Yellowstone Wolf Update Early March '98
Here is the latest Yellowstone wolf update.
Druid Peak Peak
The pack was most recently tracked near Cooke City, but they also be sighted in
the area near Soda Butte (the hot spring cone) as recently as last weekend. I understand
some folks saw them on a kill, and there was a light gray wolf that some thought was no.
39F. However, it was most likely 40F, whose color has become a lighter gray recently.
Rose Creek Pack
The Rose Creek pack has come back to Yellowstone from Hellroaring Creek on the
Park's north border. Today they were located right near Junction Butte in a blizzard.
I know the wolf chart shows that most of no. 9's pups were lost last summer, and that 18's survived. This is informed speculation rather than certain pup identification. It has been observed that no. 18 was more solicitous of all of the pups but one, which no. 9 favored.
Crystal Creek Pack
The pack has been in the Pelican Valley, the most usual part of their range. It
appears that all of their pups survived the summer, fall, and winter so far.
Soda Butte Pack
The pack was most recently located on the peninsula between the South Arm and the
SE Arm of Yellowstone Lake. It is the hypothesis of some of us that the conflict
between them and the Thorofare Pack occurred because the small supply of prey in the
southern half of Yellowstone has been depleted over this winter and the last. This
is all a very deep snow area, not winter range at all. Almost all of the elk migrate
out of Yellowstone into Jackson Hole to the south. It is puzzling to me that none of
the wolf packs have followed this migration. Doug Smith
provided some figures on prey in the south part of Yellowstone. Only 57 elk were counted
in a recent winter overflight of the Soda Butte Pack's range. About 200 elk and 30 moose
were counted wintering in the Thorofare.
Thorofare Pups
They were located east of Yellowstone, deep in the Washakie Wilderness.
This is rugged, brutal, deep snow country -- much more rugged than Yellowstone National
Park. If they do follow one of the drainages northward, however, they will come to
the North Fork of the Shoshone River where there is wintering prey, including deer, as
well as elk. There are also people there -- snowmobiles, and after about 20 miles
downstream a proliferation of ranchettes.
Chief Joseph Pack
They were located again in the Daly (a.k.a. Dailey) Creek area in the extreme NW
corner of Yellowstone.
Leopold Pack
They are on the Blacktail Deer Plateau -- their range for three years now.
Number 16 and two pups
They are near Gardiner, Montana, near the north boundary of the Park. This has
been their range since last fall.
Washakie Pack
They are in their general territory -- the southern edge of the Absaroka
Mountains north of Dubois, Wyoming.
Number 29M and 48F
They were heard howling in the general vicinity of the Nez Perce enclosure. The
big question is, have they mated, and will they form a new Nez Perce Pack?
New pair of uncollar wolves-
A pair of uncollared wolves have been located in the Paradise Valley area north of
Yellowstone National Park. Doug Smith, head of the Yellowstone wolf recovery team,
suggested they are probably dispersers from the Rose Creek and Leopold Packs.
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Copyright © 1998 Ralph Maughan
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Ralph Maughan; PO Box 8264, Pocatello, ID 83209