Two Members of Teton Pack have been Radio-collared.
2-3-2001, addition 2-9-2001
The first Wyoming wolves outside Yellowstone Park to be successfully radio-collared this winter were two yearlings from the Teton Pack. They were darted in the general vicinity of their 1999 den site. Now there are 3 radio collared wolves in this all black wolf pack. In the past, only the alpha female R24F had a radio collar. I am uncertain if these pack has 4 or 5 wolves, the USFWS reports are inconsistent.
Update 2-9-200. the pack has 4 wolves most of the time. A 5th wolf has mostly dispersed. More dispersals may occur.
One yearling wolf avoided being darted by escaping down into a previously unknown alternative 1999 den. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the interesting escape of this wolf, an escape that shows a lot of wolf intelligence.
In a great wolf interest story, the remaining Teton wolf eluded capture by diving in a hole that was not known to have been used by these wolves as pups.
When the group was first jumped, this wolf ran straight for a hillside ½ mile away and disappeared. After we processed the 2 captured wolves, it suddenly showed back up and traveled over the top of the hill. As the helicopter moved in for a shot, it ran nearly 1/4 mile full speed over and down the hill into the hole again. The old den was so deep that Bangs couldn't touch the wolf despite reaching in as far as he could with a 6-foot jab stick. It was too narrow for a person to crawl in.This is an interesting observation because the startled wolf apparently made a conscious decision to run to this very den when the helicopter first arrived. None of these wolves had been darted from a helicopter before. Tracks indicted the den had not been recently visited by wolves so this wolf just apparently remembered its location. Secondly this event was noteworthy because the wolf went into the den twice from some distance away and quickly recognized this den provided safety from aerial pursuit.
There are occasional stories of wolves holding up in their old familiar dens, in shallow log jams or snow caves during aerial capture operations, but this was the first instance any of us had heard about where a wolf ran to a predetermined but marginally familiar hiding place.
Other information gained was that the alpha female was not in estrus, and one yearling had a clouded and likely blind right eye, probably due to an previous injury.
There was no attempt to collar the other area wolf pack, the Gros Ventre Pack (which no longer has a collared wolf) because they were at the elk feedgrounds or in the Gros Ventre Wilderness, both places where low overflights are prohibited. Because the pack's den site in the Wilderness is known efforts will be made this spring to capture some of the pack with a trap (the method that has been used to capture all the Idaho wolves).
Efforts to collar the rejuvenated Washakie Pack in the Dunoir were suspended due to wind and the movement of the pack into timber. One wolf in the Washakie Pack, 147M, is collared. He dispersed from his home Chief Joseph Pack in the fall of 1999.
Return To Maughan Wolf Report Page
Copyright © 2001 Ralph Maughan
Not to be reprinted, archived, redistributed, etc., without permission.
Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209