Yellowstone National Park has a new wolf matriarch.
Wolf 1090F has reached the age of 11 years, 9 months, an almost unprecedented age for wolves in Yellowstone, and fans say she’s still going strong.
That makes her the oldest living wolf in the park. She’s surpassed the age of the legendary 907F, who died at roughly 11 years, 8 months old on Christmas Day 2024, a few days after a fight with members of a rival wolf pack.
One Of The Oldest Wolves Ever?
Not only is 1090F the oldest living wolf, she’s among the oldest wolves ever in Yellowstone.
Biologist Doug Smith, who led the wolf program in Yellowstone National Park for nearly three decades, told Cowboy State Daily that the longest-lived wolves he recalls reached “12, maybe 13, so she (1090F) is close.”
“The average age of death (for a wolf) is about 5 to 6 years, so she’s about double the normal lifespan. Somewhat remarkable, and it’s not an easy life,” Smith said.
Yellowstone Wolves Are Brawlers
It wasn’t unusual that Wolf 907F died from injuries she suffered during a pack-on-pack brawl. Yellowstone wolves fight frequently.
The average lifespans for wolves can vary, according to location and circumstances, biologist Robert Crabtree told Cowboy State Daily.
“There’s a lot of talk about “average lifespan, but it doesn’t make any sense unless you understand the mortality rate of a particular population,” said Crabtree, the founder, chief scientist and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center.
In Yellowstone, the mortality rate is driven in large part by fights between rival packs, which can turn deadly, he said.
“Yellowstone has a strong incidence of wolves killing wolves,” he said.
It’s not certain why that is, Crabtree said, but one factor could be the relative “instability” of prey populations, such as elk and bison.
And also, game herds there move around quite a bit, he added.
“The prey migrates. The wolf packs’ territories overlap and they are strongly defended in areas of higher ungulate density,” he said.
In other places where pack-on-pack fighting is less common, wolves might routinely live 12 years or longer, Crabtree said.
Under the right circumstances, wild canines can live about as long as domestic dogs, he said.
“One coyote I caught was 16.5 years old,” he said.
Mollie’s Wolves Are Huge
The Mollie’s pack has been around a while, it’s thought to be the first pack established after wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in the mid-1990s, wildlife photographer Sylvia Borgonovo told Cowboy State Daily.
They are also “very big wolves,” she added. Another female from the pack, 779F, is thought to be about 136 pounds, she said.
Despite her age, 1090F also appears to be huge, said Borgonovo.
“Any Mollie’s pack wolf looks bigger than other wolves,” she said.
Last winter, she captured some dramatic photos of 1090F, as her pack moved in on the Junction Butte Wolf pack, although there wasn’t a full-on fight that time.
“I saw the Mollie’s come running in, and they were pushing off the Junction Butte pack. I was just lucky to be right there at the time,” she said.
Borgonovo said she mostly follows the Junction Butte and Wapiti Lake wolf packs, but she’s still in awe of 1090F.
“To have lived this long, that’s pretty damn good,” she said.
Wolf 907F, a one-eyed pack leader, was one of Yellowstone’s most famous wolves.
Although 1090F has surpassed her age, it’s not certain whether she’ll beat 907F’s level of popularity, Borgonovo said.
“It could end up being the case,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
