Denning Update on Wyoming Wolves outside Yellowstone

June 5, 2001

Mike Jimenez, Wyoming wolf manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service thinks it likely that all of the Wyoming wolf packs have denned, although it is not certain for the Beartooth Pack or the Gros Ventre Pack. The later has no wolves with radio collars.

The Sunlight Pack, still led by former Druid 41F and former Rose Creek 52M is denned.  Efforts are underway to place more radio collars in this pack. The Absaroka Pack, which was new in 2000, and led by153F and 164M, has also denned. This is for the second time. The alpha female was a disperser from the Rose Creek Pack and the alpha male from the now defunct Sheep Mountain pack.

The Beartooth Pack, of which famous no 9F is a member, might have denned. No. 9 is probably too old to have pups, but her granddaughter 77F is possibly denned. As Mike Jimenez has told me perhaps 10 times in the last year, "their denning area is about as hard to see as anything possible."

The Sunlight Basin, Beartooth, and Absaroka Packs all live in the area between the northeast boundary of Yellowstone and Cody, Wyoming to their east.

Further to the south near the NE boundary of Grand Teton National Pack, the Teton Pack finally has a new alpha pair, 200F and an uncollared male. The pack has at least 4 pups, 2 gray and 2 black. The pack now consists of just three or four adults. One, and maybe two of the adult members of the pack seem to have left, a frequent occurance when a new alpha male enters a pack.

The Washakie Pack, which re-emerged from the realm of speculation last year, has a new litter (after much observation it was determined they had a litter in 2000 from which 2-3 pups survived). Now they have at least 5 new pups (3 gray and 2 black). Both the alpha male and female are uncollared wolves with no numeric designation. The pack has 5 to 7 adults.  With all of the media stories how this pack haunts the Diamond D ranch in the Dunoir Valley, I was surprised to learn that their home range includes not just the Dunoir, but the Washakie Front and the long drainage of Horse Creek, plus the eastern part of the Mt. Leidy Highlands all the way south to Union Pass.

The Gros Ventre Pack has probably denned, but the pack no longer has any radio collars, the situation since last fall. The pack inhabits the Gros Ventre drainage east of Jackson Hole. I recently spent a couple days there. I had forgotten how extensive the area is. There is a multitude of large and small tributaries and much complicated and varied topography.

Because a number of wolves have left the Teton Pack and perhaps the Washakie and Gros Ventre in the last year, there are probably two or more solitary wolves in the area in or around Jackson Hole, Wyoming.