Quarterly Pack Highlight
What was the Arrowhead Ridge Pack
Our 'Quarterly Wolf Highlights' provide a brief synopsis on what we have learned about pack that we are currently or have previously studied in the hopes of illuminating the dynamic and interesting lives of these animals.
The Arrowhead Ridge Pack… or something else?
Late last summer, the Half-Moon Pack, longtime residents of the central portion of the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem (GVE), was ousted by a trio of unfamiliar wolves. This new group claimed the territory for itself, and we began referring to them as the Arrowhead Ridge Pack. Earlier this spring, that pack produced a litter of two pups, which we tagged in May. What makes this story interesting isn’t just the pack turnover, it is where these new pups were born. ​
A picture of a wolf we determined to be a member of the "Arrowhead Ridge Pack" that started to become quite familiar to us.
A Den with a History
The Arrowhead Ridge pups were born in the exact same den that three previous packs had used before them: a simple cavity beneath an unassuming rock. The Ash River Pack first used this den in 2014, followed by the Bowman Bay Pack in 2016, 2017, and 2018. The Half-Moon Pack later used it in 2020 and again in 2023. And now, in 2025, the Arrowhead Ridge Pack had chosen the same spot.
Den reuse is not abnormal for wolves, but in our area, such behavior is uncommon because denning habitat is abundant in the GVE. The fact that four different packs, spanning more than a decade, have used the same rocky cavity is both intriguing and atypical!
It raises fascinating questions: What is it about this particular den that keeps drawing wolves back? How do new packs even find it, and somehow recognize it as a good place to raise pups? There’s no shortage of suitable dens in this territory, yet this one seems special. ​
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A picture of Austin Homkes crawling into the unassuming rock den used by four different groups of wolves across nearly a decade of time.
A Familiar Face Among Strangers
As it turns out, we recently learned that the connection between the Half-Moon Pack and the Arrowhead Ridge Pack runs deeper than shared real estate. After reviewing trail camera footage, we noticed something familiar about the breeding female of the Arrowhead Ridge Pack: a distinct scar on the right side of her muzzle and dark fur around her eyes and cheeks.
Why is that marking significant? Well, those features matched a female born into the Half-Moon Pack roughly three years ago. In other words, the breeding female of this "new pack" was a Half-Moon Pack wolf.
Thus, the so-called Arrowhead Ridge Pack is not entirely “new” at all, but rather a continuation of the Half-Moon Pack. Indeed, the breeding female is almost certainly the daughter of Wolf V094, the long-time breeding male of the Half-Moon Pack who was usurped from his role in late summer 2024. ​
One of the trail camera images we used to help determine who the breeding female of the so-called Arrowhead Ridge Pack, actually was. The arrow is pointing at the distinctive scar on her muzzle.
The More Things Change
So while it seemed like a new pack took over this territory for a time, we eventually learned that was not the case. There was no Arrowhead Ridge Pack but rather just the Half-Moon Pack which is now led by the daughter of the original founders of the pack. The Half-Moon Pack lives on, through one familiar female and her new litter, born beneath the same rock that has sheltered generations of wolves before. ​
Two former members of the Half-Moon Pack before the turnover. Wolf O6C, the brother of the new breeding female of the pack, stands before a trail camera while former breeding male Wolf V094 walks through the background.