When 12 wolves were killed my first year here, during the hunting season of 2012-2013, by hunters just across Yellowstone’s northern boundary, wolf numbers plummeted in the park. All of Yellowstone’s wolves are the species known as the gray wolf, but they can also be white or black in color. Just last summer, 969 killed her sister’s pups, supposedly in some sort of battle between the two wolves. At one time, the pack consisted of mostly gray colored wolves, when Puff was its male leader. Wolf numbers in the park have fluctuated over the past 25 years, reaching about 200 and being as low as about 60.

Source: Washington Post January 19, 2020 14:03 UTC