In the latest wolf news from the northern range in Yellowstone Park, last Monday at least 3 Slough Creek wolves had an altercation with the Druid Pack.  The Druids drove them off, at least briefly.

Rick McIntyre told me that 8 Druids were counted on the floor of the Lamar Valley last Monday: 286F, 302M, the "new black," 255F, 374M, 375F, the uncollared gray yearling, and 349M (finally showing up after a long absence).

The Slough Creek pack has, for at least the last 3 weeks, been slowly moving into the Lamar Valley. See my last update on this.

Although observers saw only seconds of the chase, the Druids moved a minimum of the Slough Creek alpha pair, and Slough Creek  377M out of the Lamar Valley floor (only 3 Slough Creek wolves have radio collars. The alphas are uncollared).  While the Druids remained in the Lamar Valley for the rest of the day after the altercation, the Druids as a whole have not been seen in the Lamar since.

Other wolves are roaming into the Lamar Valley area. Last Wednesday, October 12, nine Agate Creek wolves were on Jasper Bench and vicinity.  The same day some Slough Creek wolves were the north side of the Lamar Valley.

In addition the entire Geode Pack was on and near Mom's Ridge yesterday and today. The Geodes have grown to a pack of 13 wolves. A week or so ago the Geodes were also in the area on Slough Creek flats (that's near Mom's Ridge). This is an impingement on Slough Creek territory.

Meanwhile, today the now huge Leopold Pack was located on Hellroaring Slopes, the normal core of the Geode Pack's  territory.

This leads me to a hypothesis.

This is the time of year when wolves are the most nutritionally stressed. Their prey is fat, strong and fast. The wolf pups are now big, hungry and traveling with their packs, but the pups can barely hunt and are a nutritional drag on the pack.

The result is that wolves roam outside their usual range. When the big Leopold Pack moves east, it seems reasonable that all of the other packs move to the east too. This is just the opposite of about 2-3 years ago when the Druids were the giant sized pack, and their size moved the other packs to the west. Indeed the Agate and Geode packs of today were originally formed mostly out of former Druids.

As a side note, wolves outside the park, in heavily hunted areas get much of their autumn sustenance from the remains left by human deer and elk hunters. Ed Bangs recently commented that wolves almost stop hunting for several months in the fall in Montana.  I have argued for some time that the supply of deer and elk remains and wounded animals in the huge backcountry of Idaho is one reason for the spectacular wolf recovery in that state. Yellowstone Park, however, is different, and in the fall wolves have to face strong prey.

Alum Creek Pack?

In other Park wolf news, Doug Smith, head of the Park's wolf team told me does think that there is a new wolf pair, maybe a pair with pups, in the Hayden Valley.

Here is a photo of one of the pair in the Hayden Valley. Folks will recognize the area as Alum Creek.

It is a very light colored wolves--one of the whitest in the Park. The photo was shot with a Canon Digital Rebel with
a 80-400 Tokina lens on Sept. 23 by Rick and Laurie Hammel.

Here is another photo of the wolf. This by Angie Savage. See her website at www.wonders-of-nature.com

Added 10-20. Photography Jess Lee captured some very fine photos this summer of this group of light gray and white wolves in the Hayden Valley.