The Brief

For one graying wolf in the wilds of Northern Yellowstone, another year of life is synonymous with another year of pregnancy. It’s a rare feat, and also one that has enabled her survival in the wilderness.

Wolf 907 in Yellowstone National Park is well into her golden years. With one eye left, she’s considered elderly at the old age of 11. But that hasn’t stopped her from giving birth to another litter of pups, her tenth in fact.

She’s had a litter every year of her life since she was two years old. According to Kira Cassidy, a researcher with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, 907 gave birth to three pups this May. One has died; the other two are starting to venture farther away from the den hole as they near two and a half months of age.

“There is no evidence that wolves go through menopause, and so the thought is that they probably reproduce until they die. But because so many of them die when they're so young, there's just not much known about the ones that reach these kind of uber elder years,” said

With these two new pups, there’s currently 10 wolves in the Junction Butte pack — almost double since Wolf 907 took over the pack in 2017. In 2020, there were 35 pack members, making it the third largest in North America, so the number has largely decreased.

Unlike most packs, Wolf 907 has traded off the alpha position with some of her female relatives over the years. Usually, a wolf remains alpha until they die.

“We don’t really have a good explanation for that, other than the pack produces a lot of strong females,” Cassidy said.

She's a nepo-pup

Physiologically, a wolf can live to about the same age as a large dog — maybe 10 to 12 years old. However, the dangers of wolf life make it highly unlikely for them to die of old age. The average lifespan is 3 to 4 years old, making 907 a true outlier.

“They're extremely territorial with their neighbors, and so about 50% of the deaths are from those fights between packs, mostly in the winter, and they're kind of competing for resources,” Cassidy said.

Although wolves are protected from humans in Yellowstone, occasionally they are killed by a vehicle, or leave the park boundaries into hunting areas.

Remarkably, Wolf 907 has lived in Northern Yellowstone with the Junction Butte wolf pack her entire life.

“She inherited the leadership position when her aunt died, and so she has never had to disperse in her entire life. I think that probably contributed to her long life and her success because she never had to go through that period of being off by herself, finding a new mate, trying to kind of elbow out a territory in a pretty highly competitive environment like Northern Yellowstone,” Cassidy said.

Wolf 907 (gray wolf in upper center) and her Junction Butte pack.

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Courtesy Yellowstone Wolf Project

)

She's networking her family

Cassidy’s research includes field work like setting up trail cameras as well as analyzing long term data on wolves.

This year, Wolf 907 chose a den that she’s used before to give birth, and researchers watched from a mile away with a spotting scope.

This isn’t the first time Cassidy and her crew have watched her bring new life to the park, and they continue to monitor the pups from her past litters as well.

“It's really interesting to see how 907, because she is so long lived, she now has a number of her offspring or a niece or a nephew that have started packs all around her,” Cassidy said. “Her son is one of the leaders of the pack to the south. Another son is a leader of the pack to the west. She has two daughters that are leading packs that are also nearby, and a niece on the east side. So she's kind of all surrounded by her offspring or close relatives.”

These relationships might encourage tolerance for Wolf 907’s pack if they encounter another pack, which is usually very dangerous, according to Cassidy.

She knows how to delegate

There are about 100 adult wolves in Yellowstone right now, and a quarter of them have radio collars that send location pins to a satellite system for the researchers to monitor. Most of the time, a collar is going to outlast a wolf’s life, Cassidy said.

Wolf 907

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Courtesy Yellowstone Wolf Project

)

Wolf 907 has been captured multiple times to switch out her collar because she keeps outliving the battery life. In the 30 years since wolves have been introduced to Yellowstone, only six wolves, including 907, have reached their eleventh year. Of those, only two have made it to 12.

“If I'm just going to throw out the odds of her reaching 12 years old, it's maybe like 50-50 at this point,” Cassidy said. “She just keeps surprising me.”

According to Cassidy, the longer a wolf lives, the more knowledge and the more experiences they have, and they're critical to teaching their packmates how to be successful.

“She's not really participating in the big hunting of elk and bison anymore; she lets her younger pack mates do that. So, her chances of getting kicked and killed in a hunt are fairly low. She's kind of mitigating a lot of those really dangerous things that kill wolves, even at very young ages,” said Cassidy. “She has probably figured out how best to live in the place that she's living.”

Take accountability and move forward.

Those were the two points Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore hit repeatedly when speaking with LAist’s Larry Mantle this week.

On taking accountability, Moore said hazardous conditions and decisions made before the Palisades Fire erupted a year ago meant “our firefighters never had a chance” to arrest the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.

On moving forward, he emphasized that reform is already in the works.

“Things have changed since the Palisades Fire, and we're going to continue making big changes in the Los Angeles Fire Department,” said Moore, who was selected for the LAFD top job by Mayor Karen Bass in November.

Here are three takeaways from the interview, which aired on AirTalk on Tuesday.

1. Staffing decisions hampered fire response

The LAFD uses a so-called pre-deployment matrix to set firefighter staffing levels ahead of high-risk weather.

According to the department’s after-action report, however, staffing levels on the day the Palisades Fire began fell short of the LAFD standard for extreme weather conditions. The National Weather Service had warned of low humidity, high winds and dry vegetation, what it calls a “particularly dangerous situation.” It’s the highest level of alert the agency can give.

Despite the high risk, the LAFD report said the decision not to deploy more firefighters in advance was in part made to save money.

Moore said Monday that the department has updated its policies to increase staffing for especially hazardous conditions, but he said he doesn’t believe additional resources would have stopped a fire of the magnitude that leveled the Palisades.

To suppress that kind of fire, he said, the department would need to pre-deploy resources across the city’s vast geography — to places like Baldwin Hills, Franklin Canyon, the Hollywood Hills, the Palisades, Porter Ranch and Sunland-Tujunga.

Moore said the department has already made new policies to call for more resources when the Weather Service issues a “particularly dangerous situation” alert.

2. LAFD is mostly an urban firefighting department

Moore referenced a key finding of the after-action report regarding a lack of training in wildland firefighting, which contributed to confusion and struggles to effectively utilize resources during the fire.

Wildland fires pose a number of challenges that are different from what firefighters face in urban environments. Those include the need to coordinate a large number of resources over vast areas, all while dealing with fast-moving flames that can rapidly tear through dry plants and structures.

The department found in its report that fewer firefighters were trained in fighting these wildland fires in recent years and that “leaders struggled to comprehend their roles.”

Some leaders in the department had “limited or no experience in managing an incident of such complexity,” the report said. And some reverted to doing the work of lower positions, leaving high-level decision-making positions unfilled.

“What we're doing now is really furthering that training and reinforcing that education with our firefighters so that they could be better prepared,” Moore said on AirTalk.

3. Changes to the after-action report

Early versions of the after-action report differed from the version released to the public in October, a fact that was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The Times also reported that Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, who wrote the report, wouldn’t endorse the final version because of the changes.

Moore acknowledged to the L.A. Board of Fire Commissioners at a Jan. 6 meeting that the report had been watered down.

“It is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership in that final report,” Moore told the commissioners. “This editing occurred prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can assure you that nothing of this sort will ever again happen while I am fire chief."

Some changes were small but telling. A section titled “Failures” later became “Primary Challenges.”

Moore told LAist that changes between versions “ made it easier for the public to understand,” but an LAist review found the edits weren’t all surface-level.

In the first version of the report, the department said the decision not to fully pre-deploy all available resources for the particularly dangerous wind event “did not align” with their guidelines for such extreme weather cases. The final version said that the initial response “lacked the appropriate resources,” removing the reference to department standards.

The department also removed some findings that had to do with communications.

One sentence from the initial version of the report said: “Most companies lacked a basic briefing, leader’s intent, communications plan, or updated fire information for more than 36 hours.” That language was removed from the final report.

LAist has asked the Fire Department for clarification about why these assertions were removed but did not receive a response before time of publication.

Olympic organizers announced Tuesday that registration to buy tickets will run through March 18, with sales beginning in April. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said that locals will get the first bite at the apple.

The registration period opens 7 a.m. Wednesday.

" Our host city communities here in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to be a part of a local presale," Hoover said outside the Coliseum while surrounded by Olympic athletes from Games past. "With our thanks and as part of our commitment to making sure that those who live and work around the games, where the games will take place, can be in the stands and cheer in 2028."

Olympic organizers also provided more details on ticket prices for the first time. One million tickets will sell for $28 a pop and around a third of tickets will be under $100, according to LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman.

That means the majority of tickets to the Olympic Games will run into triple digits. If the World Cup is any indication, some tickets could get astronomically pricey.

Interested fans can go to LA28.org to register. Those who are selected will get an email with a time slot to purchase tickets.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors took a step toward banning ICE from unlawfully operating on county-owned property and to post signage designating those spaces as “ICE Free Zones.”

The board unanimously approved the motion at Tuesday’s meeting, directing staff to draft the policy.

The draft could include requirements for county employees to report to their supervisor if they see unauthorized immigration activity on county property.

The city of Los Angeles passed a similar order last July, which strengthened protocols that prohibit ICE from operating on city-owned property. The agenda staff report points to an “ICE Free Zone” ordinance passed by the city of Chicago in October.

Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis co-authored the motion.

Horvath said the county will not allow its property to be used as “a staging ground for violence caused by the Trump administration."

Solis added that their action as a board could have a ripple effect on other city councils and local governments.

“Even though it's taken us this long to get here …I think it's really important for our communities to understand what we're saying is you don't have the right to come in and harass people without a federal warrant,” Solis said. “And if you use our property to stage, then you need to show us documentation as to why.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in an X post that the county cannot exclude federal agents from public spaces.

"Anyone who attempts to impede our agents will be arrested and charged, including county employees," Essayli said in the post. "We have already charged more than 100 individuals for similar conduct."

Since June, ICE raids have ramped up across the nation, heavily targeting certain immigrant communities like those in Los Angeles.

The motion directs the draft to include language that prohibits all types of ICE operations on county land, including staging and mobilizing without a warrant.

The motion cites an incident on Oct. 8, when county officials say federal agents raided the Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in San Pedro, arresting three people and threatening to arrest staff.

The motion also requires that the county post 'Ice Free Zone' signage on all of its properties.

Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center of Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told LAist the policy is enforceable under Fourth Amendment case law.

“You have to make sure that when you post that signage … that means that you routinely, or semi-routinely, assess who's coming in to the property, so that you can control access,” Perez said. “But if ICE shows up with a warrant, with a subpoena, then all bets are off, and they can enter into the property and do what they need to do.”

Perez said the county has moved “incredibly” slow on this issue.

“It's embarrassing that the county is moving six months later, given how we've been facing violent, aggressive, invasive and illegal raids now for so long here in Southern California,” Perez said, adding that local governments have not been fast or creative enough in protecting immigrant and refugee communities.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, one of the region’s largest immigrant advocacy groups, supports the motion.

"We do not want our county resources being used for federal immigration enforcement activities, which disrupt, uproot, and terrorize our communities,” Jeannette Zanipatin, policy director for CHIRLA, said in a statement. “It is important for all public spaces to be really safe for all residents.”

County staff have 30 days to draft a plan to implement the new policy.