The Druid Peak Pack has been easy to watch from the NE entrance road for the month. Here are two recent reports that were emailed to me (used with permission). I want to thank them for contributing their unique observations. . . Ralph Maughan
From: Dick Feit. October 14, 1997.We really lucked out this trip. We watched the Druid Pack almost all day on Friday. They were across the valley almost opposite the ranger station in Lamar guarding a recent kill. We were out there at sunrise on Friday and watched the pack playing around. There was a lone white wolf about 200 yards from the others. She was supposedly #39 [yes]. W
We drove up to Cooke City for lunch and some shopping then came back about 2 PM. There were still a couple of the pups visible so we set up the spotting scopes in the pull-off area right by the ranger station. We spent the next couple of hours visiting with people and showing them the wolves through our spotting scopes.
About 4 PM a grizzly showed up about a mile downstream from the wolves. He and the white wolf were sparing with each other over a kill. The bear would wander away and wolf would move in. The bear would come charging back and chase the wolf away. This went on for about half an hour then the white wolf wandered off.
We then could see the bear sniffing the air. The wind was blowing from the direction of the wolves and their kill. We watched over the next half hour or 45 minutes as the bear made his way towards the wolves. When he finally got there two of the pups were there. He initially chased them away but then they started getting bolder and coming closer to him. He would swat at them when they would lunge at his hind quarters. He started feeding on their kill while they watched. Then all of a sudden the rest of the pack came swarming down out of the trees and surrounded him.
That was more than he could handle and he ran off up into the trees. The wolves settled down playing with each other until the bear re-appeared about half an hour later. The wolves went over to try and drive him off but he just sat down and the wolves gave up and went back to their playing.
Poor John Uhler missed the bear because he left about half an hour before he showed up. It was the classic "You should have been there." story. He was kicking himself for leaving early but he had his kids along and they wanted to swim in the pool, not watch for animals.
Sat was cold and rainy. We spotted the wolves through the rain. They were about half a mile further up the valley. It was too cold and wet so we went up to Cooke City again and found about 4 inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down about an inch or two an hour.
John joined us late in the afternoon but by then it was snowing heavily and the wind was blowing about 30 mph. We watched a nervous herd of elk for about half an hour to see what was spooking them but nothing showed up.
Sunday was clear, cold, and windy and the valley was almost totally barren. Only a couple of buffalos to be seen. The only road open on Sunday morning from the north entrance was over to Cooke City so I think John had to make a big detour to get back to Utah. . . .
Addendum. . .
. . . one sad experience we had while in the park.
While we were watching the wolves and bear in front of the ranger station, we spoted a bull elk walking down the road towards us. He had a massive set of antlers but was very thin. As he got closer you could see he was in pretty bad shape. He eventually came all the way up to where all the people were standing. He slowly walked back and forth in front of the line of cars about 50 feet away. He looked starved and at one point fell back on his haunches and had a hard time getting back up.
After about half an hour of this he walked right up to where we were. He ended up standing right next to my telescope a and wouldn't move when I
waved my arms and shouted at him. He was all scarred up from many old fights and looked blind in one eye. He was making a soft whinning sound and started licking my telescope.I finally got him away from the scope and he wandered over and stood next to our car. Finally a ranger came down with one of those snow rods from the side of the road and started hitting the elk to drive him off. The elk wouldn't move and people were starting to get upset that the ranger was hitting him so hard on the side of the head. The elk slowly backed up, then the ranger started hitting him on the antlers and the elk lowered his head as if to fight but kept slowing backing up. It took the ranger about 5 minutes to move the elk back about 50 ft.
The elk then wandered out and layed down about 100 feet in front of us. He was still there when we left after dark. Everyone said the wolves would probably get him in the night and that it would be merciful if they did. The poor elk looked
like he was on his last legs.We were anxious to see if he was still there in the morning. We couldn't see him the next day and Ranger Rick MacIntyre said the wolves had made another elk kill during the night, and they couldn't find any trace of the old bull elk so they figured it was him who the wolves got. . . . Dick Feit
From: L. Weston. October 9, 1997
I just returned from four days at YNP. I saw the Druid Peak pack every morning & evening in the field near Pebble Creek Campground opposite the Mount Hornaday sign. There were six to eight wolves present depending on the day (generally the pups with #38M and 41F).
They brought down an elk cow late Saturday night after dark and were feeding on the kill the next morning.
The real excitment occurred late Monday night when a griz wandered near where #41 and #38 were lying down. When the bear got near them, the wolves stood up and made an aggressive charge toward the griz and backed the bear off about 10-15 yards. The bear then turned around and for a few moments the wolves and griz were nose to nose. Number 38 turned around and walked away but #41 continued to follow the bear nipping at the bear's rear with the bear turning around and quickly charging the wolf for a very short distance. At one point the bear made a swipe at the wolf with the front paw but the attempt was unsuccessful. Finally, both #38 and #41 walked away from the griz and put some distance between them. . . .L Weston