This isn't a full Yellowstone Park update, but things have continued slow in the Park.

The presence of parvo-virus probably won't be established for certain until this winter when wolves are captured and their blood analyzed, but the pup survival was very poor in the northern part of the Park. As reported earlier, wolf pups survival was good in Wyoming outside the Park, and seems to have good among the less densely occupied wolf areas in the southern part of Yellowstone Park. Packs just north of the Park did very poorly, beset by mange and probably parvo too.

There are now two packs in Idaho just west of Yellowstone and it appears their pups survived.

The count on northern range wolves in the Park is presently 18 wolves for the Leopold Pack. Another long-dead Leopold pup was retrieved just today. The Leopold Pack had 21members at this time last year, and in late spring they had so many pups it looked the pack's population would be over thirty. So there was a big turnaround.

There are 15 Sloughs, with 3 surviving pups that are now doing well.

The Agates are at 6 or 7 with maybe one or two surviving pups.

The Druids have not been seen for some time. Last detected, they were flirting with the eastern boundary of the Park. It is still the assumption that there are 6 adults and 1 surviving pup, but this is just an assumption for the time being.

The Delta Pack in the SE corner of the Park is doing well, however. They had good pup survival. I think the SW corner Bechler Pack did well too, although they are not well observed. I have no new info on Cougar Creek, Gibbon, Molly's, Nez Perce, or the Hayden Valley Pack.

10-14-2005. There have been good observations of the Hayden Valley Pack recently. There are five wolves in the pack now.

Back to Idaho, the former Yellowstone Park Pack, Biscuit Basin Pack, occupies the east side of Island Park and now a new pack, now named the Bishop Mountain Pack, which includes radio collared, former Yellowstone wolf 213F of the Nez Perce Pack inhabits the western part of Island Park. I would say the range of the second pack is mostly from the west caldera rim westward toward the high desert. This means elk winter range. So they ought to do well, other things being equal. I don't know that the second pack has been named yet. The Biscuit Basin Pack has pups and the Bishop Mountain Pack seems to have pups. Biscuit Basin was starving in the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone, and so they left the Pack last fall and their lot has improved.

A story in the Idaho Statesman yesterday indicated prospects for elk and deer hunting in most of Idaho this fall look good, with the many wolves doing little more than changing elk and deer habits, not the herds' population size. Of course, changing the habits of ungulates was a major reason for the wolf introduction -- make them wild, not acting like they are livestock.

Big game outlook: Deer and elk herds are healthy throughout state. Idaho Statesman. Oct. 6, 2005.
 

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