Yellowstone Wolf Update. Oct. 2005. Leopold pack has split.

It's time for a complete update of Yellowstone National Park wolves. Dan Stahler of the Yellowstone Park wolf team did a tracking flight on Friday (Oct. 21). I want to thank him for the data.

The Druids-
Kathie Lynch just gave us a good update on the Slough Creek Pack, which replaced the Druids as the pack controlling the Lamar Valley. What about the Druids?

Stahler saw 4 Druids in the Cache/Calfee Creek area (tributaries to the Lamar, upstream of Lamar Valley). They were 302M, 480M, the gray yearling female and the black yearling female. One pup was seen on the flight the week before. On Friday 255F's signal was picked up for the first time since mid-August. She was in Calfee Creek, but not with the other 4 wolves. The alpha female, or maybe former alpha female, 286F, has not been located since mid-August. It's possible she is with 255F, with a dead radio collar, or not with her. Most of this area is thick timber, burned, with regeneration, and hard to spot wolves from the air.

The Agate Creek Pack-
The were located on a bull elk kill in the headwaters of Tower Creek. They still have two or three pups and the pack size approximately 7 wolves.

The Leopold Pack-
This pack, which has grown larger each year, and would have been huge now were it not for extreme 2005 pup mortality, has split, probably for good.

The alpha pair and about 8 other wolves are claiming the pack's traditional territory. The alpha female has been 209M for some time. She is still with the big gray alpha male. He has never been successfully captured. One pup from this, the main group, was caught this week. It was not radio collared because it was too small. However a blood sample was taken. The hypothesis has been that parvo-virus took the pups this year, but a hypothesis has to be tested. Therefore, samples such as this are being taken for analysis at the US Fish and Wildlife Service national lab. Of the 16 pups born, it is possible that a second pup still survives -- one pup in addition to the one captured.

The group of 8 wolves that has split off from the main group seems to have claimed the territory of the Geode Pack whom the Leopolds destroyed last spring. This group of Leopolds includes 287M, and 487M and most likely females among the uncollared pack members. Friday, Oct. 21, they were on Hellroaring Slopes.

Folks might recall that last June after the Geode Pack had been disrupted, Leopolds 287M and 468M, and a Geode female 483F came into the Slough Creek area. A number of people saw them gravely threaten, but not injure seriously a lone Slough Creek female (the yearling nicknamed "Sharp Right").

Swan Lake Pack-
Last winter the Swan Lake Pack split and the smaller group left the Park northward. It's fate isn't known. The main pack met disaster when its alpha and beta female were killed by their would-be elk prey. That left the pack with just 3 males and maybe some pups. Then all the wolves disappeared, except radio-collared 295M, a former Agate Creek wolf who had joined the pack the previous winter. He remained in the Swan Lake territory. Friday he was spotted with a companion near Mammoth. It isn't known if the new wolf is a female or one of the pack's males. They may well have been at Mammoth, however, 12 hours earlier because an elk calf was killed by wolves right on the grounds of Mammoth Hot Springs Thursday (Oct. 20) night.

Mollies Pack-
As noted in several past reports, Mollies Pack had no pups this year, but the number for this hard core pack has been consistently eight adult and subadult wolves this summer and fall. It is almost certain the new alpha female is former Nez Perce wolf 486F, and the alpha male is still 193M. His collar doesn't work, but he is a very distinctive black wolf with a white muzzle. 378M and 379M, both of whom have been featured in many past stories, are with Mollies. The pack has been in the Pelican Valley for the last month,

Yellowstone Delta Pack-
The remote Delta Pack was in the Thorofare as expected. Just one radio collar in the pack works. The failure of all the collars deployed last winter (or is it the disappearance of their wearers?) has not been explained. This winter, installation is planned of GPS collars that regularly email the wolf's location. The pack was counted late this summer/early fall with 15 members, including 5 pups.

Bechler Pack-
This pack is not tracked very often due to its location in the SW corner of the Park. The year's best sighting came Oct. 21. Eight Bechler wolves were seen, so the pack is larger than thought. They were on the edge of Bechler Meadows on a bull elk kill. There were 3 pups. The radio collared alpha male is 192M, a big white guy who was born to the old Rose Creek Pack on the Park's northern Range.

Nez Perce-
This pack is been very frustrating for observers this summer. It is almost always in heavy timber on the Park's Central Plateau. The alpha female is still 48F. She is now 9 years old. She was born in 1996, north of Yellowstone Park near Nye, Montana. A Google search of this web site will show many stories about her. The pack is thought to have had pups. Whether they survive is not known. The estimated size of the pack is 5-7 adults plus any pups that may exist.

Cougar Creek Pack-
They were in Gneiss Creek. They are hard to observe too, due the heavy timber (mostly burn regeneration). At the end of 2004 there were 13 in the pack. Now there are a minimum of seven. The pack is heavily radio collared -- 5 collars. The alpha male is 303M. 301M is also a long timber member of the pack. He is Druid 302M's brother, both originally from the Leopold Pack. It is not known if they have surviving pups.

Gibbon Pack-
Signals of two of the 3 collared wolves in the pack were detected near Gibbon Meadows. They might have been on a double kill. The pack had pups this spring. The current status of the pups is not known.

Yellowstone Wolf Update. Oct. 2005

10-23-2005