Songbird Protection Coalition

This morning I told you about a hunter who has publicly announced his intention to kill Yellowstone wolf 1090F when Wyoming's hunting season opens.

But I don't want his story to become her story. So let's talk about this elderly wolf.

1090F is the 12-year-old matriarch of Mollie's Pack, believed to be the oldest living wolf in the Yellowstone area. Twelve doesn't sound particularly old until you understand life as a wild wolf.

Wild wolves face injuries, disease, conflicts with other wolves, prey that fights back, starvation, humans, and simply the physical punishment of surviving winter after winter.

Many never reach old age. She did. And she didn't spend those years alone.

Mollie's Pack has an extraordinary history of its own. Its lineage stretches back to the wolves brought to Yellowstone during the original restoration effort in 1995.

That means 1090F isn't simply an old wolf wandering around Yellowstone. She's part of a family story scientists have been following for decades. And she's still contributing to it.

This year, at 12 years old, 1090F has five pups. Think about that.

She's survived more than a decade in one of the toughest environments imaginable and is still helping raise another generation. That's one reason individual Yellowstone wolves become so valuable to researchers.

A wolf followed for years isn't merely a dot on a population graph. Scientists can learn about pack structure, reproduction, territory, survival, dispersal, disease, relationships, and how wolf families change across generations.

And elderly wolves can tell us something particularly valuable: What does a wolf look like when everything goes right long enough for it to grow old?

Most of us will never see 1090F. She doesn't know she's famous.

She doesn't know people photograph her, study her family, argue about her, or know the number attached to her collar. She's simply doing what she's done for twelve years.

Surviving. Leading her family. And raising another generation of wolves.

Whatever happens after September 15, I think she deserves to be remembered for considerably more than becoming somebody's target.

She already had a story. And it's a remarkable one.

If you want to help... https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1614370757147508&set=a.199748841943047

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