Yellowstone Wolf Tracker

July-December 1996

Photo courtesy of Greywolf

The evening was hosted by Mike Finley, who served as Master of Ceremonies. The evening's entertainment included a reading by Wolf Project Leader Mike Phillips from the new book, The Wolves of Yellowstone, which he co-authored along with biologist Doug Smith and Barry and Teri O'Neill, photographers. The book is published by Voyageur Press and on sale now at your local bookstore. Royalties from book sales support the wolf project. The reading was made with a backdrop of music and slides illustrating the wolves of Yellowstone.

A highlight of the evening was a private advance screening of "Survival of the Yellowstone Wolves", a Turner Original Productions, National Wildlife Federation and Busch Productions film featuring actor and Wyoming native, Matthew Fox. The hour-long film aired on TBS television on November 3, and tells the story of "Operation Wolfstock", featuring footage of Phillips and Smith monitoring Yellowstone wolf packs. The Call of Wild Foundation presented a $5000 donation to Superintendent Finley in support of the wolf restoration project, and other sponsors and donors provided an array of raffle prizes and silent auction items, including prints by artists Robert Bateman, Russell Chatham, and Dan Smith, and a backpack from the Bozeman company, Dana Designs.

Wolves were depicted in an ice sculpture done by Dave Scott, a local artist. Four peaceful protestors outside the Gallatin Gateway dressed up as cows and held signs that said "Eat beef, wolves do!" The event was planned by Mike Phillips and Deb Guernsey, Administrative Assistant for the Yellowstone Wolf Project, who reported that good food, a good atmosphere, and good company meant that a great time was had by all, culminating in tangible support for the wolf restoration efforts continuing in Yellowstone National Park.

In a separate event held in Park City, Utah on November 9, an additional monies were raised during a fundraiser sponsored by Curt Hawkins and the WolfStock Group, which supports wolf restoration to Yellowstone. The group has pledged $10,000 for the Mollie Beattie wolf internship program, which pays board and room for volunteers on the Yellowstone wolf restoration project. In 1995, they also donated $20,000 to the Yellowstone wolf project, and more proceeds are expected from this autumn's special event. The ability of the wolf project to generate substantial contributions from non- governmental funding sources is a crucial part of the restoration effort, and helps not only to augment tight agency budgets but to demonstrate to critics that private supporters back wolf restoration in tangible ways.

Wolf Population Continues to Grow

As of November, the wolf population in Yellowstone continued to thrive, with 40 animals roaming wild and 12 animals being held in temporary captivity.

Throughout the late summer and autumn, 34 wolves have been radio-located mostly inside Yellowstone National Park, with most of these in the northern quarter of the park. The Lamar Valley continues to be home for several packs. The Rose Creek pack is at present Yellowstone's largest group, consisting of the adult pair, six wolves (four females and two males) born in 1995, and three pups born in 1996. The Crystal Creek pack was reduced to only a pair after the former alpha male was killed in an interaction with the Druid Peak pack in May. The Druid Peak pack is made up of five wolves an alpha male, a subordinate male, and three females. As of mid-November, four of these wolves remained together while an adult male was ranging widely into Montana.

The Leopold pack is a pair of two-year- old alphas with three pups, born in the spring of 1996, who live on Blacktail Plateau. The Chief Joseph pack, often ranging on the park's central west side around the Firehole Valley, as of this fall consists only of the alpha male and female; younger members of the pack have dispersed and, along with other previous loners, contribute to the formation of two new pairs. Free-ranging wolf packs and loners have not been involved in any livestock depredations and continue to provide occasional opportunities for visitors to see or hear them.

The male originally released in 1996 near Lone Star Geyser appears to have paired up with a female yearling formerly of the Nez Perce pack and has been repeatedly located in the Thorofare area.

Two lone wolves have wandered widely this autumn; one adult male (originally released from the Nez Perce pen) frequents the area in the northwestern corner of the park and adjacent lands, while one adult female ranges generally north of the park in the Boulder River drainage.

The Nez Perce pack still includes an adult female and three pups who have routinely been located north of the park. The wolf pair originally penned at Nez Perce separated upon their release in spring and never reunited. When the female alpha wolf began preying on livestock, repeated attempts were made to capture her. She made at least eight confirmed kills of sheep between mid-June and July 17, 1996. Though capture efforts were unsuccessful and were terminated in August, one of her male pups was injured during capture operations. The pup subsequently had a leg amputated and was placed into captivity at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minnesota. Project biologists indicate that at an appropriate time in the future, efforts to recapture her and her pups will be reinitiated; if successful, the wolves will be re-released in the park. Project biologists hope to reunite the Nez Perce alpha pair if both can be recaptured.

Twelve wolves remain in temporary captivity in acclimation pens, and are scheduled to be released in March or April of 1997. On August 29, 1996, three female pups and one male pup from the Sawtooth wolf pack near Augusta, Montana, were captures and transferred to Rose Creek in the park. On September 8, six more pups (three females and three males) from the Rocky Mountain Front were captured and joined their siblings in the temporary holding pen. Adults from this pack had killed livestock and were the removed according to wolf management plans for the Rocky Mountain Front area. The pups were placed with two Nez Perce yearlings also being held in the Rose Creek pen since their capture in early summer from private land used for livestock grazing. It is hoped that the yearlings and pups will form a new pack.

Two wolves penned temporarily at Nez Perce were released on September 17, 1996, when a yearling female began to frequent the area outside the pen, possibly forming a bond with the older male inside. The penned wolves, a young adult male originally of the Soda Butte pack and a male pup from the Nez Perce pack, had been captured and relocated from private property near Nye, Montana. Neither wolf had preyed on livestock, but it was believed that relocation to the park would provide the wolves better habitat. Unfortunately, the younger male was found dead on September 21, apparently the result of a roadkill.

Six wolves (the alpha pair, a female born in 1995, and two male pups and one female pup born in 1996) in the Soda Butte pack were penned from June to October due to concerns about potential livestock predation on private lands where they had denned this spring. When first captured, they were penned at Crystal Creek, then the pack was moved by boat to a newly constructed pen at Trail Creek south of Yellowstone Lake in August. Rangers made twice-weekly forays to feed them roadkilled ungulates, and hopes that they would acclimate to southern Yellowstone, where only occasional lone wolves wandered. On September 3, one of the male pups was found dead by biologists during a scheduled feed. A necropsy failed to reveal the exact cause of the wolf's death. The five remaining wolves were penned until October 7, when sections of their pen were removed to permit their release. As of the last monitoring flight, they were located between Yellowstone Lake and Heart Lake, well inside Yellowstone National Park.

Superintendent Mike Finley has announced that the park will name a wolf pack in honor of the late Mollie Beattie, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who passed away earlier this summer. Ms. Beattie was a strong supporter of the Yellowstone wolf restoration effort, and was present during the wolves' return to Yellowstone in 1995.

Summary

The 14 wolves released in 1995 bore two litters totalling nine pups. In 1996, 17 more wolves were released, and had four litters totalling 14 pups. Eleven wolves have died three were illegally shot, three were killed by vehicle collisions, two were killed by other wolves, one was removed due to depredation on livestock, one was burned fatally in a hot spring, and one pup died of unknown causes. Another pup was accidentally injured and subsequently sent to live in a captive facility. Ten pups were brought to Yellowstone in the summer of 1996 from the Rocky Mountain Front, and have yet to be released. The goal to restore wolves to Yellowstone and begin delisting them by approximately 2002 appears to be within reach, perhaps even ahead of schedule and under budget.

Idaho Youth Participate in Wolf Project

This fall, the Wolverine group a group of eleven Idaho youths and their advisors from the Juvenile Corrections Center of St. Anthony, Idaho assisted park staff in dismantling and reassembling a wolf acclimation pen in Yellowstone National Park. The pen, moved from Crystal Bench in the Lamar Valley, was relocated to an area near Pelican Valley and will be used to temporarily hold wolves prior to being released into the center of Yellowstone National Park.

Students from the Center have worked with park staff on other projects over the past several years, including clearing backcountry trails and winterizing backcountry facilities. Park staff were so impressed with the outstanding work of the students on previous activities that they contacted advisors at the Center about the possibility of students assisting with the wolf-pen project. The Center agreed to allow students to participate, and the National Park Service provided food and lodging for the students and advisors. Students' work hours on the project may be applied to community restitution.

Students began work on the project on September 9 and were finished by September 16--in record time according to park staff who have worked on other pen construction. "This was a great group of students to work with," noted wolf biologist Doug Smith. "Their enthusiasm and hard work inspired everyone involved with the project, and thankfully other than some blisters and sore muscles! the students did great. They were a tremendous help."

Students' comments on the project indicated that it was hard work but the rewards were many. Several of the students had never visited Yellowstone before and were thrilled by the opportunity to see geysers and wildlife. The sense of accomplishment was unanimous; they all agreed that the experience was very worthwhile.

The Juvenile Corrections Center is a facility that houses students 14-18 years old that have been incarcerated for various reasons. Projects such as the Yellowstone wolf pen project provide the students with an educational experience while developing useful technical skills.

Wolf Tracker on a Slower Track

Regular readers will have noticed that the Wolf Tracker has come with less frequency in 1996. The missive was originally designed to be an informal, inexpensive means of transmitting updated information on the progress of Operation: Wolfstock to park staff and beyond. As the wolf restoration project moves from "front-page news" and settles in for the long haul, we intend to let wolves and wolf information assume a more mainstream role along with other park resources and resource information efforts. We intend to continue providing needed and exciting information to interested audiences in cost-effective ways. A special four-page insert to the park newspaper, available by mail and to visitors entering through Yellowstone's gates, was developed in the summer of 1996 and will be updated and continued as necessary. News will be reported in the park's quarterly magazine Yellowstone Science and provided to the media in press releases, when appropriate. This winter we plan to produce the first technical report of the Yellowstone wolf project, and to design a semiannual brochure that will provide updated project information such as has been provided to readers of this newsletter.

12/11/96.

Published by Digital Voodoo