YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

My day got off to a great start when I spied this black wolf resting on a rock, far across a field of sagebrush.  Got to love those black wolves for how easy they can be to spot.

I love it when finding a wolf all by myself – it feels good because there is no telemetry or other people involved, just myself and the wolf, usually just for a few moments.  Today I did something that I have never done in the past – took photos of the wolf until it got up and left and then called to let others know that there was one around.   A wolf, all alone in Yellowstone.

I was told that all 8 Lamars were seen in the valley but they had gone out of view.  I did go check on them this evening and missed them by about 5 minutes.  It was getting dark and time to head for home.  And, there were signals on 755 in the vicinity of this wolf but we never did find him.

Through a little listening I caught on that there were plans to collar some wolves today and so I just kind of hung out for a while, waiting to see what would happen.  We did have a fox in the same area as the above wolf but it kind of got away from me without good photos, even though that should not have happened.

Got word that there were wolves at Slough and so decided to head that way, thinking that I would look for them and maybe hike down the road to stretch my legs.  But, by the time I arrived, everyone else was heading there also.  I quickly realized that they were going to collar some Prospect wolves that have now officially stolen the Junction Butte territory.  There was no word on the Junctions today and I am hoping that they are finding a safe new home and are all recuperating from their long battle and many wounds.

Everyone else went up on Dave’s Hill but I was hoping for some photos and footage and so went to Bob’s Knob.  It was a long wait but I was able to find the wolves, a very long ways off, which, once again, made me feel pretty darned good.

Finally, the spotter plane came in and found the wolves for the helicopter netting crew.

And then the helicopter came in, circled and prepared to chase the wolves.  The bison was not at all disturbed by the roar of the chopper.

As the plane and the copter circled, the wolves began to get nervous but they seemed pretty confused by this attacker that was coming at them from above.

And then the wolves began to run in all directions.

A black and a grey running from the copter while another black looks confused about which way to go.

They select a grey wolf and throw a net to capture it.

They did get the net on the wolf the first time but somehow it managed to free itself and had to be netted again.

The second net lands on top of the wolf.

After the grey was netted I switched to video and was watching some of the footage a little while ago.  This is a fascinating procedure, even at a distance.  Two men got out of the copter and subdued the wolf, using pitchfork like devices to pin its head while they tranquilized it.  One of the men left and the wolf woke up, forcing the remaining person to pin it again.  It was kind of bizarre to watch as the person went backwards many feet and then went running at the wolf, pinning its head.  The wolf’s tail was going a million miles an hour but it was apparent that it was not happy and was snapping jaws.  The man then drug the wolf down the hill and I could see its tail still wagging until almost at the bottom when it fell asleep.

They then transported the wolf much further out, where another wolf was also captured.  And then brought in a third wolf from still another location.  Three wolves!  All three wolves were grey – two were pups and one, probably the one I watched them capture, was a large unknown male.  Out of six grays in the pack of 14, 4 of them are now collared.  They did put a GPS collar on one of the wolves.

There were six wolf project people out in the middle with the three wolves and they spent more than an hour processing the animals.  I did witness them holding one up to be weighed.  Two of the Prospect crew members also hiked out to see their wolves up close, which must have been a thrill for them.

The wolves were waking up by the time everyone left, with the first gray putting up quite a struggle to get on its feet.  I did not see any movement from the third wolf, but the other two really wanted to wake up and get out of there.

After watching the wolves try to struggle for their balance for awhile, I left and went to Lamar to look for those wolves but did not see them.

It was a long yet interesting day in Yellowstone.

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