Born in 2006, 06 Female was a fixture at the Yellowstone National Park. She was known to researchers as 832F but beloved by the public as the alpha female of the Lamar Canyon pack.
Regarded by all as pretty much a star, 06 Female lived a remarkable life until she was killed by a trophy hunter outside the sanctuary’s boundaries in 2012.
A decade after her death, her legacy lives on with Wolf watchers worldwide continuing to write about her. In 2022, for instance, Rick McIntyre published The Alpha Female Wolf: The Fierce Legacy of Yellow- stone’s 06 as part of his award-winning “Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone” series.
But what exactly made 06 Female extraordinary?
A WOLF FULL OF MOXIE
When The New York Times reported 06 Female’s death in December 2012, they said, “The animal had been a tourist favorite for most of the past six years.”
Nate Blakeslee, author of American Wolf (2017), explained in a November 2017 interview with the National Geographic that 06 Female was a lone Wolf who first caught Wolf watchers’ attention in 2009.
As female Wolves tend to do, 06 Female wandered the park, mated with a few males, but never settled down to mark her own territory. Blakeslee said 06 Female began to be known “as a [W]olf [who] had a lot of moxie and was very adventurous.”
Though Wolves who wander often find themselves in dangerous situations with rival packs and sometimes get killed by other Wolves, 06 Female evaded attack. She was a skilled hunter who could even take down large Elk on her own — a mighty feat considering their difference in size.
THE FALL OF 06 FEMALE
In Blakeslee’s interview with the National Geographic, he explained that he had been able to track down the hunter who killed 06 Female. The reason the hunter’s name was kept out of the news was a Wyoming law protecting the privacy of those who have shot Wolves and where those Wolves were shot.
The hunter and his townspeople, in Blakeslee’s words, “felt that bringing Wolves back was a mistake because it resulted in a drastic decline in the number of Elk immediately adjacent to Yellowstone.” More Wolves meant fewer Elk to hunt in the areas and towns surrounding Yellowstone.
According to Blakeslee, the hunter had no idea he was shooting 06 Female, a collared Wolf who just so happened to be famous.
MORE THAN THE HUNT
06 Female’s collar was a major point of discussion when she passed away. Yellowstone Wolf Project biologists fitted a research collar on 06 Female containing a USD 4,000 GPS to record her exact location.
The GPS would record data points as often as every 30 minutes to provide accurate information about her whereabouts to the Wolf Project.
Outside Magazine reported in May 2022 that it didn’t seem like a surprise, then, that five of the 10 Yellowstone Wolves killed outside the sanctuary had worn collars. Out of 11 Wolves who wore collars in Yellowstone’s Northern Range, four were shot and killed.
Even 06 Female’s packmate, a male Wolf known to researchers as 754M, was collared and shot. However, his collar wasn’t fitted with a thousand-dollar GPS. Instead, his had a VHF radio telemetry model considered much simpler than 06 Female’s device.
All of this led Wolf advocates to conclude that hunters were, at the very least, aiming to kill Wolves with collars. Some advocates suggest that hunters have been killing Wolves who are tracked just to hurt those who love Wolves.
06 FEMALE’S FAME
Wolf behavior expert Kirsty Peake, in a 2022 interview with Outside Magazine, said, “Sometimes I feel badly because I think [06 Female’s] fame maybe contributed to her death.” Still, she believes “her story brought way more people into the story of [W]olves and why they need to be protected.”
Though 06 Female’s fame might have brought unwanted attention to her and her pack, her legacy lives on in the discussions being had about the link between hunting and scientific research against a backdrop of concerned citizens and animal welfare advocates.
