Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Wolf Watching - Yellowstone National Park December 2013

In the last few days of 2013, I visited Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA. We saw four packs of wolves: the Eightmile (18 wolves), Junction Butte (9 wolves), and Lamar Canyon (2 wolves) packs, and 755M's group (2 wolves). Winter is a bountiful time for wolves. They are built for snow and cold weather. Their prey, elk, are weaker because it's hard to find vegetation under the snow. They also have a lot of trouble running through deep snow - something wolves are great at. Wolves are fat and happy these months. It is much harder during warm months. We witnessed a kill site from the two Lamar Canyon wolves. They brought down a bull elk overnight, and you could observe the battle between the predators and the prey in the snow. Although they lose more than 80% of the time, the predators won this battle, and the carcass fed the wolves as well as magpies, ravens, golden eagles, and bald eagles when we were there; it will surely feed more species like coyotes and foxes (and grizzly and black bears if they weren't hibernating). As it decomposes, it will add nutrients to the soil that will feed plant species. It was amazing to witness the cycle of life firsthand.


Junction Butte Pack.


Howling member of the Junction Butte Pack




Big Gray and Black Female, alphas of the Lamar Canyon Pack.
Big Gray and Black Female, alphas of the Lamar Canyon Pack.

2 comments:

  1. Such a pretty sharing! I never have been to Yellowstone National. It sounds cool to learn about Wolves lives. I wish to visit this beautiful park after completing my yosemite tours. I will prefer to visit this park in upcoming winter because views of snow fall shown above are amazing.

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  2. I am so glad because I got the chance to visit the Yellowstone national park through the grand canyon tour company and see the wolves. However winter is a bountiful time for wolves when we can see them in high amount.

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