There is a lot of interesting Yellowstone Park wolf news, both pup counts and other matters such as the Hayden Valley Pack may have been fed and might undergo aversive conditioning.

It looks like there will be two super packs on the northern range, the Leopolds and Slough Creek.

Dan Stahler flew a couple days ago and counted 16 Leopold pups "in a big pile." All looked healthy. Three females from the pack gave birth.  There are currently 21 adult Leopolds, so if they all live, the Leopolds will be about as numerous as the giant Druid Pack of a few years back. The pack remains in its traditional territory on the Blacktail Deer Plateau.

The 14 member Slough Creek pack had 15 pups, although some have been lost, but they will have over 20 members in their pack. Stahler saw that 6 pups have been moved to the pack's traditional rendezvous site (not visible from the Slough Creek road area). As Kathie Lynch reported earlier, 2 pups were reluctant to leave the den, and they are now probably dead (based on observations), but Stahler believs there are more than the 6 pups he saw at the rendezvous site.

Stahler observed six Druid pups, all very black, in the open in the Cache Creek area. They were with 286F. 302M was also in the area, but 255F who may or may not have borne pups, was absent, probably hunting. He said the Druids still come to the Lamar Valley, but cautiously, and not for a long time.

He observed from the air that the Agate Creek Pack had 5 pups, but since then I got word that yesterday 8 Agate pups were clearly seen by wolf watchers on the ground. Four were black and 4 were gray. There are 6-7 Agate adults. The Agates are mostly at their rendezvous site in the Antelope Creek basin area, although they often swim the Yellowstone River and go to the top or the backside of Specimen Ridge.

The Geode Pack's split is a mystery. Most of the radio collars are in the new group. 287M, 468M (both Leopolds) and 483F (a Geode) have collars. The group probably has 2 other members. Although they can be tracked, they are not seen much, and probably don't have a den. This group recently came into the Slough Creek Pack's territory and attacked a Slough Creek yearling, who escaped (see Kathie Lynch's report).

As an important aside, one Geode wolf, 488M apparently didn't fit into either Geode group, and he has been traveling alone. The presence of the GPS collar for the first time allows researchers to see the life of a lone wolf. It isn't a happy one. His position is recorded very 1/2 hour.

488M seems to have been living almost entirely off of old winter kills of the Geode Pack. He remembers their location and apparently finds enough nutrition from them (probably supplemented by rodents) to get by.  Stahler saw him and said he looks skinny and maybe wobbly. He doesn't travel the paths of other wolves, and beds in out of the way, brushy areas. Stahler said his travel pattern is more like a Park cougar. I recall that a number of lone wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and the Idaho wolf restoration area have been killed by cougars.

The main Geode group is hard to see too, 106F or another female may have pups because the alpha male was killed by the Leopolds well after mating season. There are no functioning collars. 391F had the only collar, but she is missing.

The main Swan Lake Pack has denned at one of its traditional dens. Stahler saw two small pups, indicating a late birth, but he believed there might be more than two. The other part of the Swan Lake split moved north of the Park, and the one radio collared member of this group was recently tracked way NE in the Boulder River of the Yellowstone (south of Big Timber). It's not known if the other wolves are with him.

The Specimen Ridge Pack (U-Black's Pack) has not been seen, although earlier there was some thought they had a den in Amethyst Creek (a drainage on Specimen Ridge very visible from the Lamar Ranger Station).

Although they lack radio collars, the Hayden Valley Pack, with the beautiful white alpha female has been very visible near Canyon; in fact too visible, and one or more of them might have been illegally fed by tourists. Wolf attacks by healthy wolves on humans are often associated with having been fed. In fact the recent wolf attack on a miner in Canada was by a fed wolf. As result, the pack is likely to undergo some harassment by Park rangers in the near future (recall this had to be done once to the Druid Pack after some snowmobilers fed them).

Although it hasn't been located, the Hayden Valley Pack is thought to have a den near Canyon.

Mollies Pack has recently moved closer to the Hayden Valley (from Pelican Valley), and one result appears to be dead wolves. A gray male was recently seen attacked and killed by a group of wolves in the Hayden. They were probably Mollies Pack wolves. Because of the report, rangers hiked to the carcass, and found that he was old wolf 70M, the Nez Perce Pack's alpha male, born way back in 1996 to the Sawtooth Pack on the Rocky Mountain Front in northwest central Montana.

In turn, Mollies female 496F was later killed near Canyon, probably by the Hayden Valley Pack.

During the last flight, three Mollies Pack wolves were seen resting, 193M, the long time alpha male, 379M (the great wanderer to-and-from the northern range), and 486F, a former Nez Perce wolf with a GPS collar. 486F left the Nez Perce some time ago, the collar's tracking ability showed she wandering in a great circle before apparently settling down with Mollies. It is possible she is the new alpha female. The pack didn't clearly have an alpha female after the death of hard core wolf 174F last year.

Other Mollies wolves were back in the Pelican on an elk kill, which had been as usual, stolen by a grizzly bear.

The Gibbon Pack of about 5 adult wolves is in its usual Gibbon Meadows area near where an unseen den site is thought to be.

Ten adult wolves from the Cougar Creek Pack were seen traveling the in Cougar Creek area. Two pups were seen, but in this area with thick regeneration of lodgepole pine (subsequent to the fires of 1988), pups, and often the adults too, are hard to see. The Cougar Creek Pack is unique in that it is in a part of YNP with a lot beaver. It is thought that beaver make up an important part of their diet.

The Nez Perce Pack has at least 3 pups. There are probably more. The pack has always had a hard-to-see den and rendezvous area. Alpha female, old 48F, who just lost her mate (see the story about the death of 70M above) was seen hunting.

The Delta Pack is still missing, save for one radio collared, apparently now lone wolf. Both the Park and the USFWS (Mike Jimenez) are looking for the pack. A number of new radio collars were deployed last winter. They have had no luck tracking them, however, although Jimenez thinks that the cluster of new wolf sightings in the Moran and lower Pacific Creek area, in or near Grand Teton National Pack might be some of the Delta Pack.

The Chief Joseph Pack seems to have become an outside-the-Park pack.

The old Rose Creek Pack has disappeared from tracking after being rediscovered last year living due north of the Park in upper Hellroaring Creek. The Forest Service reports a lot of wolf sign this year in that hard-to-reach area, but lacking functioning radio collars, the identity of these wolves in not known.

Just north of the Park near Gardiner/Jardine the last of the Casey Lake Pack was found dead, but wolf 353F, who split from the Geode Pack last fall, seems to have localized near Jardine with other wolves (likely Leopold dispersers) and might have pups.

Update 6-22-05. Folks may recall that the Park's Biscuit Basin Pack left Yellowstone last winter and was last spotted in Island Park to the west. The pack was under severe food pressure. Their winter home range was very short on elk, and the pack with its many pups was hardly able to go after the bison in the geyser basin area.

It turns out they settled down in the general Island Park area. Idaho Fish and Game is currently trying to determine whether they have pups, but chances are they don't because of their relatively extensive movements.

This marks the first entire pack from Yellowstone to leave the Park and settle in Idaho. It took ten years for this to happen.