Druids and a group of the Nez Perce square off
Oct. 23, 2001. Additions Oct. 26.
Last Friday members of the Park's two largest packs had a violent dispute when 8 or so members of the Nez Perce Pack (the Park's second largest wolf pack) moved north and were repelled by members of the Druid Peak Pack. It appears the alpha male of the Nez Perce 70M was injured as was perhaps the Druid alpha female 42F, although her injuries seemed to be minor, and the blood on her flank perhaps that of another wolf.
Last year about this time the Nez Perce Pack briefly left their central Yellowstone home range and briefly moved onto the northern range, although apparently without incident. The Nez Perce Pack has over 20 members and the Druids over 30, although it appears sub-groups are forming.
An observer of the encounter emailed me the following description. I want to thank this person who declined to be identified on the story:
There was a Druid-Nez Perce Pack interaction Friday, Oct. 19. I had to leave at noon before all may have played out.
At dawn the Druid wolves were scattered with apparently erratic telemetry. Wolf 103F and yearling 219M were with other yearlings and pups at the rendezvous site the previous two days. Wolf 105F was also nearby, but not with 103's group, as 103 and yearlings were driving her away. The alpha male 21M and rest of pack appeared to be off somewhere across from the Buffalo Ranch, but the signals were not strong.
About 8 am both groups of Druids were sighted, 103's to the south of the rendezvous and 21's coming out of the trees near Amethyst Creek [drainage on Specimen Ridge]. 21's group appeared highly agitated with a lot of barking and yipping and what appeared to be play. The two groups joined up with more highly agitated behavior. Then they went into the trees with much howling and barking. There were still several wolves out in the open across from the picnic area, toward the trees. A couple were certainly pups. I was in the picnic area, not the best vantage point to view the overall picture. At one point the main pack, at this point including 21, 42, 103 and several identifiable le yearlings came straight toward the picnic area and one black wolf on the bank (no id), moving it off. Reports were of an unidentified gray also on the bank but not visible to me.
The Druids then went back off into the trees across from the Buffalo Ranch [Lamar Ranger Station]. More howling and barking and obviously they were moving around in there. About 9 am there started up a deep barking and howling behind me to the north of the road. I did not spot the wolf until 9:30. It was a collared gray whom I thought to be 106, who had not been seen or heard from for several days, to my knowledge. This continued on for an hour with the Druids again coming out of the woods and marching in force in front of me about halfway between river and woods. Some people went a bit up the hill from the road after finally spotting the howling wolf. At this point I could see it was limping badly, apparently with an injured right front leg. Finally the wolf moved on off to the west and further up the hill. I went back to my truck and found the wolf was suspected to be 70M, the Nez Perce alpha male.
I watched him quite closely. His injury did not show blood and the leg did not appear broken. A very bad sprain? He was limping very badly. He moved west slowly, howling at times. I could not hear any replies. He crossed the road east of the Buffalo Ranch a quarter of a mile and was heading west along the river when I left.
Other information: 42F showed some blood on her left rear flank when she approached close with the rest of the pack. She appeared to moving well and her tail was held high so she must not have been seriously hurt. And perhaps it was not her blood.
70M had at least five miles to go before he was out of Dodge, a long way for a lone, injured wolf in Druid country.
The Nez Perce Pack has not returned to the Lamar Valley. A tracking flight on Oct. 25 failed to locate their radio signal. This does not mean anything adverse has happened to 70M, just that he is not in the usual flight area of the tracking flight.
The Druid alpha female, no. 42F appears to be well . . . Ralph Maughan
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