3 Wolfpack Week June 20 and 25

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karenandbill
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:55 am

3 Wolfpack Week June 20 and 25

Post by karenandbill »

While the Junction Butte pups have eluded us this year, we are still seeing wolves. We went into Hayden on Saturday evening, June 20. On the way in we saw a mountain goat near Beryl Spring which was a surprise. Once in Hayden we made a couple of trips up and down the valley without much success. Elk were crossing the river and bison were close to the road, but that was it. It was getting near sunset so I told Karen we should probably head for home. We came past Grizzly Hill and the next knoll over we saw cars parked and people heading up the hill. So we snuck in the last parking spot along the road, grabbed the scope, and headed up the hill. When we got up there, we were told the Wapitis had just disappeared behind the hill, but were heading toward the valley. After a couple minutes they came out--10 of them including the white alpha female. She is a beautiful wolf. (See Rikwriter's photos) We were able to watch them cross the entire valley. Some of the yearlings were playing and wrestling while they were moving. It was getting dark and they were heading into the trees. so we packed up and called it a day.

Imagewapitistanangerjune2020 025 by William Reinke, on Flickr

On Thursday, June 25, we headed for Lamar. We miss being able to go over Dunraven, but were glad we were going past Blacktail. When we got to the nature trail parking lot there were a couple of people with scopes. We hopped out and with binoculars were able to see three black wolves and one gray trotting across the meadow. These were from the Eight-mile pack. There is a den with pups out there, but we didn't see any pups.

Had a large black bear just past Slough Creek and a coyote just after that.

Imagewolf June 25 2020 010 by William Reinke, on Flickr

We pulled in one of the first pullouts and there was a lone black wolf on an elk carcass a ways out but visible with binoculars. Headed down the valley and before the institute Karen told me to pull off. She had a black/brown wolf heading parallel with the road moving towards us. We were able to watch her scare up some pronghorn (with one fawn). She then moved towards some bison and a mama with a calf charged her, keeping her moving away from the calf. The wolf then moved closer to the road and disappeared behind a ridge. We were told later she eventually crossed the road and headed toward the Junction Butte den site at Slough.

Imagewolf June 25 2020 002 by William Reinke, on Flickr

So that made three wolf packs in our two trips into the park this week.



RikWriter
Posts: 488
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:36 pm

Re: 3 Wolfpack Week June 20 and 25

Post by RikWriter »

Very cool!



Dorothy
Posts: 201
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:45 pm

Re: 3 Wolfpack Week June 20 and 25

Post by Dorothy »

Wonderful! Thanks for the report and photos!



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