Last weekend I went to Jackson Hole, visited some new friends met via this page, and looked for wolves. I probably didn't see them, but oddly I decided to head back to Pocatello just before visiting the Kelly area, the only place in Jackson Hole I had missed. Kelly is hamlet at the SE corner of Grand Teton National Park and just north of the National Elk Refuge upon which there are several thousand wintering elk.
Soon after I returned home I got the following email from Bob Caesar in Kelly.
"Ralph - I saw a wolf this day, 2:00PM about 1 mile N. of the Village of Kelly, WY in Grand Teton National; Park. It was about the size of our 110 LB Lab. It looked like a malamute, but with MUCH longer legs. White/Tan underneath, salt & pepper on top. No ear tag or collar that I could see.
I first saw it standing in the road about 400 yards away. It had an injured front leg (maybe R-front) which it was holding well out in front of it's body, kind of groping or pawing at the air. When I got to within 100Yds it moved off the road and sat in the sage about 50' away. We made eye contact for maybe 30 seconds when it raised it's nose and let out a great howl. It then moved off about 100 Yds and howled again. There was no blood to be seen in the road or tracks. My wife sez maybe it was howling to contact it's pack.
Evidently three wolves were seen yesterday at the Northern end of the Elk Refuge.
I called the Park Service and two rangers came by along with an animal track expert from the Teton Science School, and two U Of Wy Grad. Student doing an extensive Coyote study. Everyone agreed the tracks were wolf & together we head howling 5 or 6 more times and caught a single glimpse of the critter.
Then I returned home after dark I noticed many wandering tracks in the snow up and down the road for a distance of about one half mile above the pervious site. The tracks were large canine (3.5 to 4" wide X +4" long). They wandered along the road in and out of the sage brush. Obviously looking for something. At time you could see it was a three legged gate.
I've been around here long enough to know this was no coyote or domestic dog.
Everyone at the scene agreed it was a wolf. Just though you'd like to know. We enjoy the fine job you are doing in keeping us informed. Thanks."
Yesterday's Jackson Hole News had a big story on the wolves including Bob Caesar's discovery of them.
HEADLINE:
WOLVES REACH REFUGE HILLS: Three predators may have found Shangri-La on food-rich Elk Refuge.
The wolves are indeed the trio, 29M, 129F, and another wolf, likely her littermate (137?) -- now called the "Jackson Trio." They have been definitely radio-tracked just north of the Refuge upon which the News said 11,000 elk are wintering (didn't seem that many when I was there, but then they were very spread out). The goal for a Refuge wolf population is 7500. GTNP biologist Mason Reid told the News that one pack of wolves would not "cull the herd to management goals." "To do that would require more wolves than would ever come onto the Refuge." He said the reason is that wolf packs would not tolerate that many other wolf packs in their territory. In fact we have seen that on the northern range of Yellowstone with lethal conflict between the Druid Peak and two other packs even though these wolves are considerably short of limiting the elk population there.
No information was obtained about the injured wolf Caeser saw. If there was no collar, it was either 29M or 137. Folks may recall that no. 29, the famous escape artist wolf, shed his collar shortly after leaving the Nez Perce Pack last fall.
There are two other groups of wolves in GTNP vicinity. The Soda Butte Pack was located on Burned Ridge Monday, and the "Teton Duo," as they are now called (24F and 133M) are near Elk Ranch Reservoir. In fact I may have seen Soda Bute Monday afternoon. I did watch canids in the sagebrush about a half mile east of Timbered Island (which is about 2 miles south by southwest of Burned Ridge). My binoculars were not strong enough to make a determination. I was at the Glacier View overlook. I also saw six canids at the base of Uhl Hill (near Elk Ranch Res.). After watching a half hour, I determined they were coyotes.
As of 10 am this morning, Jan. 7, Caesar reports hearing the trio near Kelly howling and later seeing two cross the road.
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