Here is a complete update on Yellowstone Park wolves. For continuity you may wish to compare it to the mid-June update.

Druids-
253M and 302M seem to be avoiding a confrontation and each wolf is gathering a group, so perhaps the Druid Pack is splitting, but matters are too fluid to say that with assurance.

The alpha female 286F seems to prefer 302M and she has been seen double scent marking with 302 on several occasions according to Dan Stahler of the Yellowstone wolf team. I presume that means she marks on top his marking rather than the other way around, which is less significant.

The pups at the traditional den are of differing sizes, indicating there may be more litters there than just 286's.  Moreover, Druid 376F's pups, at the den across the valley, haven't been seen for a while. Perhaps the 2 black pups are dead or maybe they were moved to the den on Druid Peak. 376F was miles away from her den today, July 9, perhaps hunting.

The group of wolves that join 302M and his uncollared black "buddy" usually do so near 376's den area.

Stahler thinks it is significant that the pups on Druid Peak have not yet been moved to the usual rendezvous site in Opal Creek, as has been the case in years past.

Update 7-12. Early on the morning of July 10, 286F moved 6 six pups from the traditional Druid den to the rendezvous site -- 4 black and 2 gray.  Two of the pups are larger than the rest.

376F has returned from her detour and is traveling with the main pack. In recent weeks her 2 black pups were reduced to just one.  The fate of the last one is not known.  Is it with the other pups, but not counted so far?

302M and his friend are still hanging around, but this morning they moved off from the rendezvous site area when 253M and 7 Druids came along.

The uncollared gray female yearling who might have broken her leg at about or at the same time 21M disappeared hasn't been seen now for 15 days.

194M and the U-Black-
They denned is on Specimen Ridge in a fairly visible spot, but had moved the den further back in the timber at the time of the last report.  Since then, they have moved southeast into very thick timber. Observations of the original 5 pups, assuming they are alive is not possible. Folks will recall the U-black female was a long time member of the Druid Pack, who left the pack during the last 2 breeding seasons and left for good, pairing with 194M this last winter.

Slough Creek Pack-
There is big news in the Slough Creek, whose original alpha female 217F (originally a Druid) was killed last winter, probably by her own pack. Now the alpha male, big 261M, who disserted Mollies Pack to pair with 217 and form the Slough Creek Pack, has been found dead of natural, but unknown causes. He was last radio located on June 1. His collar was noted to be in mortality mode on June 15 and his very decomposed carcass was recently found near a small stream.

So far the pack has been seen with 5 pups. The new alpha female (as of last winter) is a black uncollared wolf.  Of course, there is no news yet about a new alpha male.

Geode Creek Pack-
The batteries on two-year old Geode male 392M with the GPS collar have declined and GPS data is no longer being gathered. The pack has moved into heavy timber and the number of their original eleven  pups still surviving is not known. Aerial sightings have seen 2 to 5 pups, but there are probably more in the timber.

Agate Creek Pack-
It now looks like the final count of pups for Agate Creek is six. The pack is in its traditional rendezvous site in the Antelope Creek area north or northeast of Mount Washburn.

Leopold Pack-
The pack is as almost always on the Blacktail Deer Plateau.  The phenomenal pup survival rate of the last several years continues.  It appears all 12 pups from the 2 litters are still alive.  With the pups this pack now has 23-25 members!

Swan Lake Pack-
First they thought Swan Lake had denned. Then they decided they hadn't, but it was some lucky hikers that proved they had denned. The hikers stumbled onto the pack with 2 pups (there might be more as the hikers backed away promptly so not to disturb the wolves). The rendezvous site in the past was mostly in the open, but this year it is about a mile away in heavy timber.

Mollies Pack-
Pups are yet to be observed, but alpha female 174F has remained in the same location for a long time, indicating pups. Stahler noted last month an unusual number of elk the Pelican Valley where Mollies pack mostly lives. Today he remarked the valley was greener than he had ever seen it.

Nez Perce Pack-
No pups have been seen, which is not unusual, but the pack has moved from its probable den site to another den site and probable rendezvous area. From the air today, Stahler saw the alpha female 48F (born way back in 1996 north of Yellowstone Park to the original Nez Perce female 27F). He also located 341F, and 305M with her. The alpha male 70M was over the top of the Central Plateau in Hayden Valley by a dead elk calf.

Yellowstone Delta Pack-
This pack has moved from its den site (they choose the den this year the outfitters like to ride all over) to a rendezvous site a couple miles away inside the Park.  It has long been assumed 126F is the alpha female, but Stahler pointed out this has never been proven, and it could be her older sister 44F (who was also born north of the Park back in 1996 to the original Soda Butte Pack female 14F). Both 126F and 44F's collars work, but 44's just barely, both an exception to the many premature radio collar failures that have plagued wolf monitoring.

Bechler Pack-
No new information. Their location in SW Yellowstone is too far and too wet to monitor closely.

340F's Pack (will it be named "Old Faithful?").
There is little new news. It is assumed they have pups. Wolves are being seen on Firehole Meadows, which may be some of this group (which will be called a "pack" if pups are found).  340F, the alpha female, is a disperser from the Nez Perce Pack.

Gibbon Meadows-
One pup has been observed, and there are 4 adults. The pup or pups, if still alive, have been in deep timber. The pack is often seen on Gibbon Meadows, long a popular spot to observe elk and bison from the Madison Jct. to Norris Jct. road. I saw and photographed a single wolf on these Meadows 2 years ago this July.

Cougar Creek Pack-
They have pups but their rendezvous site is in rocky country with a profusion of new lodgepole pine growth stemming from the fires of 1988.  Any pups could hardly be seen. 

This is another radio collar-chewing pack and it is hard to maintain many collars on the members.

Chief Joseph Pack-
Nothing new has been noted. Four pups have been seen so far.  They are in the area of their traditional den site (Daly Creek area, NW corner of the Park). A closure is in effect to restrict people to the Daly Creek trail (no cross country travel).

Rose Creek Pack (rediscovered!)-
It was believed that this pack, once a northern range powerhouse, had been pushed out of the Park, northward into the Absaroka/Beartooth Wilderness, and all member might have dispersed because the radio collars could not be located.

As it turns out, the frequency of a radio collar on a mountain lion was bleeding over that of Rose Creek male 150M. When that was figured out, 150M and 190F were finally located, and not in an unusual place -- at the rendezvous site they established last year, north of the Park, somewhere near the headwaters of Slough Creek.

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Ralph Maughan PO Box 444, Pocatello, ID 83204