More Yellowstone Wolf and Wildlife Observations by Elli Radinger

Trip report part II

This report won't be as long as the last one, at least not concerning the wolves. When I'm guiding a group I have to consider a lot of things and concentrate on the wolves as intense as I normally do when I'm all by myself.

I had picked up my little wolf watcher group of 4 people on May 5th at the Bozeman airport and we started out towards West Yellowstone the next morning. I drove from Bozeman on Hwy 84 through the beautiful landscape of Montana to the little town of Ennis, which is always worth a stop. Watch out for the sign of veterinarian "Dr. James Bond" :-)

) His office is behind the gas station at the intersection 84 to 287.

I continued on Hwy 287 to West Yellowstone. This drive has always been my favorite. I like it better than Hwy 191, as there are too many speeding trucks on 191. A lot of bison and many wolves have been killed on this highway.

We were finally back to Yellowstone, this time through the West entrance. For anybody who's going there - watch out for the huge bald eagle nest on the right side a few hundred miles past West Yellowstone. The road sign says "Eagle nesting. No stopping or walking." The nest is occupied.

Back at Slough Creek, Rick McIntyre gave me a quick update: U-Black has finally been seen in Lamar. She was lactating, so she must be nursing puppies! There were 3 carcasses in the valley, which should give the small family enough to eat for a while.

The Slough wolf pups were in their usual den area with a few adults watching over them. We climbed Dave's Hill and watched the wolves for a while. Nearby a coyote with a radio collar was stretched out in the grass snoozing. A pronghorn antelope approached it curiously and got very close to it. The coyote

lifted its head, but then dropped back to sleep while the antelope continued grazing. As for the coyotes, I did fewer coyotes in the park than in winter. I talked to the coyote people and they said they have

about 9 packs with 2-3 individuals in the area from Little America to Pebble Creek.

At Roosevelt Lodge were two black bears, one black and one cinnamon colored. These were the two cubs from last years black bear. A couple of days later we watched how the rangers hazed them out of the

housing area at the ranger station at Tower Jct. There were 4 people hollering and clapping hands, walking towards the bears while another ranger took care of traffic. Boy, were these bears running fast - but only for a short time, they soon continued grazing peacefully.

The bison are causing quite a few traffic problems this time of the year. We were surrounded by a herd with calves, no chance of continuing driving. After more and more cars behind us were lining up, we tried itching forward inch by inch. We finally managed to carefully squeeze through this group of massive

brown and orange fur. A couple of days later, we came to six bison bulls at the Confluence [of Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River]. There is only the rock on one side and the river on the other side. So we gave the bison enough room and stayed behind them until they were almost through this narrow part, and safe. Then came a car from the other direction, full speed, and did not stop at all, but was literally chasing the

bison back again. They scrambled over each other and panicked. We were getting afraid as they were running almost into our car. I waved to the driver who stopped and opened his window. I asked him why die he did harass the bison. His answer was "When you're living with these animals for 40 years, this is what you do!" Then he speeded away, again chasing the animals. I've come to Yellowstone for 25 years. I do know how to drive with bison on the road, but this driver was just plain brutally harassing these animals, causing panic and potentially danger for the animals and also for us in the car. I wrote down his license

number and reported him to the ranger, who said that it would be his "pleasure" to report this guy to law enforcement as he obviously is a local and well know for his ruthless driving.

With all the new wider and better roads in the park, I'm fearing that more and more animals will die because of incautious and speeding drivers. So drive carefully!

On May 8th we watched an interaction with a grizzly and a wolf at Slough Creek. The pups were up and out, Moms were coming regurgitating food for them. In the meantime a huge grizzly was slowly munching his way towards the den area. A gray wolf mom watched him carefully and decided "This is enough!" She circled the griz several times, did a few short forward attacks, always careful as to not get too close to the bear, who stomped the ground and swung his head sideways. The wolf then laid down next to him a few feet away, constantly watching him. The bear didn't seem at all impressed. He continued his walk, only

this time he slightly changed directions and finally rested on a rock, and went to sleep in the sun.

That morning there was a lot of activity with wolves coming and going. We were watching the den area with Rick and other wolf watchers. So Rick put each of us in charge of watching a different wolf, while he concentrated on the den. He counted 15 pups: 8 black and 7 light colored ones. When it was getting too crowded we left Slough around 9 a.m. and drove into the Lamar Valley, where we saw a huge grizzly with four (!!!) cubs from Dorothys [informal name of road pullout] on Jasper Bench and another grizzly sleeping under a tree further down the road.

A few days later the Slough wolves had moved all pups to their new den in the sagebrush further down from their natal den. This new den is easy visible from the parking lot near Dave's Hill.

We also watched five Druid wolves on a kill that they had made between Soda Butte Cone and the footbridge [across the creek]. A herd of bison were near the carcass and wouldn't let the wolves eat. There was a lot of back and forth chasing, with some bison moving towards the wolves chasing them away. When the bison finally left, the wolves relaxed.

We did have some close encounters with animals several times. The first one was with a wolf at Boulder [informal name] in Little America. Four wolves had been seen there, and Rick didn't know if they were Geodes or Agates. There was some interaction between them. A gray wolf from the pack chased away a black wolf, who did not belong to these four wolves. Rick said that it could have been a yearling of U-Blacks group. This wolf crossed the road very close to us. Another morning we had left the hotel an hour later as usual. At Little America we saw a wolf who wanted to cross the road. We stopped at a distance and radioed Rick. It turned out that it was the Agate Alpha female, 472F (which I describe as a "gray" wolf, but who is actually black turning gray). She walked very close to us across the road and headed North while another black Agate yearling walked the other way.

The other close encounter we had was yesterday with a grizzly. The Druids had killed an elk in the Lamar river at the Confluence. A grizzly had taken over the kill and was sleeping on the elk carcass when we got there. We climbed the hill at the Confluence and watched the whole scene. Another grizzly just left the area.

He walked toward the road and tried to cross it. Unfortunately there were a lot of visitors at the parking lot who would not let him cross. They were walking along the road trying to take photos - as close as possible - and so forced the bear to move on. He finally was out of our sight. We continued to watch the wolves and the bear. Druids 286F and 302M were near the carcass trying to get the bear to move. 286 moved very close to the bear. The bear finally got up and made a few steps towards her. Then 302 moved in. The bear chased 302 for a few yards, 286 came in from the back and snatched a piece of meat. What team work! But the bear was not to be fooled. He turned back right away and laid flat on the elk carcass. He hardly could walk, his belly was so full and round. But he wouldn't give up his "gift" from the

Druids. He fell asleep on his back with all 4 legs in the air.

While we were so concentrated on the activity at the kill and glued to our scopes, I could see a man waving from down the road. He pointed to the right. Then I turned I saw a grizzly coming towards us, nose down munching a few flowers here and there. He was rapidly coming closer. "Bear!" I said to my group,

and "get your stuff and move slowly back". I got my bear spray ready. Cathy, a fellow wolf watcher, was closest to the bear and didn't even know that he was coming. Thank God she had a radio. "Cathy, you might want to leave, as there's is a grizzly coming towards you!" I radioed her. She immediately left downhill.

On our way down the trail I warned another group who also had not seen the bear coming. The grizzly was fast approaching. It was obvious that he was just following the trail and not interested in us at all, but with a distance of 30 yards to the bear, you don't want to risk anything. We made it to our cars. The bear crossed the road between our cars, swam the Lamar river and continued on the other side. I still was wondering, why he did such a big circle instead of going the straight west and not having to cross the road. But hey - what do I know about the mind of a grizzly?!

This incident teaches us to ALWAYS carry bear spray in Yellowstone and always look around, even when you think you are in a "safe" place. Dave's Hill also has been visited by grizzlies a few times.

Now to the other animals:

There is a badger living on Dave's Hill. He has a den there and is probably wondering what all these people are doing in his living room ...

There also are a few injured bison out there who are still hanging on. We saw a big bison cow with her calf at Little America. She could hardly move as she had a broken front leg and could only walk on 3 legs. The cow was all by herself, and the calf seemed pretty confused, running around in circles. We were

wondering if we should stay around and wait 'til the wolves or a bear would show up. But Bob Landis later told me that these animals are pretty tough and might hang on for several weeks or even months.

I always have a lot of fun watching the bison. They can jump and play like little children or break into powerful stampedes. It's a shame and sad that these beautiful animals are being put in an enclosure [near Daley Lake] and killed outside of the park, because of a disease that they don't even transmit.

A black and cinnamon black bear are usually hanging out in the Tower or Elk Creek area and cause quite a traffic every time.The moose are out at their usual places like Warm Creek or Silver Gate.

Thanks to a "birder" in my group I got to see a lot more birds than usual, including a few golden eagles. He made notes and found 39 new bird species that are not known or very rare in Germany. A peregrine falcon is nesting in the Rocky faces of the canyon at Tower Falls.

We also did a few road trips. One was on the Beartooth Highway, which until now is only open for a short stretch of 17 miles. The next one was the Chief Joseph Highway to Cody, which had just opened. Both roads deserve their names of "Scenic Byways," and truly belong to the most beautiful roads in America. I

highly recommend driving them. The road from Cody back to the Yellowstone Lake was difficult though as we ran into heavy snow on Sylvan Pass; the road construction on the first part from the East Entrance to Lake is terrible, with long waits and slippery muddy roads.

By the way, when you are in Cody stop at "The Irma", the historic hotel that Buffalo Bill built, and have lunch there. The food is excellent and the place is really historic. I also highly recommend the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, but you need to have a least one full day to see it all.

On one of the cold and rainy days we visited the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone. At Old Faithful one of the employees told us that there is a 400 pound grizzly hanging around. He is killing bison and a pack of wolves is feeding on the carcasses. Several times they have seen a "white wolf" in the pack [Nez Perce Pack?].

The weather was bad during the first week that my group got here. It was cold and raining or snowing most of the time, but it did get better by the end of this week. When we left Yellowstone today there was bright sunshine with warm temperatures.

The traffic in Yellowstone is getting heavier now. People are beginning to come in more and more. For my taste it is way too crowded in summer. But wolf watchers do bring money. Jim Halfpenny has done a survey on the economy and what influence wolf watchers have. He found out that the total potential income

that "wolf-based" organizations and commercial groups represent was $ 4,924,482 for 2005. This is a lot of money that we wolf watchers leave in the park and the surrounding communities. So the Yellowstone wolves are very important to the park and the GYE.

Well, it's time for me to fly back to Germany. But I can assure you that it won't be too long until I'm back. Enjoy your time in Yellowstone.