A close encounter with a Teton Pack wolf
5-29-2001
Last week instead of heading to Yellowstone to watch the Druids and other wildlife, I decided to hunt for Jackson Hole wolves and check out the condition of the Hansen-Mead pasture in Grand Teton National Park near Moran Junction. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good. Descending into a short, but deep draw in the northeast corner of Grand Teton NP, I suddenly saw a black animal run. It was about 30 feet away, but later inspection showed I was probably about 10 feet away when the wolf bolted. The wolf ran to a hillock about 60 feet away, turned and looked at me. . . a black wolf with white showing through the black fur on his shoulders. I fumbled for my Nikon and fired off a shot just as the wolf turned. I am buying a digital camera, but for the time being I am waiting for the slide.
Later I learned the wolf's description was that of the new alpha male of the Teton Pack.
The wolf was visiting an old elk carcass. The elk (a calf born in 2000) was almost entirely consumed except the head and some scattered viscera.
The area was full of wildlife. I saw 15 elk (a group of bulls), about 10 pronghorn, two trumpeter swan, a couple deer and bison (with new calves) everywhere. I even saw a grizzly bear digging for roots or rodents.
The bad. The drought is already taking its toll. The grass was at best about 3 inches high and beginning to go to seed. Tall perennial flowers (forbs) such as sticky geranium were already wilting at a height of about 2 or 3 inches. The Teton Pack and its probable pups will soon find their den area dry and devoid of prey.
The ugly. Most every fall I check out the controversial pasture where the Hansen-Mead family runs about 1800 cattle (including the calves). Every fall, it looks well trampled, depleted, and incompatible with a national park. Every spring it looks a lot better, but not this year. Bare patches from last fall had not regrown grass . . . at best some obscure low-growing weeds. Where there was grass it was never more than an inch high.
Meanwhile the cattle are now inside the Park. Right now they are near Blacktail Butte, at the Park's southern end, chewing their way north.
If cattle have to be in a national park, surely this is not a year to turn them out, but they are scheduled to be at the pasture near Moran Junction by mid-June.
What a tragedy for the native wildlife, including the wolves who may be tempted to go after the beef so near to their den. Why don't those noisy outfitters who complain there are not enough elk (due to wolves, of course) complain about the precious grass these cows are eating?
Photos of the pasture will be forthcoming in about a week.
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