Robb Cowie <robbjenn@ix.netcom.com> and a friend recently went up onto the the plateau. I am very pleased he agreed to let me put the details of his trip into my wolf report.
Early last week my girlfriend and I backpacked up over the Buffalo Plateau, where we had a chance to hear and see 10 members of the pack. The first night in we camped on the plateau, and heard howling very close by. The next morning we walked back into the large meadow that stands about 300 yds. (through the forest) behind our camp and immediately saw 2 black wolves. As we sat along the edge of this meadow over the next hour and a half, we observed 7 more resting in the grass and socializing with each other (we also saw one playing with a rodent). Three of the animals were gray and 6 were black, and at least 5 (all black) may have been pups. All the wolves looked robust and energetic.
We watched from about 100 yds. away. More than 45 min. passed before they took notice of us (the winds were favorable and we stayed quiet). At that point, 5 wolves (1 gray, 4 black) stood and watched us. Then the with a loud "huff" from the gray wolf, all 5 retreated up the meadow and into the forest. 2 black and 2 gray wolves remained napping in the meadow.
After about 15 minutes the departed wolves began to drift back down. Afraid to disturb them again, we decided to leave; but just as we were stepping back into the woods, 5 of the black wolves sprung to their feet and began racing to the south edge of the meadow, where they met a larger gray wolf just arriving and began mobbing it. Since this wolf was about 1/3 larger, we realized that the black animals were probably pups. The gray wolf appeared to regurgitate twice for them.
From the howling we heard and the behavior we saw, it seems to me that this may have been a rendezvous location for at least part of the pack.
After we left the wolves, we hiked down into the Gallatin NF to the Buffalo Fork river. All the way over the pass and out of the Park we noted wolf tracks and scat as far as Hidden Lake (which was as far as we went). I don't know if these were also signs of the Rose Creek pack or other wolves.
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