Saturday, January 2nd - 3 Dog Day

I forgot that my phone’s time never changes so although the alarm was set for 5:30 Montana time it went off at 5:30 Minnesota time – 4:30 a.m. I was not happy.

I got up at 5:30 and was out the door by 6. I dug out the wheels of my car before attempting to drive and it worked despite the 2 inches of snow that had fallen overnight.

Cooke City was still pitch black and completely deserted. When I reached the park there was only one set of tire tracks ahead of mine, which I later discovered was the snowplow. Halfway to Lamar Rick Mcintyre passed me, so then I was the second one in the valley. I passed Rick at several pullouts but headed to the bathrooms at the picnic area before turning around and heading back into Little America. Rick and another guy, Bob, were at Boulder pullout and I had just missed seeing the Lava Creek pack and hearing them howl back and forth with the Druids, who hadn’t been seen but whose signals were being picked up across the river canyon from where the Lava Creek pack was. I’ve watched wolves near Rick quite a few times but have never officially met him. We introduced ourselves and started chatting about Minnesota, the Wildlife Science Center, etc. He got out his telemetry equipment and talked about the signals…Druids 690 and 691 and Lava Creek alpha female 471. He told me Bob (who was talking to someone else who had joined us) was from Wisconsin so when that person left I was chatting with Bob about Wisconsin/Minnesota, how lucky he is to live in Gardiner, etc. He was a nice guy and very knowledgeable about the park’s wolves. A while later I overheard something he said to a British man about films and it clicked…that was Bob Landis, the maker of incredible, amazing wolf and nature films! I was embarrassed that I didn’t realize it before. He’s a very nice man.

As always, wolf-watching in Yellowstone becomes a social event too…it is so fun and interesting to meet people from all over the world…although at one point it was about 8 or 9 Minnesotans. I met new “wolfwatcher” friends and saw some others that I recognized from last summer.

Our searching finally paid off and we saw a black Druid uphill from the carcass of something that the Lava Creek Pack had actually killed.

 I think it was 690 but there were so many numbers flying around today I’m not positive (there's one gray in the main pack right now, either 690 or 691). She walked out of sight and shortly after that a coyote was spotted. Then a gray wolf that it turned out was an “unknown” wolf who may be trying to hook up with the Druid females appeared. The alpha female of the Druid pack died last fall and the alpha male is the father of all the remaining females…wild wolves seem to have an aversion to mating with their own offspring (although it does happen occasionally and happens in captivity) and he has been away from the pack lately, on his own…suffering greatly from a bad case of mange. Breeding season for wolves is generally January/February (sometimes into March) . He was spotted today up near where he was yesterday…I didn’t go see him but probably will tomorrow if he’s seen.

This unknown gray wolf and the coyote were then joined by another coyote…the wolf kicked one of the coyotes off the rock he’d been sleeping on and took it over himself. Rick made the analogy to the late 1700’s where people with many servants would have a servant warm up their bed for an hour before they get in it. Eventually an unknown black wolf showed up and he and the gray fought a little bit and then the black left.

Meanwhile, I found the Lava Creek pack –  sleeping in the snow off to our East on our side of the river. Then I looked back over a short time later and the black wolf, 06 (a 3 year old female) was running downslope…so was 471. The gray, 174, followed a short time later. They hung out on the rim of the bluff for a while…and 471 went over. She was gone for a very long time. We were always watching the two trees that the ravens were flying around…when they’d all fly up in the air we knew a wolf was probably on the carcass. There was a golden eagle there also, for quite a while.  Eventually, 471 came back, with blood on her muzzle. She is a stunningly beautiful mostly white wolf. It was sunny a lot today (and my face is bright red as a result) and the sun really highlighted her.

We also saw a red fox way up to the left from the area where the wolves and coyotes were (wolves, coyotes, fox = "3 Dog Day").

Side note: I had no idea how funny Rick is. After someone was disappointed by a coyote not being a wolf he said, “excuse me everyone. I don’t know if you’re all aware that the NPS has started a program due to the fact that (and of course we’re all anticipating some major, cool program) coyotes have very low self esteem due to the fact that people are always disappointed that the animal they see is a coyote and not a wolf. They’re starting a program to raise their self esteem and bringing in a team of California specialists (or therapists) and it would be very helpful if, upon seeing a coyote, you could be very enthusiastic about it. Thank you.” HILARIOUS…..

I was badly in need of more caffeine by 12:30 and finally found my little stove, buried in my backpack, and heated up water. No coffee EVER tastes so good as instant coffee made on a backpacking stove out in the wilderness while wolf-watching.

Throughout the day, we were watching herds of elk and bighorns up on Specimen Ridge... including bighorns running up a cliff face, and of course there were also bison at other locations in Little America.

Occasionally, we would see various Druids on the carcass through tree branches (they had pulled it uphill a bit)  so it could be hard to identify them at times although we were able to figure out that it was a bull elk carcass, because we could see the antlers.   At around 2 pm the Lava Creek females went down into the river canyon. The male waited up on the rim for quite a while, seeming to watch them. It certainly looked as if he was leaving it up the the girls to check things out and make sure it was safe to proceed. No comment…

Eventually he got brave and went down himself.

We waited and waited for them to either show up on the carcass or come back up but never saw them again. Rick got a call about a lone black wolf over by Roosevelt so he went to check it out. He radioed back that it was Dull Bar, one of the Druid females who has mange. I was badly in need of a bathroom break by then so figured I’d go the extra 2 miles to Roosevelt with a chance to see her. She wasn’t around, so I went back to Boulder. There still hadn’t been any more wolf sightings. I was debating snowshoeing or hiking but was hesitatnt to miss any altercation between the Druids and the Lava’s. Someone got a call that Dull Bar was being seen from the Elk Creek pullout so I thought, why not…and drove over there. She was down in the sage, quite a ways off, near some bison, who turned to watch her but weren't very concerned. I wondered if she was seriously going to take on two bison all by herself but then we saw her eating something else. Either she killed a rodent or there is an old carcass there. I left after watching her for 10 minutes or so. Nothing was happening with the Druids/Lavas so I went on through Lamar. It was too late for a hike at that point. I got stopped by bison in Lamar, and then stopped to watch a coyote by the road (had seen another earlier in Little America) and while he stopped to, um, use the bushes, he was very, very focused on the ravens that were flying overhead. VERY focused. They must know that ravens can lead them to a carcass…they’ll frequently try and sneak in and steal bites from wolf kills.

I also stopped at the Confluence (of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek) to look for otters in the open water....they're seen there sometimes but not tonight.  As I was walking back to my car I glanced up and there was a Bighorn watching me from a small rock shelf above me...I've never seen them there before.

I enjoyed the beautiful drive back to Cooke City, looking at the “ghost mountains”…the snow clouds descend and you see only the faintest outline or glimpse of the mountains…they look beautifully ghostly.

Since I did not bring my scope (should have brought that and left the snowshoes home), Rick said I could rent one in Silver Gate and told me where to find the house of the Pine’s Edge Cabins Manager. We had watched wolves with his brother Doug last summer. He gave me a deal on scope rental for 2 days (and let me take it tonight) and I played with his dog while we chatted. She was a funny border collie…she would lay her Frisbee down next to me and then when I went to pick it up she would lunge in and grab it. Her “game” was to keep you from picking it up. She’d take it, bring it back and lay it down next to you and then if you didn’t go to try and grab it she would whine.

Doug’s brother showed me a lot of his and Doug’s pictures last summer and told me stories to go with them…it was really interesting and cool! He’s a very nice guy. I finally left with my scope and went to take a badly needed shower and then dinner at the Soda Butte again.

Now I’m listening to people who are WAY too loud downstairs…yelling at each other, kids screaming, etc. I am not happy and hope I can sleep. I’ve stayed here before with no issues but I had no ice bucket last night, they didn’t clean my bathroom sink today and didn’t clean out my coffeepot or bring me more coffee. I’m not happy about that and won’t hesitate to call if needed, about noise.
© 2010 Tara Morrison