Yellowstone Dynasty—In Mono

This profile of the Wapiti Alpha Female, third in her dynasty, was taken in early January as the alpha and her pack headed north, leaving behind them an agitated buffalo herd in Gibbon Meadows.

The Wapiti Alpha Female is a white wolf, daughter of the famous white wolf female alpha of the Canyon Pack, and granddaughter of the white wolf Hayden female alpha. In bloody drama, this alpha’s grandmother and grandfather (Hayden alphas) were killed by invading Mollies, a rare pack of buffalo-killing wolves. Her mother escaped the slaughter, and with a black wolf male alpha helped to firmly establish the Canyon Pack, eventually taking back the Hayden Valley territory of her mother and reigned in the American imagination as ‘The White Lady’ for over a decade until she was illegally shot. The Canyon Pack eventually gave up their dens and territory in the Hayden Valley to the White Lady’s daughter and her mate, who established her pups and the Wapiti Pack in the dens of her mother and grandmother.