Yellowstone's Geode wolf pack has disintegrated

Yellowstone's Geode Pack disintegrated
Swan Lake Pack alpha female dead

7-27-2005, brief addition 7-28, plus a reflection on the story 8-11

There is a lot of wolf news from Yellowstone Park.
Perhaps the biggest story is that the Leopold's attack on the Geode Pack last winter appears to have put an end to the Geode Pack. According to Dr. Doug Smith head of the Yellowstone wolf team, the former members of the pack with collars are wandering alone. Alpha female 106F (dead radio collar) has not been seen for some time and is probably dead. Visits to the pack's usual territory shows now signs of activity.
The Geode Pack was one of the packs that formed with the breakup of the Druid "superpack" back in 2002. They were named after Geode Creek, a tributary to the Yellowstone River, which was near the center of their territory.
They never became a large pack, but at times their number reached ten. An irony is that the Geodes, destined to eventually be destroyed by the Leopolds, killed both the Leopold alpha female 7F and the alpha male 2M of the original Leopold Pack. After the death of their original alpha pair at the jaws of the Geodes, the Leopold pack began to increase in size, eventually to become the Park's second superpack.
The Geode's had a lot a bad luck in losing at least four alpha males to natural causes over the years, while the presence of small (75 pound) 106F, a former Druid, was a constant.
The Leopold territory has been in the middle of the Geodes to their NE and the Swan Lake Pack to its west. The Leopolds had 36 members when all the pups had been born this spring! Twenty-one were adults. Since then there has probably been some pup attrition, and one adult Leopold is dead -- 381M -- likely of natural causes. His carcass is being retrieved today. Still, they are an unusually large pack and will probably be the source of new packs that will replace the Geodes and maybe Swan Lake, which seems to be in trouble.
The Swan Lake Pack, which split last winter (the splinter group headed north, out of the Park), just lost its original, long-time alpha female. Alpha female 152F has just been found dead. Her mate was killed earlier this year, perhaps after being expelled from the pack by wolves from the Agate Pack, who had joined the Swan Lake Pack (perhaps not joining in a peaceful manner). Both 152F and 151F were important wolves. Born to the Leopold Pack, 152F founded the Swan Lake Pack and 151F founded, and still leads the Cougar Creek Pack.
There might be a mystery regarding the 4 litters of pups born the Slough Creek Pack this spring. The assumption has been that 3 of 15 pups stayed behind at a rendezvous site near their dens. The rest of the pups traveled northward to the pack's usual rendezvous site. Now the 3 pups are no longer at the lower rendezvous site, but are their really twelve or so more pups up north?
On Smith's most recent tracking flight he saw just three pups up north, traveling with 7 adults, including all the radio collared members of the pack. There are other adults in the pack, but these data imply that the pack might only contain the 3 pups that stayed to the south.
The Druids were in Cache Creek with their still presumed 6 pups, although only 2 were seen.
The Agates were in Antelope Basin at their rendezvous site.
Mollies Pack has been traveling all around the Pelican Valley area and so it is almost certain they had no pups this year. 486F, a Nez Perce wolf who joined them, may be the new alpha female, but joined too late for pups.
Except for one wolf in Hayden Valley, The Nez Perce Pack was way in backcountry in Spruce Creek, including their alpha female 48F, who is now easily the oldest wolf in the Park. She was born north of the Park to one of the 1996 wolves from B.C. in 1996.
The Hayden Valley Pack (no collars) with the white alpha female, is one of the few packs still being seen a lot, although for the last several days no. The greenline is now above 7800 feet, and most Park wolf packs have moved up to follow the elk.
Whether the wolves will start killing more bison may determine whether the Park's wolf population declines or not. Smith saw about 3000 bison in Hayden Valley alone. The Park currently has a record number of bison.
The Cougar Creek Pack was in Cougar Meadows (usual spot).
The Gibbon Pack had members scattered between Gibbon Meadows and Roaring Mountain area.
Thunderstorms prevented a flight to the south to look for the missing Yellowstone Delta pack. However, by email I got some good news from CharThompson of Oregon. She and her spouse were on a backcountry canoe trip to the SE arm of Yellowstone Lake.
They reported

"On July 19th, we saw a very black wolf (no visible collar) running the shores of the far end of the lake (on the far east corner). (It was just south of where the Yellowstone River hits the Yellowstone Lake). He acted like he was "on the move". However, the next morning (July 20th), we spotted him again from the canoe. He was on the south shore, sniffing, chasing geese (just a bit), and settled down for a nap in the sun.
On the night of July 20th, we heard a pack howling. It sounded like quite a group. It seemed to be quite a ways off a bit east of the SE arm of the lake, towards Colter Peak, or a bit south of it (again, just south of the headwaters of the Yellowstone River). We heard the pack howling again on July 21st several times, and again the morning of July 22nd. We thought we could hear the lone wolf responding to the howls (but from a closer range)."

This indicates there are at least two wolves in the area, and maybe quite a few more. I say "maybe only two" because 2 wolves howling together can sound like many.
July 28, 2005. Kathie Lynch, biology teacher who is spending the summer in YNP, this evening sent the following brief, but important (for wolf watchers) update.

After 90 consecutive days of viewing the Slough Creek pack's pups since they emerged from the den on April 24, the last three disappeared from easy viewing at Slough Creek on the evening of Saturday, July 23. The three black pups left the natal den area (near the Slough Creek campground) and traveled south, accompanied by seven adult wolves, including alpha male 490M and 377M.

Tuesday morning, July 26, found nine Slough Creek adults in the Lamar Valley. Two uncollared Sloughs appeared on Jasper Bench, south of the road. They exchanged howls with the seven Slough wolves on the north side of the road. The two eventually crossed the road east of the Buffalo Ranch to meet the others, and a big greeting ensued. The group then headed east along the ledge trail, inspected the old Druid den site and disappeared past Soda Butte Cone.

At least four of the Slough adults, including 490M, were again in the Lamar Valley on Thursday morning, July 28, harassing bison. So, perhaps we will still have the opportunity to continue viewing the Slough Creek pack. Without them in residence at Slough Creek, wolf watchers have had to turn their attentions to the Agate Creek pack in the Antelope Creek area (near Mt. Washburn) and even the gigantic Leopold pack, which is often visible in the very far distance (5 miles?) in the Blacktail plateau area. August is always tough for wolf watching as the wolves have usually followed their prey to the high country by then, so we should just be thankful to have the Agates and the Leopolds to fill in for the Sloughs and those elusive Druids!

August 11.
Someone in the mainstream news media picked up the story about the disintegration of the Geode Pack from this web page. I didn't follow the progress of the story closely because I was in the backcountry pretty much, but the story then got on the "wire" and made it all the way to USA Today. I'm pleased, but the real story I hope someone will pick up is the sudden general decline in the Park's wolf population.

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Ralph Maughan. Wolf Recovery Foundation. PO Box 444, Pocatello, ID 83204