2 Yellowstone Wolf Pups Killed in Fatal Encounter with Vehicle

As always, here's the link to the original story which everyone should definitely read.  If for whatever reason you can't read it, the short version is that two sibling pups were struck and killed in an evening incident on November 19 in the northeast part of the park.  The pups were black, which probably didn't redound to their benefit in terms of visibility, and were members of the Junction Butte pack which fortunately is otherwise healthy and one of the largest in the northern regions of the park. 

The Junction Butte pack is also one of the most frequently seen packs since it inhabits an area that's relatively accessible, including a road that remains open year-round, and is home to several popular hiking trails.  Park Service biologists suspect that habituation to humans may have played a role in the incident and are still investigating it.

The Junction Creek Pack, courtesy of the USNPS

For whatever it's worth, my own rather cynical perspective --as a former Yellowstone-employee who's repeatedly seen visitors do astonishingly stupid things-- leads me to immediately imagine the worst with regard to the driver behind this incident, but to be fair, I am not in any way objectively justified in so imagining.

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