More on the wolf.
We saw it 10 minutes inside the NE entrance to the park - around here: https://maps.google....com.panoramio.all . That area doesn't seem to be part of any of the packs' normal area, at least according to this: http://www.nps.gov/y...cience/wolves.htm
I believe I caught a glimpse of her squatting to pee when she was in the woods. If so, that may indicate she is or was part of Mollie's Pack - http://dipperanch.bl...-yellowstone.html
Since our arrival at Yellowstone, I had been reading reports at the Visitors Centers, talking to rangers and reading wolf news on wildlife blogs. What I'd been able to piece together is that last fall Mollie's Pack lost its alpha male. Found by his radio collar, a necropsy determined he was probably killed from the kicks of an ungulate. Over the subsequent winter, the alpha female also disappeared and was replaced by another female, and Mollie's Pack moved north into other wolf territories. With its large size, Mollie's Pack bullied the other packs, killed the alpha male of the Mary Mountain Pack which was then taken over by a young male from the Mollie's Pack. After reading about all these wolf battles, I am fascinated to see the black wolf confidently cover so much ground, but 779's steady pace to the west is seeming a little ominous.
For another perspective on wolf 779 and pack dynamics, consider Kathie Lynch's description of the Mollie's Pack on The Wildlife News blog: "The pack's large size, oversupply of females, lack of leadership, and inability to find a new alpha male contributed to the pack splitting into several often-changing subgroups." Lynch and others observed a small cohort of young females from Mollie's Pack consorting in the February 2012 breeding season with two male wolves which had dispersed from the Blacktail Pack, and the secret rendezvous continued through the spring and summer. Would a new pack form out of the splintering pack?
Meanwhile, a larger subgroup of the Mollie's Pack continued fighting with other packs. Made up of the new alpha female and several older wolves including the same black Female 779 we were watching a few weeks later, they discover the dalliances of the young females and track down and kill one of the outside flirting males, 777M. Lynch concludes, "Seven seventy-seven lived and died a wolf in the wild, making the most of his chances and risking consequences." After describing the murderous affairs of the pack, she speculates that 777's genes may be infiltrating the Mollie's Pack as pups of the surviving young females.
It's a hard life. :-(
The wolves do seem to be helping restore a bit more balance in the park, though. http://www.latimes.c...9,0,3444257.story
In another example of how the return of a top predator can have far-reaching ecological effects, researchers have found that the reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park has boosted an important food source for the threatened grizzly bear.
A study published Monday in the Journal of Animal Ecology is essentially a tale of who eats what.
When wolves were reintroduced to the park in 1995 after a 70-year absence, they preyed on elk herds that browsed on trees and shrubs.
The elk population, which had exploded without the wolves, dropped. The over-browsed plants began to rebound, including berry-producing shrubs that provide nutritious summer meals for grizzlies when they are fattening up for hibernation.
We saw lots of young Aspen trees, too. The reintroduction of wolves is having far-reaching, and seemingly beneficial, consequences. Here's hoping they find a way to be a strong, and permanent, presence.
Cheers,
Scott.