Yellowstone Park wolf news.

Alpha female of Leopold Pack found long dead.

Aug. 7, 2003, update Aug. 8

Here is the latest Yellowstone Park wolf news, although not for every pack. Perhaps the biggest news is the confirmed mortality of the new (since 2002) alpha female of the Leopold pack. She had replaced famous, late 7F who was killed by the Geode Pack in late spring 2002. As early as late last May, 259F's collar gave a mortality signal. Because she was at one of the pack's traditional dens the most common assumption was that she had merely dropped her collar. Another member of the Leopold pack, 220F, albeit a low ranking pack member, was seen with pups at a separate den.

Researchers are reluctant to approach den sites while pups are still present, but the pack has moved on and when they finally investigated the den, 259's long dead carcass was found. She had been dead too long to know the cause or what happened to her pups. Earlier in the year 5 pups in total had been seen from the air in the pack, 3 of them with 220F. Some of the pups were black. Now eight pups are seen traveling with the pack and all are gray. While 220F's status in the pack has improved, it is not at all clear she is the alpha female. The alpha male is an uncollared large gray wolf who upstaged the original alpha 2M last November. 220F is thought to have become pregnant not with the new Leopold alpha, but from Nez Perce wolf 214M, with whom she was seen last winter when the Nez Perce Pack was doing its "walkabout" that eventually ended at the National Elk Refuge.

Note: the Leopold Pack was officially renamed the Leopold II pack with the death of its founders (7F and 2M) in 2002.

The Druid Pack is still using the Opal Creek and the Chalcedony Creek rendezvous sites. The original pup count of 11 is now down to 9, with a pup recently being found dead on the Mirror Plateau not far from the Opal Creek site. Of course, it is hard to say what happened. They are many dangers to pups. For example, 2 days ago a grizzly bear approached the pups, but they were defended by the alpha male 21M, who drove the grizzly away.

Pups have finally been identified in the Park's only SW quadrant pack. Four pups have been seen with the Bechler Pack, bringing its probable size to eight. The origins of the Bechler pack are shrouded in mystery. It was first seen in August 2002, consisting of a notably large male disperser (192M) from the Rose Creek II Pack and an uncollared female. Strangely, however, in April 2002, the time the female would be denning, 192M was seen far from the Bechler (about 70 miles) on the Park's northern range. Here are several hypotheses. 1. The pups were actually born on the northern range and migrated to the Bechler shortly before the pack was discovered by biologists. 2. The alpha female was impregnated by another male, who then was killed or died in the Bechler leaving her to tend a den in the deep snow of April. Later 192M happened along. 3. 192M was for some reason foraging on the northern range while has mate was whelping pups.

At any rate, the Bechler Pack did well in 2002, living off moose and elk. In the winter they moved into the Fall River Basin and continued to eat elk, moose, deer, and maybe beaver (there are many beaver ponds in the area).

Mollies Pack has four pups and as always is scrambling the feed itself and lots of grizzly bears. Dan Stahler told me that almost 100% of the time the pack makes a kill and within 4-5 hours (sometimes sooner) a grizzly takes it. Recently, researchers saw 7 grizzlies on a bull elk the pack had killed. The Pelican Valley is one tough place for a wolf. . . . Talk about real wilderness! The Wolf Recovery Foundation is one of the funders of the on-going winter study of grizzly bears, bison, and wolves in early spring in the Pelican. We will be helping fund the project again this winter.

The Swan Lake Pack seems to have 5 pups now, and as always, all of them grey wolves, just like the big, but hard to observe Nez Perce Pack. Pups have not been seen with the Nez Perce Pack, which is not unusual, due to their den and rendezvous sites in the densely forested Central Plateau of the Park.

The Cougar Creek Pack has 5 pups. This pack, about 5 miles NE of West Yellowstone, is unusual in that it is believed to prey substantially on beaver. This is another of the places in Yellowstone where there are lots of beaver.

The long-standing Chief Joseph Pack, the Park's hardest to collar pack, remains uncollared despite many attempts. The alpha pair is not known, nor the number of pups. A woman from West Yellowstone recently emailed me, however, saying she ran into 3 pups on the Daly Creek trail.

It seems clear that the Yellowstone Delta pack has just 2 pups this year. This is another pack that is having (increasing?) problems fending off grizzlies from its kills.

There is no new info on Geode Creek Pack except it has been traveling a bit, or on the Slough Creek pack. No word or really any way to tell what happened to the brief Buffalo Fork Pack or 251F's pack. Both alpha females were killed. It has been a tough spring and summer for alpha females.

The Rose Creek II Pack, now well north of the Park is in some trouble with domestic sheep which, with some shock, I learned are allowed to graze the Absaroka portion of Montana's Absaroka/Beartooth Wilderness. Hopefully this will be resolved without destruction of the Park's first famous wolf pack.

Update 8-8. This from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services latest gray wolf report:  "More sheep were reported killed by both grizzly bears and wolves on a Forest Service allotment just north of Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife Services has authorization to shoot one wolf if it is in the sheep band. It is a 20-mile ride into the area to confirm depredations." Some think the Rose Creek Pack is responsible, but recent tracking indicates they are some distance from these wilderness area sheep.
 

Much of this information (except on the Rose Creek II and Chief Joe Packs) came from Dan Stahler of the Park wolf team. Thanks, Dan!