Lamar, America´s Serengeti

  We hit the hill early on Sunday, looking for the Druid pup and hoping to see more of his pack today. Dan Stahler, another wolf expert, has joined us. You can´t have too many eyes looking for wildlife here.

   The pup is there, and this time there is an adult babysitter with him.  It´s fun to watch the two of them interact.  The pup nuzzles the adult, playing and running around a little.   The pup is not well, however.  He has mange, and I can see the toll it has taken on his fur.  Dan explains about the disease and how it can keep the pup from growing thick enough fur to endure the severe Yellowstone winters.  If he doesn´t improve soon, he may not survive.  So it was good to see that one of the adult wolves was taking an interest in him. 

  While we waited for the other wolves to show up, we watched the other animals. They are the reason it is called America´s Serengeti. 

A buffalo just finished taking a dust bath in this photo.   They roam everywhere, and seem unaffected by the other animals.  They walked right through the area where the two wolves were at. They seem to know they aren´t in any danger.

A coyote came through, too, but he didn´t stay long.

Normally the elk would be here, but they haven´t come down from the high country yet.  The weather has been unusually warm.  The Equinox storm, which usually hits around September 22, is late.  You can´t tell it by the temps in the morning--it is very cold--but it warms up quickly.  By 11 a.m. we are all removing layers of coats and sweat shirts.  

A small herd of Prong Horn antelope are here.  They are very pretty and frisky this morning.  Their rut will begin soon.

While we were watching for the wolf pack, a grizzly bear wandered down from the mountain that is on the other side of the valley.  He came very close to the buffalo, but no one could tell if he was really looking to hunt one of them or not.   At one point, however, a few of them lined up and faced him.  They stood shoulder-to-shoulder, and looked very formidable.   The griz ambled back into the pines after a while.

When the bear left, we decide to take a break, which means we hop into the Adventure bus and ride to the closest porta-potty.   It is at the other end of Lamar Valley.  While some of us stand in line, the others scan for wolves.   They soon spot 3 of the Druid pack trotting into the Valley and heading toward the other two wolves. Quickly we load back into the bus and return to the hill.   Eventually we are able to see another wolf through the scopes, but by now they are really far away.  The day is warming up rapidly, and the Druid pack appears to have left the Valley.
We decide to leave, too.  This time we are going to drive up to Mount Washburn, through the Dunraven Pass.   Bears have been spotted up there, and we decide to look for them.

Into the Den

On Saturday afternoon, Linda Thurston takes us to an abandoned wolf den.   It is located about a mile off the road.    To reach it, we hike through a field dotted with buffalo ´´pattys´´, bleaching bones from former kills, and rocks.  Huge rocks, in some places.   Then we hike up the hill to the den. 

Linda, a wolf expert, brings people to the den so that the wolves won´t attempt to use it again.  The other pack abandoned it when the wolf-watchers and road noise bothered them too much.  This points out how much wolves avoid people.  Even though the people stayed on the road, and the den is nearly a mile away, it was too close for the wolves.       

The tree roots help anchor it in place.

Chip, one of the guys in our group, climbed feet-first into the den.  The den is narrow, but deep.   He went nearly all the way in, with only his head and shoulders sticking out, and he could barely touch the back of the den.

Linda explains the wolf/prey relationship using some of the old bones.

 One theory is that wolves are always hunting, always checking on the condition of the other animals to see which ones may be weak, sick, or old.  One interesting side-effect of the reduction of the elk and deer population is the increase in some native plants.  It´s all about balance.  

Another interesting stop that we made today was to the studio of Dan and Cindy Hartman.  They are wildlife photographers who live in Cooke City,  just outside of Yellowstone.  While we had a great lunch, Dan showed us slides and told about some of the adventures he has had photographing the animals.  Fantastic!
 Check out his website to see some great pix of the wolves and other wildlife.

http://wildlifealongtherockies.homestead.com/

 We had a chance to buy souvenir photographs, of course. (Yes, I had to have one of the Druid pack.) Dan is a lot of fun, and his studio is a great place to visit.

Tomorrow morning we are going back to Lamar Valley. One viewing is not enough! We hope to see the pup again, along with more of its pack.

We know there are great wolves out there, and we are determined to see them.

On Sunday, we are scheduled to go farther west and south, over to West Yellowstone and Old Faithful. A new event, however, may cause us to change plans. A fire that has been a small, non-event, has grown larger today. The weather has been unusually warm and the wind picked up this afternoon. The combination has allowed the fire to grow, causing the Park to close some roads. So Nathan and Linda will keep an eye on things. In the meantime, we are going back to the cabins tonight and have dinner at the Mammoth Lake Lodge.

The Druid Pack - Our First Wolf

Lamar Valley is huge.

Look as far as you can in both directions, and you still won´t see where it begins or where it ends. 

We left the cabins at Mammoth Hot Springs before dawn to drive to

 Lamar Valley.  We wanted to get there early, when the wolves are more likely to be active.  

Climbing up a hill, we set up scopes, prepared cameras, and scanned the Valley.

All of us had seen Lamar in nature films, but only one of the group had been here before.  Linda and Nathan, of course, are experts at spotting wolves.  In that expanse of sage and grass, they know exactly where to look and what to look for. Trees line the back edge, and the road creates the front boundary. In between are sections of sage and grasses. A stream meanders through it, near the road.  I was amazed at its size, and I think many of the others were equally surprised. 

A couple of men were fly fishing in the stream.  From our hillside, they looked like ants.  When I looked to the right, I saw Prong Horn Antelope grazing.  Bison were everywhere.     

The Valley is home to the Druids, one of the oldest packs in the Park. On the first morning, we spotted a yearling pup, who was all alone.    

He was harder to see than I had expected.  Even when I knew where he was, the distances were too great for binoculars.  For me, the scopes were a challenge to use. I think they work better if you don´t have glasses with bifocals. I tried looking with glasses and without.  Mostly, I kept hoping the pup would simply come closer.

 Still, I was seeing a wolf pup, and that was a thrill.

We watched him for hours as he played in the Valley.  He would move in and out of the sage, and occasionally howl.  Whenever he laid down, he disappeared in the sage.   We kept hoping the rest of the pack would arrive, but they never did.   Still, none of the other animals bothered him.   The antelope grazed in their area, and the bison roamed everywhere.   

All that grazing made us hungry, too!   Nathan and Linda brought out hot coffee, huckleberry yogurt, rolls, cereal, hard-boiled eggs, and other breakfast goodies.  We feasted as we stood on the hill, surrounded by the animals, and watched the wolf pup.

Yellowstone Wolf and Elk Adventure

      Last week we left the heat of the desert to travel to Yellowstone National Park. Our 40th Anniversary was in August, and we wanted to celebrate by visiting Yellowstone. We had gone to Glacier National Park ten years ago--our first trip West. Since that time we had been farther north into Canadian Parks, Banff and Jasper, but we had never been to Yellowstone.

      We were on the hunt for wolves.  After years of hard work by scientists, political activists, and animal-lovers, they were returned to Yellowstone in 1995.   I had been one of the thousands of animal lovers who had written letters to politicians to try to save and return the wolves.  I had joined groups and seen and petted a captive wolf named Jethro.  Even made the family go on a wolf howl in Ohio. (No wolves, of course.  Just a tape player and dedicated, or crazy, wolf-lovers!) 

 Finally I was going to get to see wild wolves.

     We traveled with The Wild Side,a wildlife tour company operated by two biologists, Nathan Varley and Linda Thurston.

http://www.wolftracker.com/  

      The Adventure Bus took us to Lamar Valley, Hayden Valley, and other great sites in the Park.  At night we stayed at a variety of neat places: cabins, Yellowstone Lodge, and Chico Hot Springs.

     Our first night was spent in Mammoth Hot Springs.  The elk that live here are smart.  No wolves for miles.  The herd enjoys the safety of the lawn as well as the grass. They also keep the park rangers occupied with trying to keep the tourists a safe distance away. It´s fun to watch.

     We spent the first day getting into the Park, watching the elk, and meeting each other. There were ten adventurers on the trip--from California, Boston, Pittsburg, Maryland, and Arizona (us).   One young couple came all the way from Oxford, England, making our trip an International Wolf and Elk Adventure!  

     A variety of occupations were represented, including retirees, paramedic, computer expert, business executive, soldier, nurse, and public defender (me). The thing we had in common was our love of wolves.  We were all excited about seeing them.  

But first we had to get past the bison.

     Even though I came to look for wolves, the bison were amazingly interesting. I had seen them before, but never so many and in their own environment. They own the Park, and they know it.  The wolves are the heart of Yellowstone, but the Bison rule.

     But we were determined to see wolves, and soon we would. Early in the morning we were going to Lamar Valley...

 
The view from the patio of JB´s Restaurant,
where we bicycled for breakfast this morning.

One of the ducks was fishing for his breakfast.

And he quickly caught a big one!

 

Spock has returned! After his fine adventure, he was returned by one of my friend´s neighbors. He seems fit and happy, and now he has 2 roommates. This latter situation is only temporary, but at the moment Spock seems to be enjoying his new friends.

Spock is still missing. He was seen by a few of my friend´s neighbors, which is a good sign. We went again tonight to look around the path he has apparently been taking, but we didn´t find him.

To my surprise, we found a different Desert Tortoise. At first I thought it was Spock, but when I got close to him I realized he was much smaller. He was obviously injured, too. His shell is not smooth and pretty like Spock´s, and there was a piece missing. Looked suspiciously like a coyote bite to me, and I love coyotes.

Even more amazing, someone brought my friend her missing tortoise, only it wasn´t Spock. This was an entirely different tortoise that was found walking on the golf course, very close to the street.

I never would have thought Sun City Grand would have three tortoises wandering around. Of course the real number may be much higher. The good news is that we didn´t see any signs that Spock had been hurt. So we will have to keep looking.