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Famed Druid makes elk refuge his home
Wolf born in Yellowstone is well known for limp, 300-mile foray to Utah.
By Rebecca Huntington
Everybody loves an underdog.
So Wolf No. 253's noticeable limp and against-the-odds tale might explain why he's cultivated a loyal following among a breed of humans called wolf watchers.
"He's got a fan club," says Mike Jimenez, wolf biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's like a soap opera."
To the chagrin of some of those fans, Wolf 253 has moved the drama to the National Elk Refuge. Jimenez first discovered the radio-collared black male roaming the northern end of the refuge on Jan. 4. The 4-year-old has been hanging around ever since.
His new location means he's less visible to admirers, who previously watched him take down elk and challenge rival suitors in Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley.
Wolf 253 comes from the Druid Peak wolf pack, Yellowstone's most visible pack. The group of wolves lives in the Lamar Valley's yawning plateau and open slopes, which easily can be canvassed with spotting scopes from a park highway.
He was born during the climactic spring of 2000 when the alpha female died from a ruptured jugular vein likely sustained in an attack by wolves from within her own pack. He could have been her offspring or a pup from a rival wolf mother, according to wolf watchers. It's not uncommon for several females to raise litters of pups within a single pack in Yellowstone, where prey is abundant.
The Druid pack was among the second group of wolves transplanted from Canada to Yellowstone in 1995 as part of a federal reintroduction program. The pack gets its name from a peak towering above the Lamar.
Early on, the wolves earned a reputation as a roving gang for their inclination to kill other wolves that strayed onto their turf and for making preemptive strikes during forays into other pack territories.
So it's fitting Wolf No. 253 earned a distinctive limp as a youngster in a battle with the neighboring Nez Perce pack. What's made him famous, however, is not his limp but overcoming it.
On Nov. 30, 2002, the young male stunned biologists by turning up in a coyote trap in a rural valley at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains northeast of Salt Lake City. He quickly became a media darling for being not only the first wolf documented in Utah in more than 70 years but for limping more than 300 miles to get there.
He also caused a political stir when federal biologists decided to pack him up and truck him back to Wyoming.
"At that time, the state of Utah did not have any plans for dealing with wolves," Jimenez says. "It was easiest just to bring him back."
Biologists had found a second set of wolf tracks next to 253's tracks in the snow and speculated he and a mate were trying to form a new pack. Wolf advocates decried the decision to remove 253, dashing the potential for a new pack in Utah.
At the time, Jimenez defended the decision, arguing that the rural valley near Morgan, Utah, with its small ranches, people, pets and livestock, was rife with potential conflicts. Jimenez picked up 253, who had been in the custody of a Utah game warden for two days.
"He had become a little bit of a celebrity," Jimenez recalls, describing how locals had come to see him in his cage. In captivity, "he was actually a very easygoing wolf," he said.
Jimenez tranquilized the wolf and placed a radio collar around his neck. Then he drove 253 to Flagg Ranch Resort just outside Yellowstone's southern boundary and released him.
Yellowstone park wolf biologist Doug Smith predicted 253 would turn south and run straight back to Utah. But 253 proved Smith wrong, heading the opposite direction and returning to his birth pack.
"That's the pleasure of studying wolves," Smith says. "They're individuals. They're like people; it's hard to predict their behavior."
Initially, 253 appeared to have a new limp in a front leg, generating even more sympathy among wolf watchers. Then last summer, a new drama began to unfold among the Druids with 253 front and center.
The Druid's longtime and much-loved alpha male, No. 21, died of unknown causes. The old alpha was 9 years old, while the average age of a Yellowstone wolf is 3.4 years, Smith says. Biologists found 21's carcass in June.
The vacancy spurred a competition among younger males for the job of top Druid.
"Everyone wanted 253 to take over," Smith says. "All the loyal wolf watchers were taking sides."
Wolf watchers viewed 253, who had been loyal to 21, as embodying the same personality traits that made 21 a good father, he says.
Moreover, Jimenez says, the wolf's trip to Utah showed that despite a limp, "he holds his own."
Wolf 253 first faced competition from an outsider, Wolf 302, and then a second contender called the New Black. Collared wolves are given numbers while uncollared wolves are not. The two outsiders appeared to stay away when 253 was with the pack. But they would travel with the alpha female when he was absent.
The battle boiled down to 253 versus the New Black, Smith says. Then in late summer, 253 abruptly left.
Biologists lost track of the limping loner until he turned up on the refuge last month. Jimenez first saw him alone. More recently, 253 was spotted with a gray wolf.
"He wants to start his own pack," Smith says. "That's the future for him." So far, 253 has kept primarily to the remote northeastern corner of the refuge, which is closed to the public in contrast to the highly visible Lamar Valley.
That's a disappointment to wolf watchers who no longer get to see him. Already, Jimenez has fielded phone calls from fans wanting to come see the wolf. But his location is not accessible to the public, Jimenez says. Jimenez typically sees 253 when he flies over the refuge and Gros Ventre Mountains during routine surveillance of radio-collared wolves.
"Usually when we see him, he's sleeping with a full belly and a dead elk," Jimenez says.
For Smith, 253 is poised for a happy ending.
"He is in a perfect position to find a female to breed [with], and that's the beginning of a new pack," he says. "That's the ultimate goal in a wolf's life."
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