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a wolf population would wreak havoc on their livestock. Finally, by 1995, wildlife biologists were ready to send a group of wolves back to Yellowstone.
    Fourteen wolves were captured in Canada and transported to the park. Catching an entire pack is difficult, so the scientists took lone animals from different packs. A year later, 17 additional wolves were brought from Canada and released into Yellowstone.
    On arrival, the wolves were placed into one-acre acclimation pens for eight to ten weeks in an effort to confine them to a limited range at first. Three chain-link fence pens were positioned at different locations in northern Yellowstone—at Crystal Creek, Rose Creek, and Soda Butte Creek. Biologists wanted the wolves to form new packs, so the scientists placed a dominant male wolf, a dominant female, and several young subordinate wolves into each acclimation pen to mirror the natural pack structure. Within 24 hours, the wolves began acting like packs in the wild, and in two out of three cases, the newly formed “alpha” pairs eventually had pups.
    While in the acclimation pens, the wolves were fed only once every seven to ten days to mimic the waxing and waning eating habits of wild wolves. A typical pack of six in the wild consumes about 800 pounds of meat per month (about two adult elk and a small deer).

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    Then it came time to let the wolves go. At first, when scientists opened the front enclosure gates, the wolves wouldn’t venture into the park. Instead, they avoided the front gate and spent most of their time at the rear of their pens. But when the back gates were finally removed, the wolves moved out. Before they did, each
wolf was outfitted with a radio collar so that scientists could follow the animal’s movements and study its behavior.
    Yellowstone’s new wolf population fared surprisingly well. The first 14 animals quickly bore two litters, totaling nine pups. By the spring of 1997, 13 litters totaling 64 pups had been born. In addition, 10 young orphaned wolves were released into the park in early 1997. Today, more than 700 wolves live in Yellowstone, and about 1,500 total live in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. All of those are descendants of the original Yellowstone wolves.

CRYING WOLF
    Good news, right? Sort of. The resurgence of the wolf population in the western United States angered ranchers, who argued that the animals’ growing numbers put their livestock at risk. In fact, over the last 35 years, ranchers have maintained that the wolf problem was getting out of hand and that government protection needed to be lifted.
    In 2008, they found an ally in President George W. Bush, whose administration declared that the wolves no longer needed protection and removed them from the endangered species list. This left the job of protecting the wolves up to the individual states of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. The response of Idaho’s governor, C. L. Otter, who “bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself,” wasn’t reassuring to environmentalists. They argued that for the wolf populations to really rebound, between 2,000 and 5,000 animals should occupy the three states—not the 1,500 there now. Debate and legal wrangling continue as the wolves (and the folks who love them) await their fate.

WOLF BITES
    ��� Alaska has America’s largest gray wolf population, estimated at around 7,000 individuals. Canada has the largest population worldwide.
    • Wolves usually chase their prey only 1,000 yards.
    • In North America, there have been only three documented wolf attacks, none of which was fatal.

THE FAMOUS FOR 3 WORDS AWARD
    Clara Peller and Wendy’s
“Where’s the Beef” Commercial
    A feisty octogenarian put some sizzle into a simple
ad line and made it into the history books.
    CAUSING A COW-MOTION
    Tuesday, January 10, 1984, was the first time Americans heard the phrase “Where’s the beef?” It definitely wouldn’t be the last. Almost instantly, the question asked by a