presence, and in particular, in the face of 06. With an average kill rate of only 14%, wolves strike out more than they succeed, but 06 was special. People from all walks of life ventured to the Lamar Valley for a chance to see her in all her glory, leading one of the most successful and celebrated packs in Yellowstone National Park history. Park biologists scribbled down notes as they watched her raise three litters of pups without losing a single one before adulthood, almost unheard of as 50 to 60 percent of pups die before they reach one year old,

a true testament to her care, guidance, and protection. Young couples stooped down to the ground, pointing out 06 to their children, who clutched stuffed wolf toys as she rolled on her back, allowing her babies to swallow her up in a dog pile. Even seasoned wolf watchers, some who have spent over 800 consecutive days in the park, marveled at her speed, skill, and quick decision-making while weeding out the slowest and weakest member in an outkard. Almost all of the humans that had eyes on 06 throughout the years in Yellowstone belong to this group of people, ones who rejoiced, to merely be in the land of wolves. While wary of humans, she was not unaccustomed to their presence. Humans to her were just a part of the landscape, benign objects that didn't interfere with her directly,

but also didn't pose a threat either. Kind of just like weird, odd blobs on the landscape. She had no idea that she was a star. But as we know, not everyone views, understands, respects, or frankly cares about wolves, especially not an individual wolf or even a Yellowstone wolf, for that matter. and those people lie in wait right outside of the gates. Snow was falling gently from the sky on the morning of December 6, 2012.

It was early, the sun just making its appearance to mark the beginning of a brand new day. O6 and her family patted softly throughout the snow, noses to the ground as they scouted their new surroundings. Lamar Valley had been O6's home for a number of years, but as wolves do, they roam. Searches for new territory or pursuing prey often leads packs away from their homes, either permanently or temporarily. Today, 06 was likely following the elk as they made their winter exit out of the park, a very dangerous place for a wolf to be. She and her mate, 755, walked side by side, weaving in and out of the pines, the rest of their pack trailing behind, minus 754. The lovable, faithful, and loyal uncle had been killed by a hunter the previous month, and the Lamars were still mourning his absence. Suddenly, a sound, a dying rabbit. an easy meal. The pair stepped out of a stand of willows and into an open field, curiously following the sounds of their would-be morning snack. As soon as they emerged from the trees,

they noticed him. A human. Surprised, but not afraid, the pair stopped to take account of him. They were familiar with humans and saw them on a regular basis, but this one was different. He was much closer. Unbeknownst to 06, she had crossed an invisible boundary. She had left the park, and she was about to pay the price. A shot rang out, startled, 755 ran, but not far. He made it back into the brush when he turned around. 06 hadn't followed him. She staggered a few paces and dropped. He watched the human approach his mate, unsure of his motives. But what 755 was sure of was his partner, his leader, mentor, protector, the wolf that he had followed loyally for years, and the wolf who had raised

three of his own litters was dead. He threw his head back and he cried. The hunter, whose name is protected and will be referred to as Steve, approached the animal he just shot. He had been following this pack for weeks, sounding his rabbit distress call, or merely cupping his hands to his mouth and emitting a howl of his own. He was 50 yards away from her body when he noticed movement in the brush alongside him. It was the black wolf that had been with the gray. He was standing there, not advancing, but not retreating either, simply watching. Steve had been an outdoorsman for decades and a hunter for almost as many. He had never seen an animal behave this way. Usually, the sound of the rifle and his close proximity alone would be enough

to scare any animal far, far away. But not this one, not this time. The black wolf tipped his head back and let out a mournful, deep howl. When he finished, his gaze fell upon the body of his fallen companion. Another howl, this one longer and deeper. Steve had heard howls before, but never this close and never like this. Suddenly, from behind the black wolf, more appeared. One, two, three, four, five, more and more inched out of the willows and joined their only remaining alpha. Eleven in total, formed a semicircle around 06, the snow around her softening, its brilliant bright white, fading, overtaken by a deep red. On his third howl, the entire Lamar Valley pack joined in, and their mournful chorus saturated the forest and spilled onto the open field. The pack eventually peeled themselves away from 06, having to make the painful decision to leave her behind.

behind. Steve collected her and reported his kill to the fish and game department as required. Her collar was removed, her body stripped of its fur, which now hangs from a plastic hook in Steve's Wyoming cabin. Word of her death traveled fast among the dedicated wolf watchers of Yellowstone, hardened and experienced park staff, biologists, and observers who had witnessed years worth of wolves dying terrible deaths through fights, starvation, accidents, and disease, people who were no stranger of how harsh the world could be to a wolf were crushed by the news and shed tears over her loss for weeks. A natural death was one thing, but this, this was something else altogether. But it wasn't just them. O6 was the most famous wolf in the world. News outlets such as ABC, NPR, the Associated

Press, the New York Times, the Daily Mail, and London's Associated Press ran her story the day word broke. The world was in mourning. The death of O6 also marked the death of the Lamar Canyon Pack as it once was. After she died, it had become leaderless and slowly dissolved. The pack wandered in and out of the park for weeks following her death until only three returned. 755 and two of his daughters were observed back in the park on New Year's Eve. They didn't last much longer together, eventually splitting off. 755 wandered Lamar Valley alone for months before eventually leaving his home all together. Wolves are intelligent, adaptive, social, and complex. they aren't quitters. In the wake of 06's death, 755 was alone and without a home or a pack,

but that didn't last forever. He was older, his once jet black fur now streaked with gray, but he found a new mate and formed a new pack named the Wapidi, and many of 06's offspring went on to become alphas themselves, leading their families bravely forward into an uncertain future. Their ecological role couldn't be more profound, the benefits impossible to refute. Yet wolf hunts continue. Just this year, Yellowstone wolves had their deadliest season. In this past hunting season, in less than six months, hunters have killed 25 of Yellowstone National Park wolves, an astounding one-fifth of the park's entire population. Cam Scholle, the superintendent of Yellowstone, said of the hunt, quote, over the last four to five months, it's basically been gloves off, and it's highly concerning.

In a region that promotes anti-wolf culture, where kids hold signs saying, will elk be a when I grow up and where cars boast bumper stickers saying shoot, shovel, and shut up, alongside a wolfhead with a bullseye, the war against wolves proves to be as brutal as ever. But people are waking up. And don't be so quick to judge a book by its cover. Not all hunters, ranchers, or residents in the northern range are against wolves. Ralph Johnson, for example, is a hunting guide outside of Yellowstone, and he was quoted in a Washington Post interview stating, quote, a person can understand if you want, one. One animal of something. Just to respect it, just to have it. But when you start killing like

they're doing, multiple, it's not even hunting. It's killing. It's all that that is. I totally don't agree with it. It's gross and it's sick. Millions of Americans have signed petitions and an outcry against the continued slaughter of our nation's wolves over the years and Earth justice. Center for biological diversity, defenders of wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Sierra Club are just a handful of the organizations who have filed lawsuits against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other governing bodies in pleas to follow the science to not be brought by politics when making decisions regarding wolf management. While the future of wolves throughout the country is uncertain, our national parks such as Yellowstone, the Grand Teton's Isle Royal, and Voyagers

act as relative safe havens. Home to many of the nation's wolves, parks like these welcome millions of visitors every single year who travel from across the globe for their chance to see a wolf in the wild, and maybe if fortune is on their side to hear their sweet, sweet song carried on the wind. Over the centuries, in our conquest for control,

we have changed almost everything around us. Humans have disrupted natural cycles, landscapes, and processes. We have thrown a wrench in the way, other creatures have lived their lives for millennia and simultaneously have punished them for finding new ways to survive in their suddenly altered worlds. In a way, humankind has embodied the tale of King Midas. Through our journey of self-indulgence and obsession for obtaining everything we have ever wanted, we have forgotten the consequences that follow. King Midas once wished for all he touched to be turned to gold. But when it did, he was in agony. He could no longer enjoy everything he once had.

have longed for control over our environment for centuries, and we have plundered and bulldozed our way to achieve it. But now that we have made strides in our journey for ultimate authority over the planet, we mourn the absence of its creatures, fear the changes in its weather, and worry for what's to come, all while longing for the old days. But Midas' story has a happy ending. Realizing his mistakes, he was forgiven for his greediness. He lived the rest of his days more generous and more grateful than ever before. And it's my hope that we too have a happy ending. We can't go back. The damage we have done is done, but we can always change the future. There is a phrase, heavy is the head that wears the crown, and it couldn't be truer. We have placed ourselves in a leadership position,

and it is up to us to make the right choices because life on earth depends on it. And that is the story of 06 and the Wolves of Yellowstone. Oh, I think we're all just going to go have a good cry now. That was hard. That was really, when you talked about the wolves surrounding her and crying after, I was just like, oh, that was like the worst. That's his report. That's what happened. That's from him. I hope he must have felt like some kind of way when he saw that after. He did say that he had never seen animals behave like that, but he also is on record that he does not regret his decision at all. Okay, so no. I think that there's some people who genuinely don't think that animals have feelings or any type of compassion or family systems or social systems or anything. So when they

see something like that, they're like, wow, I didn't know that animals like cared. But it's, yeah, they have families. They have whole social structures and societies within their own species. It's not because they can't tell you like, hey, this is my brother in English. Yeah. And I do want to say, like, I scratched the surface of about 50 different topics that are worthy of discussions of their own. But one being, you know, somebody may say, okay, well, there's what 15 members in a pack say? And you kill one, like, what's the big deal? It's, it is a big deal because of the way that they're so socially complex and their systems rely heavily upon various individuals. And if one of them, like 06,000,

who had such, she was like the glue for that pack. And when she was removed, you know, it fell apart. And I picked her because her story is so well known and so well documented. But she's just an example. Like, I mean, there are hundreds of nameless wolves that have gone through similar things. And I just really wanted to pick her story because of the impact that she had on so many people. and of course she's a National Park Wolf. But that was really tough for me.

And I've already cried like five times writing this. And I really, really hope that people got something from this. And not only to just like feel sad. I'm not trying to tug at anybody's heartstrings and be like, feel sad for wolves. Like I just want people to wake up to the reality of what's happening. And I have been there before I. worked at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center. I knew the country had wolves through the Yellowstone Reintroduction, and that's pretty much where my knowledge ended. I had no idea that there was such

rampant extermination efforts. I didn't know any of this. Neither did I know the effects that they have on the landscape and how essential they are for, you know, you don't have to like wolves. This shouldn't be about being pro wolf or anti-wolf. This shouldn't be about pro-wolf or pro-rancher. It should be about being pro-planet because wolves are essential for a healthy ecosystem where they live. And we will never, ever, ever get back to the numbers that they were before. That is a reality. And no one is questioning that. It's more of giving them a chance to do what they do best. And I'm taken aback by how we manage the species because it is politically influenced and not led by science, even though we have the best science available now. I think that's a common theme for a lot of things. We could dive down

a big hole in that where people are like, ah, the science doesn't matter. You know, it's just, it's so hard. And it's just like part of what's kind of wild with wolves, I know they're predators and people have some kind of way to think about predators, you know, but they're dogs. They look like dogs and we love dogs so much. Like why is there such a target on them when? Because if I know I'm not a hunter, I'll never be one, I couldn't do it just because I am way too emotionally attached to every living thing that looks or breathes in my general vicinity. But if I was a hunter and I was outside and I saw this beautiful wolf, it would look like a dog to me. You know, like it would just be like my heart would immediately be like in it. And also another thing that has just like been really wild to me about

hunting itself is wouldn't you rather see it alive? Like if I was out, watch in Yellowstone or right outside of Yellowstone and I saw a wolf with their pack, I wouldn't want to be like, I want to stuff this and put it in my living room. Be like, I want to take photos of this. I want to see it in all its entirety. Like I want to know and because what's more beautiful than seeing it out in the wild? It's just, And I get, I get like the point of view of the people whose livelihoods can be at stake and that's like a whole other issue and I'm not discrediting their problems that they're having. It seems like such a harsh way to deal with something when there could be other options, you know. Yeah. And you just, you touch on a lot of things and I feel like people are going to be like, oh my God, this episode's so long.

But there is something to be said. Like we aren't, you're not a hunter. I'm not a hunter. we don't have a hunter's perspective, which is not right or wrong. It's just we don't. And I know hunters. I mean, I'm sure you do too. And I think that there is a place for hunters. There's a place for wildlife management. You know, there is a need for it. Yeah. To just say like, oh, just let nature do nature now in this day and age with how far we've come in history with messing everything up. It's just that's never going to happen. But there's a way to do it responsibly. And they're all. are people who do responsibly. There are responsible hunters and the responsible ranchers. And I mean, if you want to get your meat going out hunting, especially in New England, people go out and hunt deer, whatever, you want to do that instead of buying the over-processed meat in the grocery store, that's great. Like, you do you. Please do. Shut down factory farming.

Yeah. It's just like it's all a balance. And there's definitely in no way that we're saying, like, against hunting. It's just this extreme hatred towards wolves, which is what you really. Well, it's the, it's the hatred, it's politically driven, and it's driven monetarily. There's a lot of factors at play. We're also seeing the same pattern over and over. Isn't that so, and that's the thing that kills me. It absolutely kills me. Not just in the scope of what, of wolves, in the scope of literally anything when it's like, okay, so we've done this before and it's not working and guess what we did it and it was disastrous. So why the fuck are we doing it again?

The worst part too is like we're doing it again. It was disastrous and we have all of it documented so you can see the results and exactly what we did right here. So what I think is that we should do the exact same thing and hope for a different result this time. What is that? Isn't that like the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results? Yeah? Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, like what the hell? Okay, so anyways, to wrap this up, I do have a couple of bullets just very quick. Okay. Number one, recommendations, first and foremost,

I'll list them in the show notes, but I had to shout out the book that I used most, all of 06's story I gathered from this book. It's called American Wolf. And it's... It is phenomenal. I know we recommend a lot of books on the podcast and we're always like, oh my God, this is the best book I've ever read every time. So maybe it's kind of lost a little bit of its punch. But truly, American Wolf is phenomenal. If you are interested in wolves, wolf history, Yellowstone, National Park, etc. It's a beautiful book. Definitely read that. And on the subject of wolf books, that has nothing to do with this episode, but it is a good book if you want to cry. wolf called Romeo.

I know that story. It just fucking stab you right in the heart. So if you're wanting that, definitely, because I feel like a lot of people will be like, oh, have you heard of this one? Yes. And I hate myself for reading it. But if you want to cry. But if you want to cry, go for it.

I'll also link a couple of very quick YouTube videos that have a lot of great information, like less than five minutes, how wolves change rivers. It goes over the trophic cascade effect and Keystone Predators, Wolves save Yellowstone National Park, etc. There's a lot of cool resources that have a lot of information in a really short amount of time if you're interested more in like the science and ecological versus a sob story about an individual wolf. So I wanted to do this episode for a really long time, obviously, because the subject is really near and dear to my heart. But there is a couple of reasons why I chose to do it now.

And first, I wanted to bring some awareness to wolves and maybe open the floor to more understanding of their role in the wild because Colorado recently passed legislation to reintroduce wolves into their state no later than 2023. So it passed, but it was like so close. Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure it was like 51 to 49. Like that close. So like barely voted in. Barely. So this just further exemplifies how divisive wolves can be.

So wolves are coming back to Colorado. Yay, this is great. But as we just discussed for like five hours, their presence is obviously. celebrated and loathed. So I just wanted to do like my teeny part of, you know, opening the door, like you said in the very beginning of this, to discussion and more conversations, hopefully further understanding because we're going to start this reintroduction in a brand new way. And also, even if you're not in Colorado and you're like, oh my God, I didn't even know that any of this stuff was going on, if you live in a state that has wolves and even states that don't,

There are proposals going on all of the time that deal with wolves and wolf management that maybe you want to know about and be aware about and lend your voice to in Washington, for example. So this comes out April 11th, which is the last day for Washington residents to make a public comment. They right now are essentially proposing a change to some wolf policies in the state. One of them being that to simplify. before ranchers and livestock owners can kill a wolf, they have to prove to the state that they tried non-lethal deterrence first.

I love that. Very simple. Yeah. Very simple. The public comment, you can go online, write your comment right there, lend your voice to that. I'll link it in the show notes to, which I did already. And secondly, and more importantly, well, not more importantly, because that's very important. But important in our worlds is the most exciting thing to have ever happened in the history of

podcast in my opinion and probably a highlight of my life. Our next People of the Parks episode will be coming out later this month and we are speaking to Rolf Peterson. And if people are like, who is that? He happens to be a guy who runs the show at the Isle Royal Wolf Project, which happens to be the longest running most widely cited predator prey study in the world. So it's been running for over 40 years and he is one of the world's premier experts in wolves and specifically, and wolf and moose dynamics. So this conversation is going to be a huge highlight, and we are really excited to have the conversation

and share it with you in our next People of the Parks episode. Like I said, we touched on a ton of subjects today in this episode and kind of just like barely scratched the surface on them. So if you want a deeper dive into these different topics, like the role that wolves have in keeping healthy ecosystems, how their presence benefits places like our national parks, to learn more about wolves and maybe even to dispel some of the most common misconceptions about wolves, we're going to have that conversation with Rolf in a deeper way because there are a lot of questions

and concerns about wolves that go beyond, you know, what we discussed. And we're going to have that discussion with one of the world's leaders in wolves. So that's like the most exciting thing of my life. You're like fan-girling. It is. It's so exciting, though, and it's so different than the people of the parks episodes we've done so far. and it's really exciting to be branching off into like another realm of the people of the parks in a way like this. So I'm really, really excited for us to talk to him and for all of you guys to get to hear from him and to hear some things and learn some information about wolves.

It's going to be really cool and exciting. Yeah. And then, okay, I swear to God, hand to God, this is the last thing. Okay. People are like, Danielle, you're fired. Cassie, takeover. I wrote this down because I really didn't want to forget it because I really didn't want to forget it. because I feel like it's really important to say. Okay.

So for this episode, what I took away from it out of, you know, aside from the wolf subject, is it shows that you don't have to be a park ranger or a biologist or an ecologist or any of those things to be at the forefront of change that you want to enact because wildlife needs warriors and many of those warriors work in law and policy change. And there are a lot of great organizations out there that champion different efforts for, you know, wildlife and wildland protections that need lawyers and attorneys. So you don't have to be like a modern day like L. Woods or anything to make a change either, even if you're not going to be going into law or become an attorney. Change starts in conversations that you have with people. And I really,

really encourage everyone to have that a conversation. Not an argument. Not an argument. Not a debate. Not an argument. A conversation with people that have opposing views to you, even if it's really difficult. Like, I cannot tell you how many difficult conversations I had when I was at the Wolf Center or even now with people regarding wolves. And it can be super, super frustrating. And it angers me. I'm already spicy to begin with. And this really, really fires me up.

But no one gets anywhere with anger. So I encourage you to be mad. follow what fires you up, but don't use anger to convey your point of view and always be open to see issues from various perspectives because it really does make all the difference. And it's important to know that whether you're talking about wolves or literally anything else ever. Yeah. And it's just a good takeaway message because I've been there. You know, I spent years being really pissed and not understanding like, how do you not see this? You're stupid. And it got me nowhere. And over the years has have matured also that probably dealt with it. It's just having a conversation with people is truly

the only way of getting anywhere and leveling with them. You know, like, there are a lot of people out there that have different views than you that aren't bad people. Yeah. And I think it's important when you're having these conversations to be able to put yourself in the other person's shoes or at least understand where they're coming from because if you're just shouting at someone like you're wrong and they're shouting at you know you're wrong there's no conversation there's no seeing each other's point of view but if everyone's trying to be sympathetic and understanding and also and that's not me saying like if you're passionate about something fold because someone else believes in something else it's just saying you know like you have your view and you have it

for a certain reason and you want to tell people that, but understand and at least listen to why their point of view is the way it is because maybe they do have a valid point. Exactly. Or maybe there's something that you didn't even think of that's going on on their end that you didn't know. It's just so important. Like you said, it's so important to have real conversations because that's where change happens. It doesn't happen in pointing fingers at people or yelling at people or just pushing your views. It's having a mutual conversation. Exactly. And I think we'll end it on that because we could ramble forever, but I think that was a really good ending point. And I hope that everyone enjoyed the episode, even if you teared up a little bit. I did a little bit. I kind of tried to compose myself towards the end. I like sat back from my microphone for a second because I was like, this is going to come through on the mic. Cassie at the motion. Yeah. So, well, thank you everyone for. for joining us. I know it was a rough one, but I hope it was an important one and it made a mark

on you. And I hope that you come back next week and we didn't scare you off with this like two hour episode. No, I don't think it'll be that one. Anyway, we'll see you guys for our next week. It is almost two. It's almost two hours. Well, okay, we really have to go before it hits the two hour mark. We'll see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. Enjoy the view. We're rushed to get out of here. Enjoy the view. But watch you're back. All right, goodbye. Bye.

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One more time. I need to kick Chaska out of this. He's like a lawnmower. Aw. All right. A little baby. I'm sorry, but you're just. You're feeling really snoring. Okay, so let's, I'm just going to move, yeah. Let's go to another bed.

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