Wolf News. Yellowstone. 

High elk mortality from winter predicted. Wolves showing unusual movements

Nov. 6. 2001

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Dr. Doug Smith, head of the Yellowstone wolf team said today that forage conditions for elk inside Yellowstone Park are poor due to two back-to-back years of drought. He predicted many elk would die, and I can unfortunately, but confidently, predict that anti-wolfers will howl about how the wolves killed all the elk.

More superficially, the two large packs, the Druids and Nez Perce, are moving about more than usual. The smaller packs have condensed into the typical tighter mode of wintertime packs.

Most of the Druids have been in Slough Creek which is a bit west of their recent range. The Nez Perce pack has been all over the Park (folks will recall the run-in they recently had with the Druids). The present location of the large Nez Perce pack is not known. Perhaps the pack of approximately 20 members has left the Park.  A flight is planned on Thursday.

It looks like the Druids still probably have 37 members. Dr. Smith said a split is probably in the making.

The Chief Joseph Pack, the long-standing pack on the NW boundary of the Park, has moved south entirely inside the Pack and has not left, presumably due to the intense elk hunting pressure in the north end of their range. In a recent study that may soon be published, it has been scientifically documented based on research just north of Yellowstone that wolves do not move into the area of the elk hunt while the opportunistic grizzly bears do. The research showed that cougar actively avoided the elk hunt area.

The Rose Creek Pack, or "Rose Creek II," as it is sometimes called, is staying tightly in its territory just north of the Yellowstone River along the north boundary of the Pack. Eleven wolves were recently counted in the Rose Creek Pack.

The offshoot of the Rose Creek, renamed the Tower Pack late last spring although they had no pups, has evaporated. The two radio collared former members are far apart, one on the northern range and one near West Yellowstone.

The Leopold Pack is in their usual Blacktail Deer Plateau location as is the remote Yellowstone Delta Pack in their usual range.  A few flights ago a high count of 16 wolves was recorded in the Delta Pack.

Mollies Pack usually stays in the Pelican Valley until about January or February when they move east of the Park onto the Shoshone National Forest in the vicinity of the North Fork of the Shoshone River, a prime elk wintering area. This year they have already visited the North Fork, but are now back in the Pelican.