Leopolds give Geodes a good chase

March 28, 2005

Update March 29, 2005
Leopolds killed the Geode Alpha male

Misc. additional news 4-1

On March 27, the 25 member strong Leopold Pack showed up in the heart of Geode Pack territory -- Hellroaring Slopes. According to Rick McIntyre, the Geodes, who were maybe a half mile north by northwest, howled at the Leopolds, and all 25 wolves went after the Geodes. Because much of the chase was in the trees, it is not known yet if contact was made. An update will follow if news emerges.

Meanwhile, since the last update, the Sloughs came back and spent two days at the Druid's traditional den site on Druid Peak. The Druids stayed across the valley in the vicinity of Dead Puppy Hill and Mt. Norris and their rendezvous site. The next day the Druids made a kill near Amethyst Creek in the Lamar. The Sloughs returned to Slough Creek.

McIntyre suggested one way the question of den site might settled it this: two of the Slough females will probably bear pups April 3, while Druid 286F is likely about April 7.  So if the Sloughs go to their traditional site up Slough Creek, the Druid Peak site might look safe to the Druids, although I don't it really is because the Sloughs would probably return well before the 2005 Druid pups are moved to the rendezvous site across the valley.

In other news, several days ago a grizzly bear grabbed an Agate kill near Junction Butte, and  Carl Swoboda, Director of Safari Yellowstone, reported seeing the Specimen Ridge pack near their last year's den site on Specimen Ridge.

Update March 29. It turns out the big Leopold Pack did more than chase the Geodes. They killed the Geode's alpha male 227M. His body was recovered today by Doug Smith.

This the 4th Geode alpha male to die or disappear since the pack was founded in 2002. Meanwhile former Druid 106F, a small but obviously cleaver wolf, has always been the Geode alpha female. 227M was a big wolf (about 125 pounds) who had dispersed from the far distant Yellowstone Delta pack to join and lead the Geodes. According to my records, 227M was five years old and was first collared in the remote Delta region as a pup weighing 100 pounds.

One possible candidate for new Geode alpha male is wolf 374M, one of the Druids who left the pack during the confusion after the deaths of the Druid alpha pair, 42F and then 21M.

While the Geodes just lost their alpha male to the Leopolds. It should be noted that in 2002, the Geodes killed the long time Leopold alpha female 7F, and then on the last day of that year they killed the original Leopold alpha male 2M.

Update April 1. Mike Jimenez monitors the remote, SW corner of Yellowstone, Bechler Pack. It's expensive and time consuming for the Park Service to fly that area. He said the pack is still 3-4 wolves and are in the Bechler Meadows. Last winter (2003-4) that's where the spent their time, although they did briefly go to Warm River Spring in Island Park (Targhee National Forest) briefly and are sometimes a big south of YNP.

I learned from Steve Nadeau of Idaho Fish and Game that the Biscuit Basin pack, which formed near Old Faithful is still in the Island Park area west of YNP on the Targhee NF. It turns out, there were wolves there the winter before too, raising the possibility that the pack might have done this before. Of course, it could have been other misc. wolves.