Wolves Starring In Wildlife Drama It’s The Sort Of Thing That Could Only Happen In Yellowstone Park

It’s the kind of thing that could only happen in Yellowstone.

Jason Wilson was watching two wolves feeding on an elk carcass in the Lamar Valley when a sow grizzly and two nearly grown cubs came along. After a brief face-off, the bears took over the kill.

Meanwhile, a bald eagle flew in and hovered, looking for scraps.

At one point, Wilson said, he could see three grizzlies, a wolf and a bald eagle through his spotting scope at the same time.

“I thought that was pretty rich, myself,” the Virginia resident said Wednesday as he watched two other wolves play in a meadow. He has spent the last 25 summers in the park, observing and recording the movements of bears and other wildlife.

Wolves have been putting on quite a show in the Lamar Valley in recent days, and their human audience couldn’t be more appreciative.

Almost every evening and early morning, visitors with binoculars and spotting scopes can watch wolves cavort, stalk, and sometimes kill.

Wednesday evening, about 20 people watched a pair of playful adolescent wolves emerge from the forest onto the grassy hillsides, wrestle with each other, and halfheartedly pursue elk herds back and forth.

“Delightful,” said one watcher, squinting through a spotting scope for his first look at a wild wolf.

“Fantastic,” said Lee Shirley, a retired biology teacher from Utah. “I’m just really excited. They really need to be here.”

“Wonderful,” added a German woman.

Visitors and Park Service officials alike are surprised at how easy it has been for people to spot wolves.

“I figured if we see a wolf one time this summer, we’d be lucky,” said Wilson.

Rather, he has seen them almost daily.

The six members of the Crystal Creek pack apparently have staked out a territory in the middle of the Lamar Valley. Frequent viewers like Wilson can tell individual animals apart and have long discussions about their hunting techniques. People have watched several kills, including some newly born elk calves who became wolf meals.

Wilson said he saw the pack split up and take two calves a few days ago. Another time, he saw two wolves take an adult elk. One grabbed the elk by the paunch. When she turned her head, the other grabbed her by the neck and the hunt was over.

People from Mammoth, Gardiner and Cooke City often make the drive to the Lamar for an evening of wolf viewing and the Park Service is gearing up for crowds of wolf watchers as the tourist season picks up and word of the wolves spreads.

Several people are being trained as naturalists to tell people about wolves this summer. One of them, Rick McIntyre, was watching wolves Wednesday evening.

He said he and others will be leading wolf hikes, giving talks to groups, and hanging around the Lamar Valley in the evenings with a few spotting scopes so people can see the wolves. They should start working next week, he said.

“Lots of people have been able to see the wolves so far,” McIntyre said. “Last Saturday, they were out for six hours.”

The wolves are being tolerant of people, he said, although they tend to stay on the south side of the Lamar River, a half mile from the road.

And while people are watching the wolves, the big carnivores are keeping an eye on the people, he said.

“They’re beginning to understand that people stick pretty much where the road is,” McIntyre said.Some areas have been closed so people won’t chase the wolves from the area and rangers are discouraging people from getting too close to the wolves, park spokeswoman Marsha Karle said.

Fourteen wolves captured in Canada last winter were released in Yellowstone in March as the initial phase of a controversial reintroduction program. One allegedly was shot near Red Lodge, Mont., in April. One man was arrested, and he pleaded innocent in federal court in Billings on Thursday.