Last week Jasper social media was abuzz with photos of a female wolf spotted by numerous skiers travelling the road to Marmot Basin. Fresh from a kill, her silver-grey fur was stained pink, her stomach distended from her latest gorging.
Meet Wolf 112, a female wolf Parks Canada has been studying since 2009. Had you seen her back then, you may not have recognized her. As a young wolf she had jet-black fur—a colour not uncommon to wolves in the Canadian Rockies, though grey colouring of one kind or another is more common.
Over time, she’s followed a typical greying/whitening pattern, her black tail the last dark hold out. She’ll likely continue to lighten until the end of her life, and some scientists think if she lives long enough, she will go completely white.
By all accounts, Wolf 112 is doing well for an old gal. She’s at least eight years old—fairly long-lived for a wolf from this part of the world (the average lifespan is around five years old).
Survival is truly for the fittest in this species. Wolf packs are dynamic entities—a game of power politics that causes the constant formation, expansion, and dissipation of these social groups. Packs fight within and among themselves as leadership and territorial boundaries are challenged. Starvation claims pack members in lean years.
According to the 2009-2013 Jasper National Park Caribou Progress Report, Wolf 112 was first collared in 2009, and has since been repeatedly collared and monitored as part of Jasper National Park’s Caribou Program. She’s a member of the Sunwapta pack, one of four packs thought to have territories that overlap with caribou habitat.
The Sunwapta pack has set up shop in the south of the park, traditionally ranging from the area around Buffalo Prairie, south to Beauty Creek, along the Chaba River and as far west as Fortress Lake.
Recent sightings near Marmot are not the first; she’s been seen running roadside before. In 2014, a concerned visitor driving the Icefields Parkway reportedly emailed park officials over concern that a lone wolf was trotting down Highway 93, apparently looking for roadkill in the ditch and unconcerned about the traffic passing by her.
Back then, 112 was thought to be travelling alone, possibly ousted from the position of alpha female in another version of the Sunwapta pack. Recently, she’s been seen with at least two other wolves, and may be the alpha female of this new, small pack.
From Alpha, to loner, and back again? With the right personality, it’s possible.
Here’s hoping we’ll be seeing her around until she’s white from nose-tip to tail.
Niki Wilson
Special to the Fitzhugh
