Yellowstone's wolves

We have chosen for our last two visits to stay at the northeast corner of the park at Silver Gate, Montana.  The Grizzly Lodge is less than a mile from the entrance to the park and about a 30 minute drive to the wolf viewing area between the Yellowstone Institute and Pebble Creek Campground.  This area usually has an active wolf pack where wolves can be seen.  To see the wolves, one must be at this location near sunrise.  In other years there were wolf watchers there at sunset, we did not see that this year. We got up 3 of our 4 mornings to attempt to see the wolves and were successful twice. The middle morning, the pups were seen by folks near us, but the one dropped out of sight before I saw it.

However, where you look for the wolves changes every time we visit.  The best way to see the wolves is to look for the group of people all standing together with scopes.  This year the group was down in the valley looking up onto the northern grassy sage covered slopes.  While my walking is better, I still have mobility issues and decided not to go down there. I set up my chair and scope on the side of the parking area where they were looking and waited.

Shortly, they turned their scopes a different direction. I rushed down to the other end of the parking lot and sure enough, there were the wolves, five of them.  Using my Canon Powershot SX50 with its 1200 mm zoom I was able to capture these images.  Most wolf sightings are distant, with the wolves appearing as small moving specks on the hillside.

Here is my first view of the wolf ascending the slope. The black wolves are easier to spot than the gray ones.

This shot captures two more . . .

I like the running shot.

Here it is cropped closer:

It is hard to explain the marvel that catching a glimpse of wolves in the wild invokes. For me part of the joy is that even when you get up to be there at sunrise, you may or may not get to see them. So when you do, it feels like such a blessing.  In other visits I got to witness the morning reunion of the pack - such a joyful, playful event. I could hear the howls and yips.  

Even when the wolves don't show, the upper Lamar Valley is a tranquil and beautiful place to spend the first hours of the day.  It is a great way to start the day!

The Carcass

In other trips to Yellowstone, I had heard people talking about watching wolves on a carcass, but we had never had that opportunity.  On our September trip, many park visitors experienced the wonder of bears and wolves as they fed on the carcass.  The first few days, only the grizzly bears fed.  We heard at one point there were five grizzlies on the carcass.  We passed by every day, usually stopping to spend time.  On the last day we could finally see the skull to identify it as a bison carcass.

The prime viewing spot was at my favorite overlook at Hayden Valley.  Each day there were cars lining the valley - some at better vantage points than others.  There was also an active wolf den at the north end of the valley.

I had both my scope and my Sigma 300-800mm lens focused on the activity.  The carcass was on the other side of the valley from the road - Henry used Google Earth to estimate the distance at 3/4 of a mile.  It felt farther.  The scope can get you visually closer, but I don't have a good digiscoping system set up yet.  But when you crop in on photos with the 300-800mm, you at least have some good "memory" shots of the event.

In our early years of visiting Yellowstone, we didn't have a good scope. I was always grateful when people would generously allow me to peak through their scope.  While I don't have one of the expensive scopes, I now have a decent one.  It is my pleasure to pay back those people from my past by allowing other people to look through my scope so they too can see this marvel of nature in much better detail than their eyes or binoculars allow.

Yellowstone's Wolves

I keep browsing the Yellowstone sites as part of my heart is there. On The Yellowstone Net Discussion forums today I found these amazing photos of wolves on a "kill." Jaime and Lisa Johnson came across these wolves very near the road. These are some of the best wolf shots I've seen.

Wish I could have been there.

La Meute de Druides

From the Yellowstone Net Discussion groups, I found this link: Wolf footage, "La Meute de Druides." This is an amazing short film showing wolf behavior from the hunt seeking an elk, the chase of the herd, and final success. Note the magpies and ravens that benefit from the kill. A coyote comes in showing how much difference in size wolves and coyotes are. Nine minutes of amazing closeup footage of the wolves. Technically I wonder how they did it - was it digiscoped - do they make digiscoping equipment for video cameras? If not what kind of lens would that require to get such marvelous closeups?

Note: I, for one, did have an emotional reaction when the wolves finally got an elk, but . . . it is part of the natural cycle. And there is vegetation that is returning along some of the stream beds because the elk have altered their behavior because of the wolves. For nature lovers, this clip is well worth watching.

The joys of Yellowstone

I find myself thinking about this time last year when we were in Yellowstone experiencing all the joy of nature there - the bears and their cubs, the coyote pups, the owl chicks, the wolves, and the natural beauty there. Each day was always a new adventure as we drove the roads looking for wildlife. After discovering the Yellowstone Newspaper and the Yellowstone Net Discussion Forums I continued to enjoy Yellowstone activities and events vicariously.

I still dream of going to Yellowstone in the winter months and driving the north road hoping to see the wolves bounding along near the road in the snow.

I sometimes wonder if people who have never been to Yellowstone or who have never spent time with the wolf watchers understand how much these wild wolves have come to mean to the people that spend so much time watching, studying, and enjoying these wild creatures.

We've been there several times since the wolves were reintroduced. The first time they were still heavily monitoring the pack movements with the radio collars. You could count on the presence of the people with the monitoring antenaes in the upper end of Lamar Valley. Not only could you listen to them talk to themselves about where the wolves were, they knew each one individually.

Through the years, you can still find the wolf watchers, although their location varies. There is a lingo (I don't know it) about the different watching sites in Lamar Valley - names like trashcan (for a long removed trash can landmark). My personal favorite watching spots involve a hike up a steep hill to get a better look at one of the older denning sites. I have very special memories of watching a morning reunion of the pack there.

I went to those sites last year. One morning there was a group of people and I got a good look at the wolves through my binoculars. The next morning I found myself up in position by myself. I was rewarded by a short wolf siting as they entered the older den area.

From the Yellowstone Newspaper today, I found Kathie Lynch's blog that echoes this inexplicable wonder from one of the wolf enthusiasts at Yellowstone. She uses words so eloquently to describe wolf activities she just witnessed. It will inspire you to make the trek to see these wonders yourself.

Most people who go to Yellowstone are on a tight time deadline. They have a few days to see a huge park. A large number of people go through on a bus that will show them the highlights, but will probably not give them very much time to wait and hope to see one of the elusive wolves. And even when you know where you are likely to spot an individual wolf or the pack, you wont' get a sighting every time.

And perhaps this unpredictable reinforcer of sometimes getting to see the wolves and sometimes not makes each sighting that much more special. I can truthfully say that there is something extremely joyful about spotting that elusive wolf (or bear) going about its natural activities. For me, watching the animals in Yellowstone feeds something within my spirit.

It is unlikely that I will get to return this summer, but I treasure the extended time I had in Yellowstone this time last year.

Wolves in the News

428 Wolves, a New York Times article came across my "radar" this afternoon. As we have travelled across the United States, we generally find that we did not know very much about the local and regional news. As I follow the Yellowstone Newspaper links I generally see articles from local papers around Yellowstone and Grand Teton. But right now it really pleases me when I see either the wolf issues or the bison issues make the larger papers such as the New York Times. Yellowstone wolves and Yellowstone bison are national treasures. But for the average person, they are not only out of sight out of mind, many have never gotten to experience the thrill of seeing these amazing creatures in the wild. Bison have always been easy to find in Yellowstone and even with the greatly reduced numbers this year, I suspect most park visitors will get to see either one or a herd. But the Yellowstone wolves require more effort and some knowledge about where to go in the park, when to be there, and how to look for them. Yes, some people will be lucky enough to get a chance look when a wolf crosses the road, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

While I can understand the ranching interests (more so about wolves than the bison), I also believe that it is important to keep the greater Yellowstone ecosystem healthy.

We visited Yellowstone while they were in the planning stages for the wolf reintroduction. I remember how few wolves were in the lower 48 states. Only Minnesota and Michigan had wolf populations. From the reintroduction, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming (and perhaps Colorado) now have wolf populations. However, if the hunts progress as planned, the genetic diversity will be reduce, the wolves will only exist within the Yellowstone Park Boundaries.

I would love to see the protection for the bison and the wolves to be extended to include the federal lands that surround Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. And perhaps, we need to be sure that the ranchers whose livestock on private lands that have been killed by wolves are reimbursed. I'll be radical here . . . if ranchers want to lease public land around Yellowstone for cattle, then they need to accept wolf predation as a normal cost of doing business. I don't know the current status, but it used to be that the leases for federal lands were significantly less than leases on private land.

Yellowstone is a unique treasure. It draws tourists from all over the world. The local economy benefits from these visitors. This area was set aside to be preserved for future generations to marvel, to appreciate, to enjoy, and to learn about nature.

I hope more large newspapers pick up these stories, so that people all over the United States can be more aware of the issues involving our national parks.

Yellowstone's Wolves

Well, they delisted the wolf from the endangered species list in the Rocky Mountain area. I've got mixed feelings about that.

We were visiting Yellowstone when the first plans were being made to reintroduce wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem. On that visit the buffalo were at one of their largest population levels - really too many for the park's natural resources to sustain. At that time the only wolves in the continental United States were in parts of Michigan and perhaps northeastern Minnesota.

Humans have a love-hate relationship with wolves. Wolves are cunning and very intelligent creatures. They work together as a pack both to hunt and to care for their young. We have many stories about pioneer people out camping or living in very primitive conditions and fending off attacks from a starving wolf pack (at least I have many memories of movie and TV versions of these tales.) And, yes, the wolf is a mighty hunter. In the days when our nation was a more agrarian society, wolf attacks on domestic animals were a real issue.

The states surrounding Yellowstone National Park are still primarily rural with farming and ranching as major industries. When the wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone, provision was made to pay ranchers for any livestock lost to wolf predation. Wolves caught in the act of harming livestock or threatening humans were fair game to be killed. Ranchers were worried . . . but a lot of effort was made to keep them from being financially harmed by this experiment.

But as much as people feel threatened by wolves, we are also fascinated by them. They are beautiful creatures with an amazing social structure. I've been privileged enough to get to see a morning reunion of a wolf pack - and it is a joyful amazing event. The sound of the wolf howls and barks of greeting are an amazingly primitive call that thrills that still wild part of our nature. There is quite a large number of people who come and spend time in Yellowstone each year both to study the wolves and their packs and to enjoy them. We've named their packs, identified individuals and mourned the losses that occur when two packs get too close together.

I've been more than willing to get up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning to trek across the park to be in position to watch the morning activities of a pack. I've stayed out after sunset (even when it was a long 2 hour drive back to the campsite) in hopes of hearing the wolves or catching a glimpse of their evening activities. I'm secretly jealous of those people who get to spend weeks or months EVERY summer and know exactly where to find which pack and who know the wolves "by name."

The wolves that were introduced into Yellowstone have indeed spread throughout the park. However, wolf packs are very territorial and I remember hearing that the wolf numbers are not increasing right now due to wars between the packs where individual wolves die.

Humans were able to totally remove the wolf from its original range. And, there were law suits that wanted to remove the wolves from Yellowstone. But wolves were part of the original ecosystem at Yellowstone and the park has seen many benefits from the reintroduction. Aspens and willows are coming back from elk over grazing. The elk and buffalo herds have a natural predator keeping the numbers at more reasonable levels for the ecosystem to support.

But with the delisting, I suspect that the wolf population outside the park will be at greater risk than before. I wonder how long before the only wolves in the Rockies are the ones in Yellowstone National Park and perhaps Grand Teton National Park. Will it be easier or more difficult to put them back on the endangered species list then? What will the politics be?

My heart says we have too few wild places left. My heart wants them to stay wild. My heart wants to protect the "critters."

Yellowstone's Buffalo

The other thing that I'm noticing at the The Yellowstone Newspaper are a number of articles about the winter slaughter of buffalo. I know that there are big issues with brucelosis and that at one point the Yellowstone herd was too large for the Yellowstone ecosystem to provide forage in the winter. But one thing that disturbs me about the reports right now, buffalo were being hazed IN THE PARK to an area where they were going to be slaughtered. There are one set of issues when buffalo are already out of the park and causing problems. And maybe these particular buffalo had already strayed out of the park and had gone back in . . . I don't know.

Things I do know: Buffalo have in the past over populated to unsustainable numbers for the habitat. The wolves were supposed to help reduce the numbers naturally. Buffalo are hard on their environment damaging trees and small shrubs. I know less about the brucelosis issues.

But right now the numbers of buffalo in Yellowstone do not reflect overpopulation. I saw some of the "herding" of buffalo in Yellowstone last summer - while the calves were still young.

There is a lot of conflict right now between Montana ranchers and hunters over not only the buffalo but also the wolves.

If wolves are delisted (as appears likely), then the wild ones outside the park are likely to be killed probably rapidly.

While I may not be totally in agreement with The Buffalo Field Campaign, I am glad there are people out there working to raise awareness of what is going on right now with the buffalo in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.