Field report on the Lamar Valley wolves. Aug. 2004

I don't know what to call them, are they still Druids or not? Is 253M and the bulk of the pack way up the Lamar River the Druid Pack?

At any rate, Kathie Lynch graciously provided me with a detailed description of the goings-on with the wolves like 255F, 286F, 302M, 375F, and the "new black" (302's "buddy) who remain in Lamar Valley, plus a great chase by the Leopold pack.

I went wolf watching 14 times from August 1-8 and only saw wolves on 5 occasions, and then there wasn't much action (for example, 3 wolves--302M, New Black & 286F--sleeping in front of the middle foothill for 3 1/2 hours one morning before they got up and walked into the woods toward the rendezvous den, or, on another occasion, 2 wolves--255F & 375F--coming down "21's Crossing" and crossing the road at night when it was pitch dark, minus 5 minutes.

That was about it until my last morning--then we hit the jackpot!!! When I arrived on Confluence East, 286F & 255F & 375F were coming in from the Cache Creek direction, and we soon saw a big greeting between them and 302M and his no longer subservient pal,"New Black," in the Lamar River flats. 375F split off from the group and headed toward the traditional den, but the four others

went to the rendezvous site and then headed west down the whole length of the Lamar Valley, finally disappearing over Jasper Bench. We followed their progress the whole way and then went to Dave's Hill at Slough Creek and discovered them on the south side of the road, east of Crystal Creek, where they bedded.

They were in Slough Creek pack territory at that point, so I don't know what they were up to, and, sadly, that was just when I had to leave Lamar.

The rest of the pack (253M's group of yearlings) was probably still up on Specimen Ridge or up at the Opal Creek rendezvous. 302M seems to have charmed all of the big girls! By the way, 255F, not 286F, led the group of four the whole length of Lamar--she was really on a mission. The New Black male was displaying dominant behavior too, so who knows where this is all going to end?

Things are really fluid. I think that we humans would like to neatly categorize things and crown a new alpha, but the wolves don't seem interested in settling things right now--that may have to wait until next breeding season.

Due to the absence of the Druids, I made the long trek over to "Leopold-land" a few times to get my wolf fix. One morning we were rewarded with a great chase as four Leopolds tested a large herd of elk--two of the elk cows even chased the wolves back!

The odd thing was that this happened on the hillside on the north side of the road--behind us from the self-guiding trail turnout, in

the opposite direction from where you would normally look toward the Leopold's rendezvous site. Anyway, it was one of the best not-in-a-video chase sequences I've ever seen, so that was a treat.

One last thing, August 8 marked 3 1/2 years that someone has seen a wolf somewhere in Yellowstone--isn't it great that we've all gotten to be a part of this amazing adventure in Wonderland!

Kathie Lynch is a wolf watching biology teacher from Los Gatos High in California.