Wolves and Wolf Watchers

Wolves are the stars of winter wildlife watching in the park. People visit the park often enough to get to know the different wolf personalities, and some wolf watchers have the number of their favorite wolf (collared wolves get a number) on their vanity license plates--Like "YNP 21" or "Wolf 302". It's quite a subculture. Do you know there are also geyser watchers?

Viewing is usually from the road and often at quite a distance. Scopes are required to see anything, and there are some huge telephoto lens. Below we are watching a group of wolves which are beyond the trees that are between the buses and the background ridge.

People moved up to the rise on the other side of the road to get a better look.

The photo below is of the the same wolves that were being watched in the above photos, only taken the day before. These wolves were just above the road. The photo was taken with our new 300mm lens on maximum zoom, while I was shivering. It gets cold standing around doing nothing. I'm surprised you can see anything.

There are four wolves in the picture (and a wolf shaped rock). The wolves up by the tree are members of the silver pack of four wolves. Named for the seated silver colored wolves. The black one below the tree may be a male (wolf 146) trying to either join the pack or woo away a female. They females weren't showing a lot of interest in him.

If you are interested, Ralph Maughan's blog is a good source of information on the goings on of the Yellowstone wolves, and those outside the park too.

John and the wolf collaring

The wolf biologist have started collaring wolves this week. On Wednesday we got word that they were working right near the Buffalo ranch. Dave dropped a group of students off near the location of the collaring but there was no room for the bus. He came back to the ranch to get me and we watched from further away. First the spotting plane came into sight.
Then the helicopter came in with the darter hanging out of the door. The noise and wind spooked a herd of bison who started running full speed away from the helicopter.
Unfortunately, our coworker John had not heard that the helicopter was coming and had headed out to ski down the valley. The bison wound up heading straight for him. Those of us who knew him couldn't decide whether to watch John or the wolf. Once we realized that he was not directly in their path we could not stop laughing. (John has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time) We'll probably tell more John stories later. He is now calling himself Yellowstone Jack and is planning a series of stories about his adventures. This one will be called Yellowstone Jack and the Stampeding Bison.
This last photo was taken by John as the bison ran by. I love the way the bison's tongue is hanging out. He said he could hear them grunting as they went by. The biologists successfully replaced an old collar on one wolf and got a collar on a second one from a pack that previously had been uncollared. Apparently the wolves, bison, and John survived the ordeal just fine. We all enjoyed viewing his photos on the big screen TV and hearing his tale over wine and baked brie that evening.

Bear Claws

I found these bear claw marks on a lodgepole pine up a small drainage off of the Bannock Trail just outside the northeast part of the park. People say bears claw trees to communicate their presence (both male and female), and sometimes to take out their frustrations. Wonder how people know that.

You can tell the size of the bear by the width of the claw marks. I'm not sure how old these were (trees grow, increasing the spread and height of the marks).

Hopefully we will see some grizzly bears in March. The males come out first. Given the low snow levels and relatively mild temperatures we might see a bear this month!

Winter Wolf Retreat

I was the program assistant for a class called Winter Wolf retreat. The instructors were Nathan and Linda (Dave assisted them for a class earlier). This class was a bit different from the others we've had so far because it was not an official Yellowstone Association class. This one was part of Nathan and Linda's Wild Side business. As a result the meals were catered! Zac was our chef and the food was yummy.
We began each day with wolf watching from 7 am to at least noon. The wolves cooperated once again. Lots of intrigue (males from other packs lurking and flirting and hoping to pass on their genes). In the afternoons we headed out for a few short snowshoe hikes. On the way to one of them we got a nice look at this big horn sheep.
On another day we snowshoed in to a canyon near the Pebble Creek campground. We walked along and on a stream that was frozen in places.

Republic Pass

We finally had a day last week when all four volunteers had the afternoon off. Don, who has been here many winters agreed to lead John, Dave and I up the Republic pass trail in the national forest just outside the park. It was a pretty good climb up to the high meadows in the picture below but it was also a very nice ride down at the end! It was snowing all day so we didn't get a great view of the pass. We'll have to try again on a sunnier day. Of course when we got back to Cooke City (a very small town at the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone) and had settled down with some mochas at the local coffee shop the sun finally poked through.

3's a charm

When we arrived people people told us that a nice frozen waterfall was hidden in the small bunch of conifers visible in the lower left of this photo. We look at these trees every day from the kitchen window and decided to ski over to have a look at the waterfall. The first time we tried was during the cold spell when we first arrived. By the time we found a way to cross the many braids of the Lamar river the sun was starting to set and we had to head back to the ranch without getting to the falls. I had a day off without Dave and tried to get to the falls again. This time the weather was nice and warm. So warm that the stream crossings on the route I chose would have required swimming. So much for trial two. Finally, on the third try I chose a circuitous enough route that I managed to get across the river in a few spots where it had frozen.

When I finally made it to the clump of trees the waterfall was just barely visible.
After making my way through the downed trees guarding the entrance to the falls, I was rewarded with total quiet except for the musical sound of running water under the ice in an almost church like setting with columns of ice like draperies at the altar.

Crepuscular

Wolves (bears too) are crepuscular. They are most active in the hours around dawn and sunset. That means getting out just before or as the sun is coming up when supporting a wolf watching class. Getting up early isn't too hard, but early morning is the coldest time of day. Scraping the bus windows and keeping your feet warm are the main problems. As the season gets on we will be getting out earlier and earlier.