This is worth a read. The Missoulian has a write-up on a recently completed study on wolf reproductive success in Yellowstone Park. The findings should be applicable to other wolf populations . . .
A wolf pup growing up in Yellowstone National Park has a better chance of surviving if it has a big mama that lives in a big pack.
Those were the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology that utilized 14 years of data collected on Yellowstone wolves.
“This is one of the few studies of large carnivores in the world to tease out what drives reproduction,” said Dan Stahler, lead author of the study and a biologist for Yellowstone’s Wolf Project team. “What’s fascinating is that, despite decades of research, we really didn’t know much about reproductive success and what are the triggers for failure.”