The article below is by Meredith Taylor of Dubois, Wyoming. Meredith and Tory Taylor are outfitters in the Washakie
Wilderness to the SE of Yellowstone N.P .Ms. Taylor is also a Wyoming field representative for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Her essay is needed to restore a balance of what has happened to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem amidst the reports of wolves being shot, run down, politicians arguing, and ranchers complaining. She wrote the article as a special for this web page.

Soon new wolves will be released and new pups born. Despite the efforts of politicians and their keepers, balance is returning to
the heart of the West -- its wild country.

Back Home on Their Range -- The Wolves of Yellowstone.

by Meredith Taylor

Winter in Yellowstone is a magical time. From
ghost trees to huge herds of wintering wild-
life, Yellowstone offers a sense of place, a
sense of harmony, not often encountered else-
where. That magical place is all the more
special now with the presence of the gray wolf.

Tory and I are always willing to take the
opportunity to visit Yellowstone, but in winter
it's a special time. We were particularly thrilled
when we were invited by Norm Bishop, Yellowstone's
wolf education coordinator, for a day of cross
country skiing and wolf viewing. Having caught
a glimpse of the Crystal Bench Pack one day last
summer was enough to whet my appetite for wolf
watching. We hoped to get a better sighting of the
canids amid the elk and bison on which they
depend.

On a very frigid morning in late February,
we went out at dawn to try our luck at sighting
either the Rose Creek or the Crystal Bench pack,
both known to be in the Mammoth area. We were
optimistic since Norm had obtained the telemetry
equipment used by the researchers to locate the
radio-collared animals. The further we got out
on the northern range, the lower the temperature
dropped, eventually plummeting to about -25 degrees F.

By the time we approached Lamar Valley, we knew
the wolves must feel right at home in such arctic
conditions. Steam billowed off the open water
of the Lamar River and its thermal tributaries.
Nothing moved very quickly, including us.

We stopped to look over an aspen grove and sagebrush
slope. A few elk grazed placidly on the
hillside. The antenna scanned the hillside, and the
receiver revealed the location of the Rose Creek wolf
pack with a quiet "beep," "beep," "beep." The pack
was near one of wolf pens where the 1996 wolves from
British Columbia are being held to acclimate
before their "soft release" this spring.

We waited and watched, but they didn't appear.
We continued on, stopping here and there to look
and listen. We saw literally thosands of elk, bison,
bighorn sheep and mule deer on their winter range.
Only the occasional yips of coyotes broke the
cold silence. Golden and bald eagles soared over the
white valley, keeping an eye out for their next
meal.

While we knew the wolves were there that day,
the magical moment occurred the next day when we
returned to the Lamar Valley. As we headed east past a
pack of coyotes feeding on a winter kill, we noticed
the temperature had risen considerably since the day
before. The animals were more active. Along a
sagebrush hillside, we glanced and saw some canids.
But something was different -- they were black and
big. We stopped to glass -- it was the wolves! At
only a half mile away we could see them easily with our
naked eyes, but we set up the spotting scope to bring
them in closer view. Nine wolves of the Rose Creek
pack trotted easily along the sagebrush slopes. The
pups playfully pummelled each other, somersaulting
into the snow. The alpha pair, a black wolf and a
gray/white wolf nuzzled each other, then mated
briefly. They rolled and trotted along heading west,
seemingly with a destination in mind.

Eventually they all disappeared into a shallow
draw where it looked as if an old kill lay. About ten
minutes later the wolves emerged and dispersed
into the sagebrush. Content, they laid down here and
there, losing sight of each other. One of the alpha
pair seemed nervous about the separation and stopped
to collect the brood with a series of long, low
howls. The calls were answered by the others as they
calmly trotted toward the leader to stage on a small
knoll.

Wolf howls are the quintessential call of the
wild. These wolves appeared to be right at home on the
Northern Range. The alpha pair led the seven pups
across the slope to reconvene as they finished their
howl. The low eery voice sent chills to our core.
Finally, the missing link is back in Yellowstone -- it's
a complete ecoysystem once again.