Recent Yellowstone Wolf Observations by Elli Radinger

It is cold in the mornings, around 20°F, but it warms up when the sun is out.

After a long flight from Frankfurt to Bozeman on April 30th, I got a good night sleep and headed out the next morning towards Yellowstone. On my way I stopped at the Howlers Inn, which is about 13 miles east of Bozeman. This is a Bed & Breakfast with a wolf enclosure! It is absolutely beautiful. There are 3 very

comfortable guest rooms next to a 3 acre wolf enclosure. They have a pack of 6 wolves (all captive raised). So you can sit in bed, watch wolves and hear them howl at night. I did not stay there, but I am considering staying for a couple of days on one of my next trips. At the beginning of each wolf-watching

trip I normally take my groups to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, so that they get a chance to see wolves up close. But the GWDC enclosure is very small and rather frustrating for wolf watchers. Now that I have found this place I might just stay there for 2 nights, and my group has a chance to enjoy the

scenery of the Bridger Mountains and watch the wolves from their room before we continue on to Yellowstone to see the "real" wolves.

Spring has come to Montana. On my way to Gardiner I could see that all the osprey nests are occupied.

I checked into the Yellowstone Village in and got the - guess what - "wolf room". Then I continued on to the park. Spring is here too. The little orange buffalo calves are staying close to their mothers. Canada geese are feeding off the fresh grass, trumpeter swans are trumpeting and on Floating Island Lake. A

Sandhill Crane has occupied the nest. A badger crossed the road in front of me and disappeared in his den.

I contacted Rick McIntyre and he assigned me unit number 22 for my radio. I started out with watching the Slough Creek pack. It was so exciting to watch their den. Many pups were out and there was a lot of activity. And yes, all 4 mother wolves are back to the same "natal den" again!!! It must be awfully crowded in there. Rick said that this has never happened before. Only once have 2 females used the same den. But here all 4 are using the den and raise the pups.

We watched the Alpha and Beta female nurse the pups, and the little ones were moving from one mother to the other to nurse. So this is really sensational.

The next morning we counted 11 pups coming of the den. If all these pups survive, the Slough pack will be very big. If there are more pups and they survive, the Sloughs could be the biggest pack in the park - just like the Druids in the "good old days".

The Pups are adorable. The are now moving further and further away from the den, sometimes sliding down the hill. When they try to get back up it takes all their energy, with their little tails circling to keep their balance. Sometimes they get help from the adults who carry them back, but they seem to be getting heavier every day.

These last days the Slough mother wolves have started digging a new den further down the main den. They have yet to occupy it.

U-Blacks Group has a den in Amethyst Creek (according to Rick), but we don't know where. U-Blacks mate had made 2 elk kills in a couple of days across from Dorothys. When he was feeding on the kill and finally took off, we tried to follow him with our scopes, but he disappeared into a forest on the higher ridge.

The Druids have a den in Cache Creek. I was lucky to watch my favorite pack yesterday in the Lamar Valley. 286F, 480M, 302M and a gray yearling with an almost white face were on the move from Soda Butte Cone to the Confluence and later over the hill back to Cache Creek. When they got to Dead Puppy Hill I suddenly saw a coyote jumping up, being followed closely by the Druids. They chased him out of sight. We then heard a coyote bark very upset and were wondering if the wolves were digging up a their den. They finally came into view again, the yearling wolf now had a brown nose and was wearing brown "socks", so they obviously were digging somewhere. When they continued towards the Confluence they

were followed by the angry barking of the coyote. [my note: this is how the area got its name -- wolves digging coyote pups out and killing them].

I also observed a beautiful black wolf in Lamar and followed him with my car all the way from Dorothys to Midpoint, where he crossed the road and disappeared in the hills. This is an uncollared black wolf with a big white spot behind his head. Rick said he's always alone and he doesn't know to which pack he belongs. He could be Druid, Agate or belong to U-Blacks group.

The bears are awake and going. Cinamon and light cinamon blackbears in Tower, Elk Creek and Petrified Tree area, big grizzly at Soda Bute, "Thumper", the grizz, and a big black bear in Slough and at Old Picnic area - they are showing up everywhere. Sometimes its difficult to decide in what direction to set

the scope as so much is going on.

Yesterday I watched some birds. In Canyon East a great horned owl is nesting. And the osprey nest west of Fishermans is occupied by a pair of - Canada geese!!! When I got to the nest yesterday it was empty. An osprey was sitting on a tree next to it, eying it carefully. He then circled around the nest when

suddenly with lots of honking and screaming 2 geese were flying in chasing him away. When he sat down on the other tree he looked somehow irritated. A pair of red tailed hawk watched the whole scenario from one of the nearby trees as if they were sitting in an IMAX cinema.

I talked to John Mueller about this and he said that this was not unsual, that geese indeed do lay their eggs in osprey nests. But the chicks don't survive this ordeal as they can't fly and therefore fall out of the nest. I wonder why these geese don't learn from this experience.

The elk and bison are loosing their winter coat and look like they had a bad haircut with big patches of fur falling out. I had some time to watch the elk. They sometimes behave so funny. I watched some jumping with all feet off the ground throwing their long necks around like ballerinas. They were teasing

each other, playing. Too bad we sometimes are concentrating so much on the wolves, that we tend to forget to see other wildlife.

Bison have always been my favorites. One of these days I'd like to write a book about them. The calves are adorable -- the cows protective and the huge bulls butting heads and rolling in the dirt leaving clouds of dust.

I watched a group of Slough wolves, who seemed to be getting bored, teasing some buffalo. One of the yearlings sneaked up to a huge buffalo bull, who was resting in the grass. The wolf nipped at the buffalo's tail who, with a turn of his head, sent "Mr. Brave" fleeing.

Talking about flight, yesterday evening we watched the Slough den again. The pups were inside sleeping, the adults rested at the "platform" below the den. Slowly some elk cows were approaching the den, feeding on the grass. They also got closer and closer to the resting wolves. We were glued to our

scopes expecting to see the wolves attack the elk.

Well, life is not always what we expect it to be. Suddenly out of nowhere an elk bull (with his antlers beginning to grow) came from below and started stalking the wolves. He first chased a black wolf up the hill. While this wolf immediately retreated into the den to be with the pups during this "killer-elk-attack," the elk starting "waking up" the other wolves. One after the other got chased away, some of them ran fast with their tails tucked in, looking back as if they couldn't believe what happened.

After he got all wolves "rearranged" the elk seemed to be satisfied and slowly left. Only then did the wolves come back. We now counted 11 adult wolves. That incident must have started their adrenaline flow, for they began a big greeting and socializing act followed by a long howl. Then they all (except for one wolf who stayed with the pups) left the den area and started to come down the hill. They were ready to hunt. We could see them chase some elk before they disappeared and it got too dark for us to follow up.

The other wolf watchers told me later that this aggressive elk had attacked the wolves in the morning too. I asked Rick why he was doing that and he answered: "Because he can!" and "They just don't like wolves." It always amazes me how close the feeding elk can get to the wolf den and the wolves without anything happening.

I also saw a fox one morning. People here getting excited when they see a fox. It seems to be something special here. In Germany we have so many foxes that the hunters try to keep their numbers down by killing them on a regular basis.

A Bison got stuck in that little creek at Wraith Falls and died. People were wondering why he couldn't get out, because he was such a huge bison bull and such a small creek. But this creek seems to be very tricky. Last winter a huge elk bull got stuck in the mud and died while he was trying to get out. The rangers later cut one of his bones open and saw that he did have almost no bone marrow, which means that he was already starving and therefore wasn't able to pull himself out. I assume that happened to the bison too. A few coyotes were on the kill. And a group of "photographers" had set up their cameras very close by. They were hoping that the wolves would come by and feed. But they were talking, laughing and making an awful lot of noise. I have given up understanding this kind of behavior of the two-legged species. (By the way - the wolves did indeed feed on the carcass, but only early the next morning. Betsey drove by and saw 3 wolves on the bison.)

Talking about people. The park is wonderfully quiet, nobody there. Sometimes I was the only one on the road. All facilities in the park and in Cooke are closed, so that's probably why there are no people around. I absolutely love it that way. Sometimes you feel, like you're the only living person in this park.

It is so quiet and beautiful.