Wolves Fight Coyotes In Wilderness Turf War

Wolves released in Yellowstone National Park are battling park coyotes in an apparent move to establish dominance.

More than two dozen people watched from a park road Saturday as a wolf pack chased four coyotes from their den and then began digging out the den entrance in an apparent attempt to find any coyote pups and kill them, biologists said.

“It was just an incredible free-forall,” said Bob Crabtree, a wildlife biologist who directs Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Bozeman.

After the five wolves gave up their assault on the coyote den, evidently without reaching the pups, adult coyotes immediately returned. The adults led two coyote pups away, probably to a new den.

Though dramatic, biologists said the Saturday face-off in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley is only the latest episode as wolves, an endangered species, reclaim their place at the top of the national park’s food chain.