The alpha male of the celebrity wolf pack, the Phantom Hill Pack, was hit by a car and killed last weekend the Mountain Express reports.

The pack which this spring wandered through Elkhorn neighborhoods and killed elk in people’s back yards, became one of the state’s best known wolf packs two years ago. It’s movements were followed closely by wolf lovers, Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials and ranchers alike.

The death of the alpha male by auto is the inevitable outcome of wolves that live around humans. Fish and Game tried to haze them away from the Ketchum-Sun Valley area. But the pack, which at set up its territory just north of town, called the Wood River Valley home.

It had deeper ties to the community than many seasonal residents. That its members had become celebrities in a town full of celebrities has become ironic. Ketchum prides itself on leaving its celebrities alone but it could not leave the Phantom Pack alone.

If they did, the wolves would likely have begun eating people’s dogs. They were already considered a threat to the flocks of surrounding ranchers.

An environmental group is spending thousands of dollars to keep the wolves and the sheep separated. Imagine the costs to provide that service statewide to ranchers whose herds and flocks are not threatened by celebrity wolves.

Expect an update on the situation on Entertainment Tonight. We’ll know the Phantom Pack has arrived when it gets an invitation to the Allen and Co. conference at Sun Valley next month along side Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Tom Hanks.