YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

Today was the final day of the 2015 season in Yellowstone and the gates to the southern portion of the park will close tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.

As I set out this morning, I had one wish – to see some interior wolves.  Whether they were 8 Mile, Cougar Creek, Wapiti, Mollies or Canyons – I just wanted one last chance to see the wolves before the gates closed.

It is has been a slow year for me on the wolf front – kept missing them.  Not in the right place at the right time.  I tried not to let this bother me too much, thinking that my day would come eventually.

Well, today my wolf day came in the grandest of ways with the royalty of Yellowstone.  The Canyon pack!  Both alphas, 712 and the White Lady, along with a black and a grey that could be pups.

I began at Elk Meadow, hoping the wolves would still be around on a carcass there but just birds.  Five eagles!  They were there last night too.

And then a friend came along and told me where he had seen the Wapiti alphas yesterday and so I headed down to Firehole – in hopes…

When I arrived the pack was making their way across a nearby meadow, towards a bison carcass that I had just seen with an eagle standing on top.  I watched as they made their way towards the trees and then positioned myself for the carcass to wait.  Only the alphas arrived so I was happy to have seen the black and grey with them earlier.

They seemed a bit nervous and frequently looked to the SE, as if they saw something there.  Both alphas look absolutely great and they appear to have eaten well this summer.  No signs of mange.  The female limps badly – it is clear that her knee area was broken and is a well-healed injury that she manages well.

They did not stay a long time.  The White Lady left first, crossing the road in the direction they had been watching.  I was told that the Wapiti pack had been at the carcass the previous day and left the same direction.

The two did have a bit of a pissing match before she left.  He marked and then she went and raised her leg over his mark.  With that done she moved on.  Kind of funny to learn that they still do this after all of these years – guess that is a behavior that alphas keep.

With the wolves gone I was in for a long wait but determined not to give up  At around 3 this afternoon they returned, trying to cross the road near all of the people.

They failed the first attempt, due to people pulling up in front of them and jumping out of the car, or running down the road towards them.  So, the pair went back behind the trees and evidently psyched everyone out that they were going left.  They went right and I could see the White Lady standing at the edge of the forest waiting for the traffic to quit going by.  As soon as the road was clear she made a dash for it and I was the only one left at that end to see what was going on.  Of course, others caught on quickly.  She came across and came down the grass in my direction before turning into the forest.  He then came across and stuck to the trees.  Both went to the carcass but did not stay long.  People were having parties on the top of their cars, hooting and hollering, and some were howling.  The wolves were too nervous, I think about the pups being in the forest.  The female left first and 712 got a big chunk of meat, which he devoured before following her.  People tried to follow the wolves into the forest.  It was not a good scene at all and if not for the nature of these two wolves we would not have seen them again at all.

The time was short but oh so precious!  At 10 years old we don’t know how much longer these two will be around.

Here are numerous photos taken today.  I edited while waiting for the wolves to return.