When you’ve got a name like Spitfire, you are destined for great things!
This legendary wolf came from a line of some of the most famous wolves in the Yellowstone National Park.
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Also referred to as Wolf 926, Spitfire was born to royalty. Her great, great grandparents were 9 and 10, two of the original wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995.
Her great-grandparents were 21 and 42. Wolf M21 has been called the most famous wolf in Yellowstone.
Like her predecessors, Spitfire overcame all kinds of adversity and lived up to her heritage and her name.
Glimpses of a Yellowstone legend
Wolves play an important role in Yellowstone’s ecosystem. They function as apex predators and help to regulate the population of herbivores. These include the large populations of elk in the reserve.
They have been identified as a ‘keystone’ species of the park. This means that their presence has a large impact on the stability of the ecosystem of Yellowstone.
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To give an example, to remove wolves from the reserve, would mean that elk populations would grow to such an extent that overgrazing would result. Lack of vegetation would in turn affect the songbirds, and so forth.
Elk make up around 85 percent of the wolves’ summer diet and 95 percent of their winter diet.
This beautiful species lives for a relatively short period of time. Within the confines of the park, their average life expectancy is four to five years. However, they have been known to live much longer, with the oldest wolf in the park being around 12 yearsof age.
Outside of the reserve they usually live on average for two to three years.
Spitfire’s fur was black and interestingly, the gene for black fur in wolves has been been tied to more aggressive behaviour and to a gene for increased immune system functionality. This means that black-coloured gray wolves are more likely to survive during outbreaks of certain diseases and conditions.
The story of a legend
Spitfire’s life was as sizzling as her name. Her mother, 06, could bring down an adult elk all by herself. She was shot and killed during a wolf hunt in December of 2012.
In early 2015, the pack traveled west out of their territory. They ran into the Prospect Peak Pack, 12 big wolves who attacked, killing 925.
Spitfire was left with her yearling pups and she was pregnant.
Four of the wolves from the Prospect Peak Pack, the ones which had killed 925, came to visit. She won them over and they provided for her five pups.
By the end of 2015, most of the pack had severe mange and by the end of 2016, all four Prospect Peak wolves were dead, as were most of Spitfire’s new pups.
In 2017, she and her only remaining daughter found two males outside of the park. By the spring of 2017, both she and her daughter were pregnant!
In August of 2017 her mate died of distemper, the third alpha she had lost, and her pups were believed dead.
She went east and left the park. Later she came back and became subordinate to her now alpha daughter. Both she and her daughter denned but no pups were seen.
A tale filled with miracles
Soon after that, her collar began sent mortality signal. However, it was a false death alert. The collar had fallen off when she had become too thin. In a miraculous discovery, she was found alive in Soda Butte Valley.
Soon after, in late October of 2018, she was seen with four black pups. She did have pups, she had just kept them hidden.
Just over a month later, on 24 November 2018, Spitfire was shot and killed outside Yellowstone. She overcame the loss of 3 mates, most of her puppies, mange and her alpha status, but she couldn’t overcome a bullet. Still, she never ever gave up