In memory of 302M

It been a sad few days. As many of you know I love wolves. I especially love going to Yellowstone National Park to go wolf watching. The State of Montana had a wolf hunt and said their hunt was to be in areas where there had been livestock losses. Well the held the hunt near Yellowstone where there are no livestock. The result there was not hunting but a slaughter in my opinion. As a result the entire Cottonwood pack was wiped out. The hunt has been stopped now but its a little too late.






















A favorite wolf of mine has always been 302M the alpha wolf of the Blacktail pack. That is him in the picture above which I took last June. Among the wolves of Yellowstone he is a celebrity, often called the Casanova of Yellowstone. He has been known to visit the ladies in many of the other packs. Sometimes he got in trouble for that but he always seemed to rebound. Among wolf watchers he was a favorite. I always liked to hear about his story and what he has been up to. I wrote about him here back at my old blog Meanderings.












The body of 302M was found dead in Lamar valley from natural causes. The animal had no wounds so they really do not know the cause of death. He was 9.5 years old which is great for a wolf. Their average life is 4 years. I was glad to hear he died a natural death and was able to live his life on his own terms. This picture above is one Dave took last June. He is on the left and the alpha female is on the right. He was one fantastic wolf. I don't think there will be another like him. He has left a hole in my heart, it just won't be the same without him.