On 3 October, a few weeks after Montana opened its
first legal wolf-hunting season in decades, a hunter killed the alpha
female of Yellowstone Park's Cottonwood Pack, whose behavior, travels,
life history, and genealogy had been studied in detail by scientists
for years. Her death, and that of five other pack members also shot
outside Yellowstone, has irrevocably changed what had been a unique
long-term study, the researchers say.
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