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1:10

Hi, it's Phoebe. This

1:13

month, we're bringing you two of our favorite

1:15

episodes. Two stories about

1:17

the same family of wolves in Yellowstone.

1:21

One is a love story, and one is a crime

1:23

story. For the crime

1:25

story, check out episode 232 of Criminal. It's

1:29

called Wolf 10. We've got a link

1:31

in the show notes. Here's

1:33

the love story. Okay.

1:41

So here we are in

1:43

a very large truck. Probably

1:47

unnecessary that I

1:49

rented this big of a pickup truck.

1:51

But here we are. We are driving into

1:55

Yellowstone, and there's

1:59

no one here. Yellowstone

2:02

was the first national park in the United

2:05

States, established in 1872.

2:09

Some say it was the first national

2:11

park in the world. Ten

2:13

years after it opened, The New York Times

2:16

described it as an almost mystical

2:18

wonderland. There are tons

2:20

of mountains in front of us and there is just no one

2:23

in

2:23

Yellowstone. It's

2:25

November 20th and Yellowstone

2:28

just seems absolutely deserted. At

2:32

one point, Lauren Spore, this

2:34

show's co-creator, and I just stopped the

2:36

truck in the middle of the road to watch

2:38

a moose slowly wander in front

2:40

of us. You're gonna think

2:42

I'm making this up, but a fox

2:45

seemed to be running alongside the road with

2:47

us for a while. At some

2:49

point, we stopped pointing out all the

2:51

bison, elk,

2:53

and coyotes that we were seeing. There's

2:56

only one road open through Yellowstone

2:59

this time of year, from the North

3:01

Gate in Gardner, Montana across

3:03

the top of Wyoming, 50 miles,

3:06

to Cook City, Montana.

3:09

We had rooms booked at the Cook City

3:11

Super 8 and when we walked

3:13

into the lobby, the woman at the desk

3:16

just stared at us and then said,

3:18

Phoebe?

3:20

She said she knew it was us because we

3:22

were the only guests.

3:24

It felt to me like that had been the case

3:26

for the last month. There

3:29

was snow and ice everywhere. We

3:32

decided to try and find something to eat. We

3:35

hadn't had cell phone service all day, we

3:37

just gave up on it.

3:40

It's an odd feeling walking

3:42

down the middle of a deserted road

3:44

in a deserted town on the edge

3:47

of this big wilderness.

3:49

For dinner, we ate chips and

3:51

some string cheese, and

3:53

then we went to bed early. Not

3:56

only because there was nothing to do,

3:59

but Because we had to wake up at 5

4:01

o'clock the next morning to meet

4:03

a man named Rick McIntyre, who

4:06

would take us to find the wolves

4:09

he knows so well.

4:11

I'm Phoebe Judge, and this

4:14

is Love.

4:22

Okay, it is 5.50 a.m. It

4:26

is five degrees outside. He

4:29

said the best time to do this is right as the sun's

4:31

coming

4:31

up, so... um,

4:34

Lauren, we hope those... Lauren's gonna be

4:37

our navigator.

4:39

Rick McIntyre said we were welcome

4:42

to come see him, but he

4:44

wondered about the time of year we had picked. He

4:47

said his town, Silvergate,

4:50

had five residents in the winter. Everything

4:53

would be closed.

4:55

He called me a few days before we arrived in Montana

4:58

to talk about our coats. He

5:00

wanted to know how thick they were.

5:03

He also told me to bring hand and

5:06

toe warmers, but I

5:08

decided that was an unnecessary piece

5:10

of advice. He told me to write

5:12

down directions to his cabin with pen

5:14

and paper, directions that

5:17

included keeping our eyes out for

5:19

the Grizzly Lodge and Log Cabin

5:22

Cafe. This has to be it, right? Is

5:24

this a driveway?

5:25

Here's

5:28

his little cabin. Oh,

5:32

here he comes. Rick's

5:35

cabin is a mile from the northeast gate

5:37

of Yellowstone. He said it's

5:39

helpful to live so close to the wolves because

5:42

he watches them

5:44

every single day.

5:45

He's been watching them for decades. Sometimes

5:49

it's said that there are no two species

5:51

that are so alike in social

5:54

behavior as wild wolves and human beings.

5:57

And the proof of that is how well...

6:00

The domestic version of the wolf,

6:02

the pet dog, fits into a human family.

6:05

So wolves live in an extended family.

6:07

They support themselves. They rescue

6:09

each other if they're in danger. They

6:14

use teamwork to earn their living

6:16

and raise their pups. And

6:19

pretty much the same as early humans. So

6:22

they're very, very similar in behavior.

6:24

And that's why I'm especially fascinated

6:26

with them.

6:27

He spent 42 years with the National

6:30

Park Service. And now that he's retired,

6:33

he still goes out most mornings before

6:35

sunrise.

6:36

He says that for many years now, he's

6:38

basically operated on the schedule

6:41

of a wolf. He sleeps when they

6:43

sleep, and when they're active in the early

6:45

morning and at dusk, he's

6:47

there watching them.

6:49

He rests in the afternoon in the

6:51

same way that they do.

6:54

We were there to follow Rick's

6:56

lead. He told us to follow

6:58

behind his car, but not too closely,

7:01

because animals would likely be running across

7:04

the road at that time of morning. But

7:07

first, he said,

7:08

we needed to stop to speak to a man in

7:10

a Winnebago. We didn't ask

7:12

questions. We just got back in the

7:14

truck and waited for Rick. Do

7:20

you think that's a wolf tracker on top

7:23

of his car? That antenna, do you think it's a wolf

7:25

tracker? What would that be

7:27

connected to? I

7:29

don't know. Does

7:32

Rick seem to have crampons

7:35

on the bottom of his shoes for the ice? I can't tell.

7:38

What's a crampon? These little metal

7:40

spokes. Called a crampon? Yeah,

7:42

crampon.

7:45

And here we go. Okay.

7:51

Rick's told us to keep him in sight at

7:53

all times. We're

7:56

following behind Rick's Honda CRV

7:59

all-wheel drive. He has a wolf tracker

8:01

on the top, or what we're calling a wolf tracker.

8:03

It's an antenna. Wolves

8:06

were naturally present in Yellowstone

8:08

when it was established in 1872. But

8:12

by the early 20th century,

8:14

the government decided that wolves

8:16

weren't welcome anymore.

8:18

They were seen as unsafe to visitors,

8:21

and unsafe to the moose and elk

8:23

that the visitors were coming to see.

8:26

So they set about a plan to get rid of them.

8:30

Rangers were issued rifles and

8:32

told to hike into the park and kill

8:35

all the wolves they could. In 1926,

8:39

the last two wolves in Yellowstone

8:42

were killed.

8:45

We're entering Yellowstone

8:47

National Park, Northeast

8:50

Gate. It's still very dark.

8:55

It's 619, and it is 5 degrees.

9:01

After those last two wolves were killed

9:03

in 1926, the National

9:06

Park Service realized they'd made a serious

9:08

mistake.

9:10

The passage of the Endangered Species

9:12

Act in 1973 helped

9:15

create a legal argument to bring

9:17

some wolves back into the park to

9:20

try to restore the original ecosystem.

9:24

And in 1995, the

9:26

Park Service began the process

9:29

of reintroduction.

9:31

They worked with trappers in

9:33

the southern part of Alberta, Canada. They

9:36

wanted intact families, functional

9:39

packs of wolves that already knew

9:41

each other. In

9:44

January of 1995, 14 wolves

9:47

were brought into the park, the

9:50

first wolves to make their home in Yellowstone

9:53

in nearly 70 years. Okay,

9:56

so this man is, I

9:58

think, a friend of Rick.

9:59

He's got binoculars

10:02

on. He's standing outside of a vanguard,

10:04

an old mobile home.

10:06

I'm Jeff. I'm Phoebe. Nice

10:08

to meet you. Jeff is from Saskatchewan.

10:11

Oh, you are? And he used to be a

10:13

policeman. And he

10:15

was the wrestling champion

10:18

of Saskatchewan.

10:20

You were? And are you here

10:22

looking for wolves? Yes. Like wolves.

10:25

Jeff from Saskatchewan told us

10:28

that he thinks Yellowstone has the best

10:30

wildlife viewing in the world. And

10:32

he agreed to loan us some of his spawning equipment,

10:35

which ended up being incredibly helpful.

10:38

We were grateful to Jeff. This

10:40

was our first introduction to the way these

10:42

wolf watchers in Yellowstone help

10:45

each other out. We formed

10:47

a caravan, Rick in the front,

10:50

and Jeff in the back. We

10:52

drove for about half an hour. Yellowstone

10:55

is two million acres, and typically

10:58

has ten wolf packs at a time. I'm

11:01

going to get my scope out and we're going to start the floor. So

11:06

spotting scope is different than just a

11:09

regular pair of binoculars. It's much stronger? Yeah,

11:11

this goes up to about 60 magnification.

11:13

Most binoculars are maybe 10 or 15.

11:17

This is the morning. The sun is

11:19

not up yet, but it's coming. That's right. This

11:21

is what we call first light, which

11:23

is maybe about a half an hour before the official

11:26

sunrise. So we want

11:28

to be out here at first light because

11:30

wolves are active most at

11:33

this time and then at the corresponding

11:35

time around sunset.

11:37

So I'm just going to start

11:39

scanning east and west. We'll

11:42

be listening for howling as well.

11:46

How likely, I mean, how many days do

11:48

you now still go out and look for wolves?

11:51

Every day. And how many days out of

11:53

seven do you see them? Over time, probably

11:55

about 90 percent.

11:59

brought into the park from Canada, they

12:02

were initially placed in acclimation

12:04

pens because wolves

12:06

have a homing instinct.

12:09

If they were let loose right off the bat, Brick

12:11

says, they just had north back

12:13

to Canada.

12:15

Each wolf was identified with a number.

12:18

Brick says the reintroduction

12:21

worked brilliantly. He

12:23

says it's considered the greatest success

12:26

story in the history of wildlife

12:28

restoration. Okay,

12:30

well no luck so far, so I think we'll pack

12:33

up in a moment and we'll continue on. Okay.

12:36

Rick is gonna bring us a hand in the room because I

12:39

can't feel my hand. I brought my

12:42

Nike running gloves.

12:43

So

12:45

it's just my right hand. The knuckles feel pretty

12:47

numb. Okay.

12:56

We're on the move. You

12:59

ever see the movie Twister with

13:01

Helen Hunt? Yep. Do

13:03

you think this is kind of like Twister? We're

13:08

pulling up, there's a lot of cars here.

13:12

And they're all looking

13:16

at something. Looking at something. Even

13:24

though that's like paparazzi. Yep, this

13:26

is wolf paparazzi. You

13:33

hear the howling? Howling.

13:40

Oh, I can see them.

13:44

Wow. They're

13:46

howling. Oh, God! Don't

13:59

Okay, we're gonna move again. Okay.

14:04

It really was like paparazzi. The

14:07

group of people kept getting bigger. We

14:10

drove from place to place, jumping

14:12

in and out of cars, and then quickly

14:14

setting up scopes on tripods. They

14:18

move fast. Oh,

14:20

he's gone. How

14:23

is that old RV going so fast?

14:27

Okay, we're getting spotting scopes back out.

14:34

Alright, 724. The

14:37

sun is up. Here's

14:40

several of them. Go ahead. That's

14:45

a pup born last April.

14:49

Oh, here they come. There's a gray.

14:54

Wow, look. There's

14:57

so many. One,

15:00

two, three, four. They just keep coming. It

15:02

looks like a train. All walking

15:05

in a straight line.

15:07

One, two. The

15:12

first two are black. Three, four, five,

15:17

six, seven. They're

15:20

all making their way across. Some are rolling

15:22

around in the snow, though. Eight,

15:27

nine, ten. A

15:31

gray one. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15 wolves.

15:46

Oh, there's more. Wow.

15:52

After a busy morning of rushing around, we

15:55

finally found the right spot. And

15:57

everyone finally stayed still.

16:00

There were probably 20 people in the group

16:02

by now. Jeff made

16:04

hot chocolate for everyone in his Winnebago.

16:08

It really is a community. A

16:11

lot of these people have been watching wolves

16:13

together like this for decades.

16:16

We were watching what's called the

16:18

Junction Butte Pack. I

16:21

was amazed how much Rick seemed to

16:23

know about every single wolf

16:25

in the pack.

16:27

He knows a lot about all the

16:29

wolves in Yellowstone and the

16:31

wolves that came before them, because

16:34

he comes out like this and watches and

16:36

takes notes for hours at a

16:38

time.

16:40

There's one wolf in particular that

16:43

has fascinated him from the beginning.

16:46

A Small Wolf, Wolf 8.

16:50

Wolf 8 was one of the original 14

16:53

brought in during the reintroduction in 1995. He

16:57

was brought in as a pup, just a few months

16:59

old, and his whole family was

17:02

put in an acclimation pen about an acre

17:04

in size. And while they

17:06

were still in that acclimation pen, Park

17:09

Rangers began to notice that one

17:11

of the wolves was much smaller

17:13

than his brothers, the runt.

17:16

He was chased around and teamed up

17:18

on. He was always the last one to eat.

17:22

When the pack was released from the acclimation

17:24

pen, Wolf 8 was about

17:27

a year old.

17:28

Everyone monitored this reintroduction

17:31

very closely,

17:33

and Rick says that the Park Rangers

17:35

were kind of rooting for Wolf 8. He

17:38

wasn't going to have it easy.

17:40

And then one day, Rick was observing

17:43

Wolf 8 out with two of his brothers.

17:46

They ran behind some trees, and

17:48

when they reappeared, one of the brothers

17:51

was carrying an elk calf in its jaws.

17:54

But right behind them was a grizzly bear

17:56

chasing them. It was the grizzly

17:58

bear's elk calf, and the brothers had to stolen

18:00

it from him. And because eight was the

18:02

slowest wolf, he was last in line, which

18:04

meant that the bear was gaining on him. And

18:07

just as about the bear was to

18:09

catch up with eight, he

18:11

stopped and turned around and confronted the bear.

18:14

He stood between the bear and his two brothers.

18:17

And the bear was just

18:19

several times the size of the little

18:22

wolf, but the bear didn't know what

18:24

to make of this guy. And the

18:26

bear just gave up, just turned around and went the

18:28

other direction. But I was the only

18:30

one that saw what eight did that day. His two brothers

18:32

had run off with the calf, and

18:34

when he finally caught up with them, not only did they

18:37

not know that he had saved them from the bear,

18:39

but they didn't share the calf with them.

18:42

That was when I really began to understand

18:44

that there was way more to eight

18:47

than just being the runt of the litter.

18:50

We'll be right back.

18:54

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20:39

Rick McIntyre watched as Eight

20:42

continued to be beaten up by his brothers,

20:45

pinned down, his food taken away, and

20:48

he began to notice that Eight was

20:50

spending more and more time wandering around

20:52

by himself. Meanwhile,

20:55

one of the other packs of wolves that had been

20:57

brought from Canada, the Rose Creek

21:00

Pack, was expecting a litter

21:02

of pups.

21:04

The mother was known as Wolf Nine, and

21:06

the father was called Wolf Ten. He

21:09

was enormous. And on the very day

21:12

that she had her pups, which should have been

21:14

a time of great celebration in Yellowstone,

21:17

they would have been the first wolf pups born

21:19

in Yellowstone in 69 years, on

21:21

that day, the father wolf

21:24

was illegally shot and killed.

21:26

That meant that Number Nine was a single

21:28

mother with no help,

21:30

and a litter of eight pups. That's a very large

21:32

litter.

21:33

There was virtually no way that she could

21:36

enable those pups to survive. Very

21:38

young wolf pups have no ability to keep

21:41

themselves warm to regulate their temperature.

21:44

So the mother wolf

21:46

has to be in the den with them so they

21:49

can cuddle up next to her and

21:51

absorb her body warmth.

21:54

If she was to leave the den for too long,

21:57

when she got back, they could

21:59

have died of it. of hypothermia. She

22:02

was in an impossible situation. She

22:04

couldn't really leave the pups. They would

22:06

likely die if she did. But

22:08

if she didn't leave them, she would have no

22:11

food to support her milk production

22:13

and they would die of malnutrition. So

22:17

normally the Park Service does not intervene

22:20

in a situation with wild animals. But

22:23

because a bad guy had killed the

22:25

father wolf and that

22:28

family represented 43% of

22:30

the Yellowstone's wolf population at the

22:32

time, they decided to make an exception.

22:35

So they captured the mother and the eight pups.

22:38

And the plan was to put them back in

22:40

the Rose Creek pen where she had originally

22:43

gotten pregnant and keep them in there

22:45

for six months and then release

22:47

them. They would be about the age

22:50

of human children, six, seven

22:52

years old, something like that, meaning

22:54

that they still would know nothing of hunting. So

22:57

the mother wolf would still have plenty of problems,

22:59

but at least she would have a chance of

23:01

keeping them alive. If she was good

23:03

enough hunter,

23:05

maybe they could survive. Here's

23:09

what Rick thinks probably happened next.

23:12

Wolfeat was spending most of his time

23:14

wandering around alone,

23:15

trying to get away from his bully brothers.

23:19

It was easier being by himself. He'd

23:21

likely heard the Rose Creek wolf

23:23

pups howling

23:25

and eventually got curious enough

23:28

to go see what was going on.

23:29

We think that at one point

23:32

he came around and turned in the ravine

23:34

and saw something that he had never seen before

23:36

in his life. He saw the first

23:39

two pups that had come out of the den in the process

23:41

of being released. And

23:44

for him, every day of his life, he was always

23:46

the smallest wolf. And so he had

23:49

no conception

23:50

that there were wolves out there that were smaller than he

23:53

was. So

23:55

he ran over and befriended those pups.

23:58

So he played with them, shared some.

23:59

and whether he realized

24:02

it or not, he was being watched by the mother

24:04

wolf. He wasn't

24:06

the ideal candidate to be

24:09

her new alpha male. He

24:11

had a lot of things going against him, including

24:13

his size and his inexperience

24:16

in youth, but he was acting

24:18

benevolently to her pups. And

24:21

essentially she invited him into her

24:23

family to be their new alpha male. Eight

24:26

essentially adopted and raised those pups like

24:28

they were his own. So if you came along

24:31

after,

24:32

there would be no way that you could tell the difference

24:34

between him being the adopted father

24:36

and biological father.

24:39

So pretty much eight in

24:41

the course of a day had gone from being

24:43

this underappreciated runt

24:46

of the family to having his

24:48

own family. With

24:51

a number of children, he could

24:53

forget about what had happened to him when he was growing up.

24:55

Yes, it was night and day.

24:59

Not only had wolf eight never seen

25:01

wolves smaller than him,

25:03

but the wolf pups he was now raising as

25:05

his own had never seen an adult

25:08

male wolf before.

25:10

They didn't know eight was small.

25:12

One of the wolf pups eight was raising was

25:15

called wolf 21. And 21

25:18

would grow up to be very big and

25:21

very strong, even bigger

25:23

than his biological father. But

25:26

he learned everything about how to be

25:29

from eight.

25:31

Rick says the two were inseparable.

25:33

They perfected a technique of hunting

25:35

where they were very successful. They operated

25:38

as a team, kind of like Butch Cassidy

25:40

and the Sundance Kid. And then they

25:42

would come back to the den

25:44

and their mother and the new pups and bring

25:46

food to them.

25:48

So wolves, a big male, can

25:50

swallow about 20 pounds. And

25:52

then when they come home, they can regurgitate

25:55

that. They bring it up to the pups.

25:57

They can also carry me, but it's more efficient

25:59

to do it even.

25:59

internally. When the pups see

26:02

either 8 or 21 come in, they

26:05

have an instinct to run over to them, and

26:07

they will lick their muzzle, and that triggers

26:09

the regurgitation. And I say

26:11

that because when a modern

26:14

dog sees its human friend

26:16

coming along, the dog wants to

26:18

lick the face of

26:21

the human, and that's a remnant

26:24

of that behavior from their wild ancestors.

26:26

So that's what it really means. They want you to give you 20 pounds

26:29

of meat that you just

26:29

had at the restaurant. It wasn't

26:32

long before 21 grew

26:34

so big that he was much larger

26:37

than 8. He was a better hunter, he was

26:39

faster, he was stronger, but

26:41

he was always willing to be subordinate

26:44

to the wolf that raised him. 21

26:47

watched 8 defend the

26:49

pack's territory against the alpha male

26:51

of another pack, the druid wolves.

26:54

They'd clashed before.

26:56

The druid alpha male was called Wolf 38.

26:59

He was big, and Rick

27:01

thinks Wolf 38 may

27:03

have killed 8's father. When

27:07

Wolf 38 charged towards 8

27:09

and his family, 8 charged

27:12

right back uphill, putting

27:14

himself between his adopted pups

27:17

and the enemy. Rick

27:19

doesn't think 8 had ever won a fight

27:21

before.

27:22

He didn't think it would end well. He watched the

27:24

two wolves slam

27:26

into each other and wrestle on the ground.

27:29

And then 38 was down, and 8 was back

27:32

up, standing

27:35

over 38, biting him. Rick

27:38

says 8 could easily have torn out 38's throat

27:41

and ended the long-standing

27:44

pack rivalry for good.

27:47

But 8 didn't do that.

27:48

He bit 38 a few more times and

27:51

then stepped back. 38

27:53

jumped up with his

27:55

tail tucked and ran away. 8

27:57

went back to the back

27:59

of the pack. to his family, including 21, who'd

28:02

been watching the whole thing. And I guess

28:05

he understood, well, that's what you do. You

28:07

use the minimum amount of force to prove your point,

28:09

to protect and save your family, and

28:11

then you leave it at that. You don't finish off the

28:13

guy.

28:15

When it was time for 21 to leave the family

28:17

and go out on his own to find a mate,

28:20

he ended up joining that rival druid

28:23

pack.

28:24

It was a surprise to everyone. Rick

28:26

says he wonders what eight thought

28:28

about it. 21 was

28:31

entering into a very complicated pack

28:33

dynamic. There were two

28:36

sisters, 40 and 42. 40 was

28:39

violent and aggressive. She'd forced

28:41

her mother out of the pack.

28:44

But Rick says that the other

28:46

sister, 42, was perfect for 21. He says

28:48

that from their first

28:52

meeting, it was obvious that they

28:54

were ideal for each other. Rick

28:57

calls them soulmates. But

29:01

to be with 42, 21 also had to live with 40.

29:06

21 was in the middle of this conflict

29:08

between the two sisters. And

29:11

male wolves, especially 21, seemed

29:13

to have an absolute rule of never

29:16

doing anything to harm a female.

29:19

So he would restrain

29:22

himself even when he saw 40 doing

29:24

things such

29:27

as beating up 42. So

29:29

I think when male pups are young,

29:31

they just learn this principle

29:34

that you never harm a female.

29:36

I think he learned that from his mother.

29:38

What is the difference between

29:40

an alpha male wolf

29:42

and an alpha female wolf?

29:44

What two roles do they

29:46

play?

29:49

Well, the first difference that comes

29:51

to mind is one is in charge

29:53

and the other one isn't. And

29:55

it used to be thought that the alpha

29:57

male, just because he looked so big and strong,

29:59

and tough would be the absolute

30:02

rule of the wolf pack. But

30:04

we found here that,

30:06

no, he isn't. It's

30:08

the alpha female that runs the show. And

30:11

probably the clearest example of that,

30:14

one day, the whole family

30:16

was sleeping in the afternoon. He got

30:18

up and he wanted to go on a hunt to the east.

30:21

So he started to go that way and he looked back

30:23

over his shoulder and everyone had ignored

30:25

him. No one followed him. So

30:28

he went back, he slept a little bit more, he tried

30:30

again. He made eight attempts to get everyone

30:33

to go with him to the east and no

30:35

one did. And then after

30:38

that, when 42 got

30:40

up and she wanted to go on a hunt to the west,

30:42

everyone immediately followed her with 21 last

30:45

in line, dutifully following the

30:47

true leader of the pack.

30:49

Rick watched 21 and 42 raise

30:51

their pups, with 42

30:54

teaching them how to swim, how

30:56

to cross the road. As

30:59

a father, Rick says 21 was

31:01

very involved.

31:03

Rick says he's never seen an alpha

31:05

male wolf who liked to play as

31:07

much as 21.

31:10

He was a loving father. The

31:12

kind of father eight had modeled

31:14

for him. He would

31:16

play in such a way that he would pretend

31:20

to lose wrestling matches with him.

31:23

So you'd have this huge alpha male

31:26

initiate a wrestling match with a little

31:29

tiny pup. And as soon

31:31

as the pup grabbed the fur in one of 21's

31:33

legs and just pull it the

31:36

slightest bit, 21 would flop

31:38

over on his back with his paws in

31:40

the air in the defeated position. So

31:42

the little guy who just defeated the heavyweight

31:44

champion, he seemed to really enjoy

31:47

that. And then he would initiate

31:49

chasing games with the pups. He would chase

31:51

them, he would stop, and then

31:53

he would pretend to be afraid and

31:55

he would start running the opposite direction. And

31:58

of course the pup would immediately know what that meant. and

32:00

would chase the alpha male, 21 would

32:03

deliberately run slowly. And

32:06

as soon as the pup kind of just had

32:08

the lightest grab on one of 21's

32:11

hind legs, he would flop over, pretending

32:14

to be the prey that the wolf

32:17

just caught. I think that

32:19

indicated that he had a sense of humor. And I think the

32:21

pups really enjoyed seeing him do that.

32:24

Meanwhile, Eight was

32:26

getting old.

32:27

He was getting weaker.

32:29

It was getting more difficult for him to hunt.

32:32

Rick saw him try to take down an elk,

32:35

and the elk fought back.

32:37

One of the defining qualities of Eight was

32:39

he took his responsibilities very seriously.

32:43

If you're an alpha male like him,

32:46

there's two things you gotta do. If

32:48

your family is hungry, you have

32:50

to do something about it. If your family is threatened,

32:53

you gotta do something about that. Doesn't

32:56

matter how hard, how dangerous it is. Doesn't

32:59

matter what the weather is. You gotta

33:01

do it. That's your job. And

33:03

Eight would always do that. And so

33:05

he just fought on after being kicked in

33:07

the head, stomped, and finally

33:10

finished off the elk. But he was so

33:12

exhausted and probably so injured

33:14

that he couldn't even

33:15

eat. So he just laid down and

33:18

all the younger wolves came in and fed.

33:28

We'll be right back.

33:58

Keep going. Ahsoka

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34:36

Two years after 21

34:39

had left the Rose Creek pack to

34:41

join the Druid pack Tension

34:44

between the two packs began to build On

34:47

this one December day. I was in Lamar Valley

34:50

and it just happened that both packs were

34:52

there at the same time and

34:55

They started to howl and they were aware of

34:58

each other The Rose Creek walls

35:00

were a little bit west of the Druid walls and

35:02

the Druids started to march With

35:05

a very determined purpose in that

35:07

direction with 40 out in front

35:09

40 was the violent and aggressive sister

35:12

of 21's mate 42. She'd created a lot of chaos in 21's

35:14

life

35:18

So she was deliberately leading

35:20

the pack to confront What to

35:22

her was this rival pack that she

35:24

wanted to get rid of Violently

35:27

and

35:28

were you were you thinking? Oh, no here it

35:30

comes

35:32

Yes at that time I

35:34

expected that sooner or later

35:38

The two packs were going to have it out and

35:41

we were lucky that it hadn't happened yet Or

35:43

at least the the wolves had been lucky. It hadn't happened

35:45

yet, but it looks like this was going to be it The

35:48

issue was that 21 was leading

35:50

his family now as they were getting

35:53

closer Toward the opposing

35:55

force and an out in front of those walls

35:57

was eight

35:59

was going to have to fight the wolf who had

36:02

raised him, and Eight

36:04

was going to have to go through with it. Even

36:07

though there was no way he could

36:09

win, he was old and

36:12

tired. He was missing most

36:14

of his teeth.

36:14

It looked like they were going to

36:16

have to fight it out. That's the job

36:19

of an alpha male, to be the prime defender

36:21

of your family. So there

36:23

was no way that Eight could win, no

36:25

way the 21 could lose a fight to

36:28

a wolf that old and that injured. So

36:31

it was an impossible situation.

36:33

There was no way out of this for 21.

36:37

And what happened in the next moment

36:41

was genius, what 21 did. It

36:45

was like two knights charging

36:47

each other and stallions with their lances about

36:49

to kill each other, these two alpha males.

36:52

At the last second, as they were about to smash

36:54

into each other, 21 ran

36:58

past Eight.

37:02

He ran past him like he was afraid. And

37:05

because all the other members

37:07

of his family, even 40, I

37:10

think assumed, well, he ran past him

37:12

because he didn't want to fight this other guy, they

37:15

ran past Eight as well. No one touched him.

37:17

So the two families just ran past each

37:20

other, like on the interstate. And

37:22

they both went back to their respective territories.

37:24

Had you ever seen a two

37:26

packs come at each other where no

37:29

one was harmed before? No, I've

37:31

never seen that before since. So

37:33

do you think that 21 was thinking, I have to

37:35

make a show of this. I have

37:38

to go as fast and hard as I can, but I can't

37:41

hurt Eight. And I'm going to make it look

37:44

as real as I can, but I can't hurt him.

37:47

I kind of hesitate to try to

37:50

speculate what was actually happening. But

37:52

I think for me, the bottom line was his

37:54

respect for Eight.

37:56

That however you want to explain

37:58

it,

37:59

he did not.

37:59

want to harm eight. And

38:03

he could have easily killed

38:05

eight. Yes, there's no question. There

38:07

was no way that eight could have won that fight. No way.

38:09

So I think it was based

38:12

on respect.

38:13

That was the only fight 21 ever lost before

38:16

or after.

38:20

Once he single-handedly fought

38:23

six wolves at the same time

38:25

and won. But

38:27

what's really fascinating, Rick

38:30

says, is that 21

38:32

never killed another wolf. Five

38:36

months after the fight between

38:39

eight and 21,

38:40

eight died.

38:42

He died hunting. Rick

38:44

says it was an honorable ending. 21 and 42

38:47

went on to have a long life together.

38:51

They had grown old together. They

38:53

started to look like

38:55

each other very much. They both lived

38:57

to be about nine years old, which is very, very

39:00

old. And he never was really the

39:02

same after her death.

39:05

He only lived on for about four more months

39:07

and that was it. It was like he just didn't want to go

39:10

on. Today,

39:12

Rick keeps tabs on the generations of wolves

39:15

descended from eight and 21. And

39:17

he

39:19

thinks about those two all

39:21

the time. We all have to

39:23

deal with difficult situations, sometimes

39:25

with difficult people, sometimes with aggressive

39:28

people. Do you respond aggressively

39:31

to aggression? If

39:33

someone is mean and thoughtless, do you respond

39:35

the same way or do you turn

39:38

the tables on them and respond

39:40

in the opposite way? So I try to do

39:42

that whenever I can. Not always

39:44

successful, but what would eight

39:47

do? What would 21 do? What would 42 do?

39:55

Talking about it later, we

39:57

realized how strange it is to think

39:59

that these wolves, the wolves

40:02

Rick watches every day, that

40:04

he's trained his sleep schedule around,

40:08

don't know anything about Rick. They

40:11

likely don't even know he exists.

40:13

They have no idea

40:16

there's a man two miles away

40:19

watching them and making his notes,

40:23

chronicling the intricacies of

40:25

their lives for us.

40:30

This is Love. This is Love is created by

40:32

Lauren Sporr and me. Nadia

40:35

Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop

40:37

is our supervising producer. Our

40:41

producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajico, Lily Clark,

40:43

Lena Sillison, and Megan Kinane.

40:46

Our technical director is Rob Byers. Our

40:49

team is made up of a team of three

40:51

people who are all very talented, and

40:53

we're all working on a project that we're

40:55

working on together. Our

40:58

technical director is Rob Byers, engineering

41:01

by Russ Henry. Learn

41:03

more about the show on our website, thisislovepodcast.com.

41:07

You can learn more about the wolves of Yellowstone in

41:10

Rick McIntyre's book, Wolf 8,

41:13

Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's

41:15

Underdog.

41:18

If you like the show, tell a friend or leave

41:20

us a review. It means a lot.

41:23

We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at

41:26

This Is Love Show, where we'll

41:28

have photos of Rick and Wolf 8, and

41:30

even a video of that moose slowly

41:32

wandering by our truck.

41:36

This Is Love is recorded in the studios of

41:38

North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC.

41:41

We're part of the Vox Media Podcast

41:44

Network. Discover more great shows

41:46

at podcast.voxmedia.com.

41:50

I'm Phoebe Judge, and this

41:52

is love.