One of Yellowstone National Park’s most popular wolves has been shot dead by a trophy hunter.
Spitfire, also known as Wolf 926F, was killed legally a few miles outside a park entrance in Montana, according to animal rights group Wolves of the Rockies.
The organisation shared the news on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
Spitfire was previously the alpha female leader of the Lamar valley wolfpack.
Her mother was also killed by a hunter in 2012 and Spitfire was credited with keeping the pack together after her death.
Both animals were stars in an area described by Yellowstone officials as a “wolf-watching mecca”, which attracts animal lovers from all over the world.
The hunter who killed Spitfire was acting legally according to The Dodo, as it is currently hunting season for wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the states that Yellowstone covers.
Wolf hunting licences in Montana cost just $19 (£15) for residents and $50 (£39) for others, according to the Wolf Conservation Centre.
The predators were reintroduced in Yellowstone in 1995 but remain at the centre of a debate in the US between conservationists who argue that the US wolf population needs protection, and hunters and farmers who argue that rising predator numbers are out of control.
Exposing the Big Game 
Reblogged this on Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting Blog.
What can you say at this point? This is the devil’s bargain that was made in order to bring back a native animal to the area! I almost wish the bargain was never made, and that the wolves migrated back on their own.
The rest of the American public and visitors come in second to the childish spite of those who do not want them there, or feel they don’t have to respect the Park or its visitors, or the program in order to selfishly have what they want.
I have not read the book American Wolf, but for an excerpt where 06’s killer says ‘he does not want to be considered ‘just another a***h**’. I remember chuckling to myself and thinking – ‘too late’. He is the definition.
If the book tried to create sympathy for this kind of hunter, it failed. Even with an attempt to create an Aldo Leopold moment by the man who killed her.
A lot of other animal advocates felt the same way about bringing wolves back to hostile areas. . Some wolves were moving South from Canada on thier own in a few states, but even some of those were being killed by narrow-minded hunters and ranchers.