Yellowstone wolf news early March 2000

3-8-2000 update 3-13-2000

There is quite a bit of Yellowstone wolf news. I gathered this from my recent trip to the Park, discussions with local folks, the Jackson Hole News, and from reports from Yellowstone wolf personnel. Here are the locations of the packs and news about each.

Rose Creek Pack. The pack has been favoring the Black Canyon of Yellowstone, especially near the benches around its major tributary stream Hellroaring Creek. With the help of Tom Zieber I saw ten of them March 3. Number 150M of the nearby Leopold Pack has been hanging around the outskirts of the Rose Creek Pack, and on March 4 the pack chased him (halfheartedly apparently) as he tried to approach them.

Druid Peak Pack. This pack of eight -- 6 adults and 2 pups -- has been in its usual territory, the Lamar Valley and Specimen Ridge. Rick McIntyre told me that the pups are as large, or larger, than most of the adults in the pack. The pack adults are all females, except number 21M, the alpha male. He has been observed mating with all four females. Number 103F is the lowest ranking wolf, but she is a very effective hunter. Number 42F, the beta female, seems to be the fastest. Number 40F, who has a new radio collar, is still the alpha female. Following the new policy, the pups, unless they are "handled," such as for radio collaring, will remain unnumbered.

Crystal Creek Pack - The pack is in its usual location -- the Pelican Valley.

Leopold Pack - The pack is in its usual location of the Blacktail Deer Plateau, but it has had several wolves disperse -- no. 150M (see above), and 151F who seems to have paired with 161M, who has dispersed from Rose Creek. Yesterday, March 7, they were in Eagle Creek, just north of the Park between Gardiner and Jardine.

Chief Joseph- The Chief Joseph Pack, which is of much reduced size due to control killings, dispersals, and a recent death of a pup on U.S. 191, has been in Tom Miner Basin, north of the Park, but returned yesterday to Daly Creek just inside the Park's NW corner. The pup was hit by a bus in busy US 191. The accident is not under investigation, but, strangely, someone stole the pup's carcass before it could be retrieved. So far there are no leads on this violation.

Sheep Mountain Pack- This pack, led by number 16F (alpha male is uncertain) remains in its usual location in the area around Dome Mountain and Timber Mountain about 15 miles north of Yellowstone Park.

Soda Butte Pack - The Soda Butte Pack was located on March 7, as usual in the Thorofare in the remote SE corner of Yellowstone. Six wolves were observed, including the long time alpha female 14F, former Druid Peak Pack and then member of the Crystal Creek Pack, no. 104M; and also no. 120M, who has dispersed from the Crystal Creek Pack. No. 126F, born to no. 14 in 1997 was also with the pack. Number 44F, born to the pack in 1996, was not located this flight. Two uncollared wolves were with the pack. One was probably pack member 125?. The identify of the sixth was not known.

Nez Perce Pack - The Nez Perce Pack was in its usual location in the west central part of Yellowstone.

Valentine Pack. The pack is east by northeast of Yellowstone. Apparently this is not yet the official name of this newly discovered pack, of which 9F is probably the alpha female. The pack has 4 adult wolves, 2 males and 2 female. The second female, 153F (born in 1998), is from the Rose Creek Pack, and is possibly one of 9's daughters. Three of the wolves are black. No. 9 is now silvery gray. Of the two male wolves, the smaller male seems to be dominant. The larger male, 164M, is known to be a disperser from the Sheep Mountain Pack, north of Yellowstone. The Valentine Pack may have pushed the larger Sunlight Basin Pack a bit southward. The larger Sunlight Basin Pack has only two adult wolves. The rest are pups.

Number 147M and black wolf- Number 147M is a handsome gray disperser from the Chief Joseph Pack. He was born in 1997. He has been located all over the northern part of the Park and to its east. Folks may remember that he hung out near the Druids early last winter. Since then he has been located from there to the North Fork of the Shoshone River, east of the Park, and even back with his home pack in the NW corner of the Park. Most recently he has been observed with, but not necessarily paired with, an uncollared black wolf. They were located in Jones Creek, a tributary of the North Fork of the Shoshone. Two wolves were also located near the mouth of Trout Creek, further downstream on the North Fork of the Shoshone and closer to Cody. They may or may not have been these two wolves.

Number 115F and uncollared wolf- Number 115F is yet another disperser from the Chief Joseph Pack. She was born in 1998. She has been located for sometime in the Madison Range/Madison Valley area NW of Yellowstone and west of Big Sky.

Wolves in the Gravelly Range? There have been a number of credible reports of more than one wolf in the Gravelly Range. These are the mountains west of the Madison Range and Madison Valley, on the western edge of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

The Gros Ventre and Teton Packs and Gros Ventre feedground story (not!)- These two Jackson, Wyoming area packs have been spending most of the winter up the Gros Ventre River, upstream from Jackson Hole. They have killed a few elk on the National Elk Refuge, but they don't spend much time there. The Gros Ventre Pack has 5 members -- 3 adults and 2 pups. The Teton Pack now again has an alpha male. So it's him, no. 24F, and her five pups.

The February 23 Jackson Hole News has a bold headline story "Wolves corral 2,500 Wapiti: Gros Ventre elk move to one feedground with food for only 600." It sounded pretty dramatic, and a lot like the great "wolf stampede" of early 1999 (which never happened).

There are three feedgrounds spread out over a 12-miles stretch of the Gros Ventre River and run by Wyoming Game and Fish. The elk are fed hay at the Patrol Cabin, the Alkali, and the Fish Creek feedgrounds. The wolves have been pushing the elk from one feedground to another. Although only about 18 elk kills have been identified, the problem is the elk show up at a feedground that has either excess hay nor not enough. Wyoming Game and Fish Regional Wildlife Supervisor Bernie Holz was quoted as saying this was a great problem. He also said the elk movement made it hard to vaccinate them for brucellosis. This requires some explanation.

Wyoming's solution to brucellosis problem is to vaccinate the elk on the state feedgrounds. This is of some controversy because the effectiveness of the vaccine on elk is questionable. The brucellosis infection rate of bison and elk in NW Wyoming is much higher than in Montana, where Governor Racicot's solution is to blast them away. Despite these varying methods, cattle don't get brucellosis in either state.

Both the cause of the Wyoming brucellosis the attempted solution are related. The Wyoming infection rate is so great because Wyoming (unlike Idaho or Montana) feeds its elk, and the bison mingle with the elk on the National Elk Refuge downstream from these three Gros Ventre feedgrounds. If elk abort their calves, it is in about February, so the aborted elk fetuses lie amid the hay and infect the elk even as Wyoming Game and Fish tries to vaccinate them.

No doubt the wolves are causing some burden on this hay feeding/vaccination operation, but many folks believe the feedgrounds should be abandoned in Gros Ventre as a better solution to this disease, whose danger seems to wax or wane according to the political circumstances of a given day. There is natural winter range in the Gros Ventre drainage in normal winters; and in severe winters they can all migrate downstream to the National Elk Refuge where the elk are fed alfalfa pellets in a somewhat more sanitary operation. The National Elk Refuge has an essentially unlimited supply of feed.

The March 1 issue of the Jackson Hole News painted a much less apocalyptic situation. Game and Fish officials appeared to accept the fact that they might have to spread the hay out more widely. Ed Bangs accessed the situation with calm, indicating that as in NW Montana, the elk would adjust to the presence of wolves on their winter range.

Email addresses for members of Congress, the media, and other officials.

Return To Maughan Wolf Report Page

Ralph Maughan PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209