YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

Twenty-six days ago, on my birthday, after looking for the Lamar wolves for more than an hour, I walked out onto the Lamar River Trail until my gut told me to stop.  Stop, I did.

My scope set up I looked up towards the den hill and listened to others say that they were going to head west to see the Prospect puppies.  I nearly told them to wait because I would find the wolves in a minute.  Gut instinct, ego?  Who knows.  But, I said nothing.

And, then, suddenly , there was a black wolf puppy in my scope, clear as could be.  I nearly leapt out of my skin with excitement.  And, then I contemplated whether to tell the others, or just let them leave.  One of the others had been treating me awful, with lies and just plain nastiness, for months and I really did not want to share because of the crap I had gone through.  But, the others had been kind to me and we were getting along great and so not saying anything would be unfair.  All of this went through my mind in a matter of seconds.

I put the radio up to my mouth, hesitated, and then pushed the  mic.  Well, I have a black pup.  Followed seconds later with, “and a yearling.”  Followed, almost immediately, with, “Oh my gosh, two grey pups!.”  Something about seeing those two greys side by side stirred a desire in me that had been running deep for the past two seasons – to see pups, small, together, in a natural way when they did not know they were being watched.  To just see them be pups.  They were following their older sister, while the black pup laid down beneath a tree.

The radio waves crackled as everyone tried to learn my location and if they could be seen from the lot.  And, so I was directing people out to the trail, while also directing some to the other end of the lot where they actually did get looks at some of the pups for a minute.  I kept what I had in view until the others arrived and then said we needed to move further along and so we did.  And, once again my gut told me to stop and we did.  We looked for only a second before I second guessed myself and decided to go up on the middle flats.  But, Dan stayed and immediately found wolves.  That second spot that my gut told me to stop at turned out to provide 26 days of wolf pup viewing in a row.  A gift to so many – watchers, guides, visitors – many who never knew I existed or who it was that found the secret spot.  The only spot, except for going out further or up higher, where the wolves would be seen for quite some time.  They were low, behind hills and chances are it would have been a week or two before we got some brief glimpses through trees or on a hill.

And, so, on my birthday, I gave the gift of watching wolf puppies to hundreds.  No big deal – nothing for credit or anything – but it was terribly special to me.

Well, during that time we have had puppies come down and cross the road, leading to night after night of nightmares over them being hit.  I had begun camping on June 21, in hopes of being close to the wolves and getting to see them a lot.  More than a month later my hopes became reality.  In the end I spent 58 nights in a tent, for the wolves.  My nights turned sleepless with the nightmares and I was up very early every morning, dreading to go in and find a wolf dead on the road.  I care about these wolves – care about them for myself, the visitors and for everyone who can’t be here but loves to keep up with the stories.  And, I absolutely know that everyday that they are all still alive is a gift because their lives are hard, short and dangerous in the wild.  The element of man adds much to how hard and short their lives are and I have made it my mission to minimize that through education and awareness.

As the days wore on I became anxious to return home from camping because I simply couldn’t afford it any more – on many levels.  The bank accounts were dry and there was work that needed to be done.  I kept telling myself that when Spitfire moves the pups, I will go home.  And, then Rick was leaving for an extended time, along with most of the watchers and so I wanted to stay close and be there in case pups were in the road, or something.  To help if possible.  But, I finally had to leave – too cold and too broke.  There was no choice.

And, so I have waited anxiously for pup moving day, wondering if she ever would take them away, and sure that they would not survive the road if she did not.  Last night, when I left, I knew today would be the day.  But, my alarm did not go off and I awoke two hours late!  I nearly stayed home, figuring I had missed most everything.  But, rushed out the door instead.

Arriving just in time to see pups heading towards the road.  The only thing on my mind was their safety and concern for cars speeding in and so I parked in the road and put my flashers on and watched as they lingered in the road.  It was so upsetting to see pups sitting there, without a care in the world, because they would never survive their comfort of road, cars and people.  Hunting season is coming up and I so wished there was someone to haze them.  I thought about jumping out and clapping my hands to scare them some but knew that even though it would be an appropriate thing to do, I would fall under heavy criticism for such a thing.  A ranger came along and I explained the situation and so she was going to haze but they left the road.

And, so I waited, knowing something would happen.  We still had howling to the south and it just felt like something was up.  Little did I know that the adults would stay on the other side and wait, giving howling encouragement, until the pups decided all on their own to follow.

In the meantime a grizzly came along, scent trailing the pups!  This scared everyone for the pup’s safety but I reminded them that there had been 7 of those darned bears in their rendezvous site and that they were left alone with them.  So, I felt like they were bear savvy and would be find.

And, so we watched the grizzly disappear where the pups did.  And, there were intermittent reports of bear and pups wandering around behind the trees.  And, then the pups came out on a front hill, apparently watching the bear, which had been following them around.  I couldn’t see much but got reports.  By this time John Kerr was there, heading towards work.  We were lucky that he stayed around to deal with traffic issues, otherwise things could have gotten gnarly with the number of people trying to block the animals.

The bear came back down towards us, re-crossed the road and left the way he had come.

John clapped him across the road, to let him know not to linger but the bear thought he was just being applauded and never picked up speed.  But, it did go on across.

It was only a short time later that the pups began to make their way down towards the road as well.  There was howling on both sides of the road.  We couldn’t see the pups until they got to the road but reports were coming in.  John was standing by and stopped traffic on his end.  I asked a nice couple if they would mind waiting for some wolf puppies to cross the road and they were happy to do so.  Soon there was a line behind them and I was explaining the situation to others when the pups arrived.  People lined up behind and watched, feeling so very thrilled to see such a show.

But, the greys decided to dally around, thinking the road was a fine place to hang out for awhile.  The black, obviously the leader of the pups, moved along quickly.  John came down to discourage the pups from being comfortable with the road and it was just perfect because he showed them that there were dangerous things on roads, such as cars.  They scattered quickly but one, the light colored pup that looks most like Little Grey, went the wrong way and he had to wait for it to return.  Luckily it was only a moment and John was able to give it a good lesson in roads.  The pup took off running and did not stop for awhile.

I thought that a controlled lesson on cars was perfect!  And, it could save their lives in the future.

Unfortunately, while the second black had been in the previous crossing, and one grey was missing, the greys were all there this time and one black was missing.  I would so love to tell you that all 5 pups made it safely across but don’t know at this time if that is true.

The pups went down to the creek and crossed, with hesitation, and headed back towards the howls.  I did not know at the time that Uncle 965 was standing there waiting for those pups.  The greeting was wonderful as happy pups licked their uncle.  He is so great with them!  The five wolves headed up towards the trees and eventually disappeared.

Tonight, I am great relieved that the waiting for the pups to cross and move out of the den forest is over.  For the first time in weeks I feel free to stay home, relax, watch a movie, go somewhere else, get work done.  For my own needs, I needed the pups in a safer place.  And, I can only hope that in some small way I helped them get there by looking out for them on the road, showing them to others and educating people about wolf crossings and such.

Now it is up to them and the pack.  We may or may not see them for awhile, depending on where they go.  Happy growing Lamar Canyon pups and thank you for the smiles – but not so much for the grey hairs and sleepless nights.

A video of the creek crossing!  Enjoy.

Deby