And Then There Were Wolves (Yellowstone, 07-10-12)

  

On our last day in Yellowstone we spent the afternoon prepping to leave after a 3 week stay.  We finished early and headed one last time to Hayden Valley to watch for wildlife.  We figured we might as well give it one last shot.  We felt like we were greeting old friends when we got there- we’ve spent several hours with the same people, chatting while we scan the meadow with our binoculars.  These people come year after year to watch for wolves. They eat sandwiches for dinner because dinner time and prime wolf watching time coincide. When they see a wolf, they are quick to share their scope with anyone interested.  They love to share the excitement. When we arrived, they were quick to tell us that they had seen the wolf pack, with pups, about an hour before we got there.

The area we are watching is called a rendezvous site. Once wolf pups are weaned, at about 6-8 weeks of age, the wolf pack leaves the den behind and uses 4-6 different areas to meet and watch over and protect the pups. All adults in the pack are responsible for the pups.

This particular pack is called the Canyon Pack.  The alpha female is well known here because she still, even at the age of 6 (not young, for a wolf) prefers to find and kill prey by herself.  Lately though, she has let the males help her. When she goes off on a hunt, she leaves “babysitters” behind to take care of the pups.

  After a very short time we were rewarded with the sight of the alpha female leaving the rendezvous site, which is hidden from our sight by trees.  Along with her came two pups and a few minutes later, several other other adults.  They took the pups to the water, so they could all cool off. Between our binoculars and viewing through other people’s scopes, we had a pretty good view, and the pictures I got don’t do it justice, but at least I got some this time!



the Canyon Pack, down by the water



 

We thought that was awesome, but then we noticed the small herd of elk.  They had been calmly munching their dinner, but suddenly we could see them perk up and come to attention.  They gathered together, and a few seconds later started running.



The wolves are on the right of the elk, just in the water



The wolves had decided to chase the herd!

The wolves are behind the elk now

 The wolves do that to see if any of the elk are weak or sick and don’t keep up with the herd. The elk ran through the stream to the other side, but didn’t go any further than that. They turned and watched to see what the wolves were doing.


Finally, the elk are on the side of the stream, looking back at the wolves, who are still in the water, on the left.

 The wolves weren’t giving serious pursuit, just checking to see if they could catch an easy dinner.

Once things calmed down a little, the elk started eating again, and we realized we had lost sight of the pups and two of the adult wolves.  Apparently they brought the pups back to the rendezvous point when we weren’t looking.  The other 5 wolves, including the alpha female- she is the large white wolf, headed off towards the road, on the hunt.  Paul and I decided to cross the road and climb the nearby hill to see if we could catch sight of them again, and we did. 


too bad the wolves snuck past everyone when they were looking the other way! (black wolf is in the foreground)



This is the kind of traffic jam you get when people have sighted a bear or wolf. What was really funny to us is that all of the people are looking off to the right, and if you look in the foreground, you can see one of the wolves just after he crossed the road.

 

We watched them cross the meadow and approach two bison off in the distance.  Like with the elk, they approached and tested the bison to see if they could grab an easy dinner, but in the end they left them alone and went off to seek easier prey.