Yellowstone Park and SW Montana Denning Information early June 2001
June 6, 2001, minor addition June 22
Here is some recent, but still very incomplete denning information for Yellowstone National Park and wolves to the Park's north and west.
Swan Lake Pack - 152F denned in Gardner's Hole Area.
Leopold Pack - 7F - Denned in Lava Creek area. This is a new den location for no. 7F. One pup has been observed. Leopold Pack member 152F also has pups. Two have been observed.
Rose Creek (main group) - 18F - Denned in Cottonwood Creek area. No pups seen yet.
Rose Creek (Tower group) - This group did not den.
Druid Peak Pack. 42F denned at traditional den on Druid Peak. Five pups have been observed. The dens of 105F and 106F were either false pregnancies or no pups survived. Number 103F denned too. She recently moved her den. Three pups have been observed. For a while, there was a rumor that no other Druids were visited her den to help, but in recent days a number of visits have been observed.
Nez Perce Pack - 48F - Denned in Spruce Creek (remote Central Plateau tributary to Nez Perce Creek). No pups seen yet.
Chief Joseph - 33F - Denned at traditional den site near Daly Creek (the harassment worked!). Closure in effect. No pups seen yet.
151F and mate (unnamed pack) - Denned in Cougar Creek. Cougar Creek is a few miles northeast of West Yellowstone (inside the Park). Number 151F dispersed from the Leopold Pack over a year ago. No pups seen yet.
Mollies Pack. This pack (formerly Crystal Creek) has had no pups for two years, but wolf 175F is thought to have denned.
Yellowstone Delta. Denned, but not pups observed yet.Wyoming wolves outside Yellowstone (link to story posted on June 5).
Other Montana wolves.
Sheep Mountain (whether this name will persist is not known) but 195M (one of the 3 surviving Sheep Mountain wolves conditioned last year at Ted Turner's ranch) seems to be attending a den site in the defunct pack's former range near Dome Mountain about 20 miles north of Gardiner.
Mill Creek Pack. No information on this pack discovered last year. It occupies the foothills of the Absaroka Range south of Livingston and up the large Mill Creek drainage in the Absaroka Range.
155F. This disperser from the Rose Creek Pack spent quite a bit of time north of the Park consorting with some of the Turner Ranch trained wolves, but she has been spotted at an apparent den many miles west of Yellowstone Park in the West Fork of the Madison River (Gravelly Range). Radio collared wolf 161M (a disperser from the Rose Creek pack born in 1998) was observed to kill a moose about a mile from her den yesterday. He might be her mate. Note: this pack has been named the Freezeout Pack.
Taylor Peak Pack. This pack of 5 adults has moved its den back further into the mountains. They have pups, but none have been observed yet.
Gravelly Pack. This pack consists of an unknown number of adult wolves, but 5 pups were just seen. Last year they were informally called the Wall Creek Pack. Since then they have moved westward over the Gravelly Range and also westward over the Snowcrest Range and have inhabited the Blacktail State Game Range east of Dillon, Montana. They have been involved in a number of domestic sheep depredations, and killed another lamb last night.
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