Thanksgiving observations in the Northern Range.
12-3-2005
By Kathie Lynch
Wolf watching in Yellowstone over the Thanksgiving holiday provided some very memorable moments. I saw wolves from three different packs (the Hellroaring Group, the Leopold pack and the Slough Creek pack), plus an unknown gray who materialized right next to the car in Little America!
I got to watch the new Hellroaring Group (a splinter from the Leopolds) from Hellroaring Overlook as they chased and sorted a herd of elk, but they did not make a kill. The seven wolves (four grays and three blacks) included 287M, who is a black turning gray and smaller than the other two blacks in the group.
On another day, the Early Winter Study team assigned to the Hellroaring Group located them far, far away, bedded on the rocks atop a ridge to the north, visible from the Frog Rock area (near the Forces of Nature self-guiding trail). It's a good thing they're trained observers because I never would have been able to distinguish that black log in the distance as a wolf!
But, luckily, that wasn't the only wolf I saw that day...as I drove west through Little America, some park visitors told me that they had seen a gray wolf chasing elk on the south side of the road near "Long Pullout." I was wondering if perhaps they had actually seen a coyote, but they insisted that it was a real wolf. I looked and looked and couldn't find it, but, lo and behold, as I drove west, it appeared almost next to the car, probably only 50 yards south of the road! It was a beauty--light colored muzzle and cheeks, big black tip on the tail, tan behind the ears and across the top of the muzzle, and a very short hair coat. That made me wonder if it was a young animal, but I didn't see any of the long guard hairs that yearlings are famous for. Since it was uncollared, we may never know who it was or what pack it came from. Nevertheless, it was mighty exciting to see a wolf so close, and I'll never forget seeing it stop and blend with the gray-green sage, looking straight at me.
I had another wolf look straight into my eyes this trip too, only this one was through a spotting scope. It was Leopold 470F, a black with a bad limp on her right front leg. She was alone and had been chased by two unknown grays (a huge, beautiful male and a very small female) and ran up the ridge of North Butte (near the Forces of Nature trail). For one instant, she stopped and stared right at me, and I saw the "fierce green fire" in her eyes that inspired Aldo Leopold--how fitting that it came from a wolf whose pack bears his name!
That same day I had a chance to watch ten other Leopolds, including the black alpha female, 209F (who also has a limp). Six of them came in from the east to the traditional Leopold territory south of the road and then howled toward a second group on the north side of the road, and then there was howling from the west too! Eventually four more Leopolds came in from the west and joyfully greeted the other six with a lot of frolicking before all ten bedded for the afternoon.
The Sloughs proved elusive much of the time as they journeyed out of view, north of Slough Creek, for a couple of days. Eleven of them did finally put on a show one morning at the old Druid rendezvous site in Lamar Valley where they chased and mortally wounded a bull elk, who then slipped into the Lamar River and drowned. The Sloughs were temporarily stymied by their watery prey and retreated to bed at the eastern western (!) foothill.
The Agates were around too, although I just missed seeing them by five minutes on two occasions. Eight Agates (five grays and three blacks) had a fresh elk kill very close to the road just east of Floating Island Lake one morning. The wolves were skittish, even though there was hardly anyone around. I watched for two hours, hoping they'd return to the carcass, and during that time only two or three cars passed on the road. They finally did return after five hours, when they erupted out of the trees and chased coyotes away from the carcass. The coyotes had been fun to watch as they scooted around face first in the snow to clean the blood off their muzzles.
As far as other things of interest . . . November is a very lonely month in the Park. Even on a holiday weekend, there were very few people. The bison absolutely owned the roads! The snow cover was still fairly light, although we had 4-6 " of fresh powder all of one day and night--and it was just one degree F in the morning! I had a great view of five or six bighorn sheep cavorting in the snow on the steep, rocky hillsides in the Gardner River canyon. It is mating season right now for them, and the big boys were doing a little playful head butting. Other wildlife highlights included a great gray owl which flew across right in front of the car near Hellroaring and a wonderful opportunity to watch a great horned owl perching in different spots along Rescue Creek, its beautiful brown and white feathers offering perfect camouflage. For watching wolves and other wildlife, Yellowstone is always a treat that can't be beat!