Kathie Lynch: Yellowstone Park wolf news

About 40 wolves are on the Park’s northern range-

Yellowstone wolf news. June 2009.

Copyright by Kathie Lynch

The beautiful green hills of Lamar Valley brim with bison, and their cute little orange calves greet early summer wolf watchers in Yellowstone. However, the drop from 171 wolves in Yellowstone Park in December 2007, to only 124 as of December 2008, means that it is now much harder to find a wolf to watch.

By my calculations (and these are definitely not official counts), there are only about 41 wolves in the Northern Range. That number includes only adults, as follows: Druid Peak pack (14), Blacktail pack (7), Cottonwood pack (6), Everts Pack (6), Agate Creek pack (4), 471F’s Group (3) and miscellaneous–”Big Black” (1). The Quadrant Pack (4) may also still be in the area, but I have not heard of any sightings. The Slough Creek, Leopold and Oxbow packs essentially no longer exist, although a few individuals may still be around. Other packs in Yellowstone’s interior include the Canyon pack (4), Mollie’s, Gibbon, Bechler, and Yellowstone Delta.

Yellowstone workers to kill problem wolf

This would be the first incidence of a wolf being “removed” inside of Yellowstone.

From last weeks wolf report:

A young wolf dispersing probably from the Gibbon Meadows pack chased people on bicycles and a motorcycle on several occasions.  It is unclear how many times as it appears the wolf has been illegally fed and this and other incidences of habituation have gone unreported.  This wolf is considered a human safety threat and active measures to remove it have been ongoing since May 7 without success.  There is no plan at the moment to suspend activities to find and kill this animal because it is considered a threat to human safety.  Again, visitors are advised to not approach wolves or any other wildlife in YNP as it is unsafe and leads to habituated wildlife which ultimately will have to be removed.

Yellowstone workers to kill problem wolf
Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Update: Park officials kill nuisance wolf
Billings Gazette

Wyoming, including Yellowstone wolf news

The federal report this week is A LOT more interesting than usual (e.g., YNP wolf chases bicycles, motorcycles, etc.)-

This is the wolf weekly news put out by USFWS because Wyoming can’t manage wolves.

Be sure to read the “monitoring” and “control” sections.

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Update: There is essentially no new news here, not contained in the report below; but it has made it into the traditional media.

Yellowstone workers to kill problem wolf. By The Associated Press

Ralph Maughan

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WYOMING WOLF PROGRAM

WEEKLY REPORT

• To:                   Regional Director, Region 6, Denver, Colorado
• From:               USFWS Wyoming Wolf Recovery Project Leader, Jackson, WY
• Subject:           Status of Gray Wolf Management in Wyoming and the NRM
• WYOMING WOLF WEEKLY- May 11 through May 15, 2009

Web Address – USFWS reports (past weekly and annual reports) can be viewed at http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov . Weekly reports for Montana and Idaho are produced by those States and can be viewed on the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Idaho Department of Fish and Game websites. All weekly and annual reports are government property and can be used for any purpose.  Please distribute as you see fit.

Annual Reports

The Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery 2008 Annual Report is available at: http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov .

The Canyon Pack dens at Mammoth Hot Springs

For all practical purposes the pack has denned at Park Headquarters-

The Canyon Pack, which includes some remnants of the old Hayden Pack, is denned just a quarter mile east of the Mammoth town site. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a chase on the Mammoth lawns.

Wolf pack moves to park’s headquarters. Den near Mammoth posted off-limits to protect pups. By Brett French. Billings Gazette.

Yellowstone Northern Range wolf update. April 2009

Kathie Lynch’s latest trip to Yellowstone found early spring wolf denning triumph mixed with tragedy-

Yellowstone Wolf News. April 4-12, 2009. By © Kathie Lynch.

“Spring” in Yellowstone means a few days of warm weather, followed by a return to snowy winter and then springtime again. As the snow melts, it gets harder and harder to find the gray wolves against the sage, dirt and rock backdrop, but, thankfully, the blacks still stand out.

My nine day spring break (April 4-12, 2009) started without a wolf sighting on the first day–unless the canid that materialized down the road in front of my car, just east of the high bridge near Mammoth, really was the light gray former Agate 471F and not a coyote!

Considering that 471F, her alpha male (Montana 147M), and her younger sister (the “‘06 Agate Female”) had often been sighted in the area, maybe I didn’t get shut out after all!

In fact, the very next day, there they were right next to the road near an elk carcass, which was almost under the bridge at the Lava Creek picnic area. Unfortunately, it was so close to the road, the rangers had to move it away, so the wolves didn’t even get to eat their fill.

Answers to some wolf questions

Doug Breakwell posted a comment that was interesting, but also to a thread I’d rather keep clear, so I answer his questions below. Ralph Maughan
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Doug Breakwell wrote:
April 11, 2009 at 4:45 AM

This is a great site to keep updated on whats happening to wolves
especially if you do not live in the U.S. Today I have some questions that I hope your readers can help with.
1)what happened to wolf R29m? I know he’s deceased but how did he meet his end? The last information I can find on him states that he became the alpha male of the Gros Venture pack.
2) Who was and currently is the biggest wolf in Yellowstone and how big were/are they?
3) As the reports state that they Yellowstone wolves are getting bigger , what is the possibility of an extreme sized wolf similar to the 70 mile river wolf of 175lbs or the Poltavski wolf of 189lbs?
4) The wolf report of 1997 has a 52.3kg pup recorded in it, anyone know who this pup is and what happened to him?

Doug,

Here are some answers:

1. The famous escape artists wolf R29M was displaced or left the the Gros Ventre Pack, but was (maybe) last seen in the general area in 2002.  On my old web site I have tables showing what happened to all to the reintroduced wolves. It also gives their weight at capture in Canada. The links are below.

• Fate of the 1995 Yellowstone wolves (table). Final revision Jan. 9, 2003. All the 1995 wolves are now dead.
• Fate of the 1996 Yellowstone wolves (table). Final revision March 4, 2004. All of the 1996 wolves are now dead.
• Fate of the 1995 Idaho wolves (table). Last Revised Dec. 2005. Some of these wolves were still alive when I last updated the page
• Fate of the 1996 Idaho wolves (table). Last Revised Dec. 2005.

2. I’m not sure which is the biggest wolf in Yellowstone Park right now because I haven’t acquired their 2009 capture data, but the biggest one caught in the past was R6M, who weighed 141 pounds. He was killed by an elk in 1998.
3. Yellowstone wolves are not getting bigger. They seem to be getting smaller, probably because they not as well fed as the early wolves. The possibility of the 175 or 189 pound wolf is very low, although not impossible. After all, there are humans that are 8 feet tall. Extremely large individuals are usually not very healthy. Their large size alone means they will probably soon become afflicted with arthritis.

4.  I can’t find my 1997 wolf capture report. I can’t answer the question unless you have the pup’s collar number.

Update From Ken Cole 4/11/09: Here is a graph showing the weights of all wolves from Yellowstone that I have information for as well as the original Idaho re-introduced wolves.  I’ve added a trendline to the graph which shows a slight decrease in weight over time.  However, when only wolves described as adults are included there appears to be a slight increase in weight as shown in the lower graph.

Wolf lawsuits grow

Wyoming groups sue, challenging delisting plan for leaving Wyoming out.

Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Wool Growers Association, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Wyoming, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, and the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association and others have asked to join the lawsuit asking that Wyoming be included in the wolf delisting plan.

Wyoming’s wolf management plan has been rejected because it does not provide enough protection to wolves that leave the “trophy hunting area”.

Last year, when wolves were delisted for a short period, a number of wolves were hunted down on snowmobiles and shot. Also the famous Druid wolf 253M that went to Utah and later settled near one of the elk feedgrounds was shot and left.

Wolf lawsuits grow
Casper Star Tribune

Why We Need Wolves In Our Parks

. . . and about “the Ripple Effect.”

Why We Need Wolves In Our Parks. Todd Palmer and Rob Pringle. The Huffington Post.

Distemper devastates Yellowstone wolves

Wolf population has dropped by 27% in Yellowstone.

Distemper devastates Yellowstone wolves.
Powell Tribune

Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery 2008 Interagency Annual Report

All 3 states and the FWS reports available.

Wolves in Central Idaho © Ken Cole

The annual reports of all three of the recovery states have been released. There is a wealth of information in these reports about various packs.

The minimum estimate of wolves in the three states is 1645, a 9% increase over last year.

In Idaho there are 846 wolves, a 16% increase.
In Montana there are 497 wolves, an 18% increase.
In Wyoming there are 302 wolves, a 16% decrease.

You can view the reports here:
Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery 2008 Interagency Annual Report