Wolf 253M located, and more news
Jan. 10, 2005
After months of searching in tracking flights, missing former Druid beta male 253M has been located. Mike Jimenez of USFWS found him alone, looking healthy on the National Elk Refuge at Jackson. 253 is famous because 2 years ago he left his native Druid Pack and moved to Utah, where he encountered a coyote trap east of Ogden near Durst Mountain. He was returned to Grand Teton National Park, from where he soon traveled NE and rejoined the Druid Pack and settled in as beta male behind long time alpha no. 21M.
When 21M died or was killed by wolves, an elk or whatever last summer, 253M led a group of Druids up the Lamar River and disappeared, returning only once, briefly, before vanishing again. 253 was notable because of his pluck, shown by his prowess despite being injured by the interloping Nez Perce Pack when he was just a yearling. He has a permanent limp. Some call him "Limpy."
Meanwhile the diminished Druids, now numbering 8 wolves with the return of 348M, hold onto most of the Lamar Valley south of the Tower to NE entrance road.
The Slough Creek pack, however, keeps moving into the heights above the road. Rick McIntyre told me the other day the Druids killed an elk in the lower part of Soda Butte Creek in the morning and fed on it, and then had a howling contest with the 15-member strong Slough Creek Pack which was near the traditional Druid den site.
Several times the Slough Creek pack began to run down the road, looking like they were going to take the kill from the Druids. The sporadic winter time vehicles, however, frightening the pack away from the road. The Druids slipped off to the west.
According to Park wolf biologist Dan Stahler the Slough Creek pack seems to enter the Lamar by crossing over "Secret Passage," a pass between the granite on the east side of Slough Creek and the mountainslopes abutting the north side of Lamar Valley.
The Slough Creek Pack got so large by whelped 9 pups last spring, and (I think) all survived, unlike many of the Druid pups. Stahler suspects Slough Creek had a double litter. Recent analysis of GPS data collected from wolf 380M last spring indicates her behavior was much like a denned female, although she is not the Slough Creek alpha female. The alpha is unnamed and uncollared.
In other news, the Nez Perce Pack is wandering north again and was has been on top of Mt. Everts just north by northeast of Mammoth Hot Springs. A recent USFWS report indicated that long time Nez Perce alpha female 48F had dispersed to the Madison Valley near Ennis. This is false. She is with the pack on Mt. Everts.
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Copyright ©2005 Ralph Maughan