American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

It is fall. A flying bison hoof has killed 495, the leader of the Mollie Pack. His mate, 486, has set off to find a new partner. This has left the large pack in disarray ahead of its annual journey out of the snowy Pelican Valley to hunt elk.

The 19-strong pack sets out on an unprecedented rampage under the leadership of a subordinate female. On December 2, they kill the Mary Mountain Pack’s alpha male. From there, they skirmish with O-Six’s natal pack, the Agates, eventually killing its alpha, 775. In January, the Mollies get close to O-Six for the first time, all 19 of them heading over Specimen Ridge. O-Six reacts quickly and drives her family away, putting several miles between them and the newcomers.

She can’t dodge Doug Smith, though, who collars O-Six by mistake. He was hoping to recollar 776 after she lost her device, but the two-year-old and her mother are almost identical. O-Six is now technically wolf 832—but to every seasoned watcher, she remains O-Six. Smith also tags her light gray female pup, who becomes 820.

Both wolves recover from Smith’s tranquilizers, and not a moment too soon. A few days later, 10 Mollies descend Specimen Ridge in search of O-Six. In the 40 days of their rampage so far, they have killed at least four wolves. The Lamars fan out, ready to clash with the intruders, but something spooks them and they scatter wildly. The Mollies corner a black pup and drag him down. 755 flees west at full pelt to draw the attackers away. They give chase, and the pup frees himself before limping home.

Even without a clear leader, the Mollies are a formidable force and linger in the Lamar Valley. This does not augur well for O-Six, as she returns to the den on Druid Peak. So far, she has saved her family by staying mobile. Now, she must stay put to give birth and will be vulnerable. The Mollies kill again—two wolves from the Agate Creek Pack—and refuse to return home to the Pelican.

They find the den on April 25, 2012, five days after O-Six’s estimated due date. Sixteen Mollies follow the Ledge Trail toward it, led by an uncollared gray, scent-trailing as the pack follows. O-Six remains deep in her den, most likely nursing her latest litter. It is a moment Rick, Laurie, and Doug McLaughlin have been dreading. The Mollies infiltrate the den forest.

Five minutes later, O-Six bursts from the woods with several wolves on her tail. She is alone, racing downhill through a meadow. From his vantage point, Rick can see she is in trouble: her route leads directly to an outcrop above a 50-foot drop. She must turn and face her attackers or go over the cliff to her death.

But O-Six is not so easily defeated. She flies over the outcrop edge to land on a tiny ledge below. The chasing Mollies pull up. O-Six scrambles down the most precarious route possible—the kind more readily used by goats or antelope—and the risky decision saves her life.

Above her, Middle Gray is sprinting away from the den forest, drawing the other Mollies away from the newborn pups. When the coast is clear, O-Six snakes back up the mountain toward the Ledge Trail. The Mollies are separated, chaos reigns, and howls go up around the forest. O-Six slips back to the den as the Mollies regroup on a foothill of Druid Peak.

It takes three days before Rick spots O-Six again, risking a sortie to a nearby kill. To Rick’s relief, she returns with her stomach bulging, carrying meat to feed the pups, who must have survived. The pack’s black yearling was less lucky. During the attack, he became the first of O-Six’s children to die.

By midsummer, the Mollies have split apart, too large to remain a coherent pack without a leader. Their alpha female and a half dozen wolves return to the Pelican Valley, a new alpha male in tow. Some remain in the Lamar Valley and join forces with another group, making a five-strong pack called the Junction Butte Pack.

This is something O-Six can deal with, though. When the two packs stumble upon each other in August, the Lamars pursue the three-year-old Mollie known as 822 for over a mile. She was present during both attacks on O-Six’s brood, and this time, O-Six makes sure she won’t return. 755 catches her and drags her down. The pack and O-Six finish her off.

O-Six ranges farther and farther east to find elk. Some days, she travels 40 miles in total to keep her pack fed. One morning, she pushes so far east that she gives Rick quite a surprise. As he prepares to leave his house in Silver Gate, the sun still not up, he detects radio signals from 754 and 755, right outside. Soon, he and Laurie are standing in her driveway watching the Lamars frolicking in the woods near her house, just a stone’s throw away.

The sight worries Rick: If the Lamars consider land this far outside the park their territory, they may soon encounter less sympathetic humans. Given that, it is a relief when O-Six and her pack move into an old Druids’ site at the eastern end of the Lamar Valley, finally laying claim to a spot loved by generations of Yellowstone wolves. O-Six’s pups are doing well, too; now six months old and around 50 pounds each, they are beginning to feed at kills and join in the hunt.

By January, Doug Smith decides to collar another animal in the pack. Taking to the skies with his dart gun, he attaches a transmitter to one of O-Six’s daughters, henceforth known as 776. This means if 755 is forced to find a mate somewhere else or something happens to 754, the project can still track the Lamars.

The pack weathers a harsh winter well. 755 fends off his brother’s interest and mates again with O-Six. By March, she is pregnant and chooses a different den, an old Druids’ site on Druid Peak. It is roughly the same spot where her mother was born. The den is high up the mountainside, heavily wooded and hard to see from the road below. But it is also a good omen: This is the same home used by the park’s most famed pack for almost a decade. It is time for O-Six to settle into the Lamar Valley proper and take up the Druids’ mantel.