Coexistence
NOW THAT THE wolves were out of the valley, several of us from the Wolf Project went out to the carcass of the bison the Druids had killed on July 10 and found that it was a yearling cow. The metatarsal bone in the lower part of a hind leg was broken, just above the hoof. It appeared to have been broken some time earlier, partly healed, then was broken again during the fight with the wolves. That leg injury made the cow vulnerable to wolf predation, in contrast to the vast majority of bison who are strong and healthy, too powerful for wolves to take down. Every edible bit of that carcass had been consumed.
A few days later, I got signals from 302 in Lamar Valley in the early morning, but did not spot him. The signals faded to the west. I figured he had gone to the Druid den and rendezvous site during the night, failed to find any wolves, and was now heading back to his family’s territory. I drove west and spotted him a few miles west of Tower Junction. The following morning, I got his signal from the Leopold den area.
The Druids came back to the Chalcedony Creek rendezvous site in late July. There were four adults (21, 42, 253, and 255) and eight pups: four grays and four blacks. 21 romped around with a black pup, then sparred with a gray pup. Later he was with three pups and pretended to run away from them. He ran slowly so they could keep up as they chased him. The other five adults soon arrived. With the first four adults and eight pups, that added up to seventeen wolves. The next day, a fifth black pup joined the group. That turned out to be the count of surviving pups: five blacks and four grays. Later 253 shared a bone with a pup. Both chewed on opposite ends of the bone at the same time.
I saw something new that day. Yearling 286 came back to the rendezvous site with a sandhill crane chick in her mouth. A small black pup and a much bigger pup ran toward her. The little black reached 286 first, grabbed the prize, and sped off with it. The big pup went after the other pup and tried to steal the bird, but the small black outran its sibling and kept the crane all to itself.
In August 302 continued his pattern of being with the Leopold wolves to the west, then traveling east to Lamar Valley. I got his signal in his family’s territory on the second, then saw him alone at Chalcedony Creek on the fourth. The next morning, I had eight Druid adults and all nine pups at the rendezvous site, and I was still getting signals from 302 in the area. Wayne Kendall spotted him to the east, on Dead Puppy Hill. The Druids howled and 302 looked that way.
On the sixth, 302 was at the Chalcedony rendezvous site near the Druids. He watched them from a distance for an hour, then traveled back toward the Leopold territory. I thought about how he was continually risking his life by being close to the Druids. At any time, 21 and 253, along with other adults, could chase and catch him, then beat him up. He must have sensed that some of the nine Druid pups were his and had a paternal instinct to visit them.
I spoke with an instructor from the Yellowstone Institute and he told me about a backpacking trip he had taken recently. Near the Opal Creek rendezvous site, he had found a dead gray pup that had been partly consumed by a bear. He couldn’t tell if the bear had killed the pup or found it already dead. It must have been one of the Druids’ missing pups.
On August 20, I spotted the Slough Creek wolves in Lamar Valley near Amethyst Creek, just two miles from the Druids’ Chalcedony rendezvous site. There were twelve wolves in the group: five adults and seven pups. The pack stayed there and used the area as a rendezvous site. A big bison died of natural causes on August 26 near there. That evening, three adults from the Slough pack fed on it. The pack continued to feed on the massive carcass for many days during a period of hot weather.
As far as we knew, wolves do not normally get sick from eating spoiled meat or animals that died of disease or infection. Dogs are classified as having acidic stomachs, and wolves living in the wild would likely have stomachs at least as acidic as dogs’ stomachs. That allows meat to be digested quickly. The shorter digestion tract of wolves and dogs compared with humans allows for fast absorption of nutrients and moves waste material through the digestive tract at a rapid rate. The process minimizes the chances of bacteria in the meat infecting the wolf since it passes through so efficiently.
On the thirtieth, seven adult Druids were at the big bison carcass. 21 and 42 did a lot of scent marking, probably over spots marked by the Slough alpha pair. 253 stayed back at the Chalcedony rendezvous site with the nine pups. The Slough wolves were hanging out a few miles southwest of the carcass. They howled, but the Druids didn’t seem to hear them. Later most of the Druids went back to their rendezvous site. The two yearlings, female 286 and the gray female, stayed at the site and continued to feed.
A black female from the Slough group approached the carcass without realizing the two Druids were there. She did see them when she came closer. Dropping into a crouch, the Slough female approached 286, who stood in a dominant posture. The incoming black lay down when she arrived, then rolled on her back under 286 to acknowledge her superior status. The gray yearling came over and also stood over her. The Slough wolf jumped up and gave 286 a submissive greeting. After that she climbed up on the huge bison carcass and fed. The interaction between the wolves indicated that the black Slough female was a former Druid and therefore a packmate to 286 and her sister. Later, three more Druids arrived, including 255 and Half Black, and they also were accepting of her. The Slough wolf fed and later went back to her pack and regurgitated to one of the pups.
On the first day of September, five adult Slough wolves and four pups were west of Amethyst Creek. All nine Druid adults were on the bison carcass. The adult Sloughs traveled toward the carcass with the four pups following them. When they got closer, the Slough adults, led by alpha female 217, ran toward the site, anticipating a meal. The pups followed.
One of the Druids must have seen the Sloughs, for it charged at the approaching wolves. The other Druids followed its lead. The five Slough adults responded by running straight at them. 217 veered off just before reaching her birth family. The other four adults in her group continued racing forward and ran into the middle of the nine Druids. They scattered when they realized how outnumbered they were. Wolves ran back and forth, and two of them got into a fight. 21 stayed close to 42 during the conflict, seeming to guard her.
In the middle of the chaos, the Druids came together for a rally. Then they spotted 217 and ran all out after her. They could have caught and killed her, but instead they pulled up and let her go. Then they pursued alpha male 261, but allowed him to escape as well. 21 targeted an adult gray male and went after him, then broke off the chase. It seemed 21 and his family were satisfied when they saw the other wolves running away and did not pursue them further.
During the interaction, the pack’s nine pups remained at the rendezvous site. The Slough black female who had met up with 286 and seemed to be a former Druid wandered into that area and sniffed around. The pups ran toward her and the female raced away from them. The pups probably thought this was a Druid adult bringing them food from the carcass. When the black stopped and faced the pups, they surrounded her and wagged their tails. She walked off and they followed. The female stopped again, and they clustered around her. One of the pups tried to lick her face, hoping for a regurgitation. The black Druid male yearling trotted into the rendezvous site and the pups ran to him. He gave them a regurgitation. The Slough female went to him, and the two related wolves had a friendly meeting. Pups then ran over and licked her face. Later she went to the carcass and met up with the other Druids. She rolled on the ground under them, then got up and romped around as the Druids wagged their tails at her.
For now the Druids seemed to have an understanding with the Slough wolves, similar to the one they apparently had with the Agates. Each of those other packs was led by a former Druid female, so all three packs were related. I also sensed that the three packs’ alpha males—21, 113, and 261—felt secure in their positions and had good judgment about when it was necessary to fight rival wolves and when it was not.
That evening the Druid adults brought their nine pups to the bison carcass, but the pups seemed hesitant to get near it. This was probably the first time they had been at such a massive carcass. They would cautiously approach the site, sniff it, then back off. Some nipped at one of the legs, like they were testing to see if the animal would jump up and attack them. By the next morning, the pups had overcome their fear and were happily feeding.
302 was back in Lamar on September 5. He must have gotten the scent of the bison carcass, for he went right to it. Druid female yearling 286 was approaching the site and he ran off when he saw her. She was black so he might have mistaken her for 21 or 253. I had observed them together back in July, so they had previously met. 302 soon came back and 286 playfully jumped around him as he wagged his tail at her. Then he sniffed her face and licked her mouth. After that she repeatedly jumped up on his back. They ran off together and I lost them in some trees. 302 still had whatever it was that made females flock to him.
The next morning, I saw 302 in Lamar traveling with two of the females he had mated with in the spring—255 and Half Black—and a new companion, the gray female yearling. 255 led the group of four wolves toward the rendezvous site. When they arrived, no other Druids were in sight. 302 stopped, looked around, then ran off. A few moments later, I saw 21 coming out of the trees. He was stalking 302. I followed 302 as he traveled farther away, then bedded down and watched the Druids from a distance. Later he got up and headed home to his parents’ territory.
302 came back to Lamar seven days later and had a friendly meeting with 255. The following morning, he was halfway back to Blacktail Plateau. That had become his set pattern: walk the twenty-five miles to Lamar, visit with some of the Druid females and check on pups, then travel back home. He always avoided 21 and 253. I had to give him credit for how much effort he put into maintaining his relationships with the females and pups.
On October 10, Carol Rickman called to tell me that she had wolves south of Slough Creek. I joined her and saw a gray female with two black pups. They were looking intently to the southeast. Soon I spotted 302 and a black female approaching from that direction. They joined the gray female and the pups. 302 seemed to be courting the black female. Later it appeared that the gray drove the black off, and 302 ended up with her and the two pups. They all went to the old bison carcass in Lamar and scavenged on it. Both pups were very comfortable with 302. They probably already knew him. The gray female flirted with 302.
A few days later, 302 and his newly formed group were in the Elk Creek area, a mile west of Tower Junction. Female 251, who had been born in the Druid pack and later spent time with the Agate pack, had denned nearby and we had seen her there with five black pups. She died in late June and apparently this gray female had been taking care of the two pups that survived their mother’s death. Since the gray was uncollared, I didn’t know which pack she was from. I had guessed that 302 knew young females in packs other than the Druids, and this unknown female seemed to prove that. I wondered how many females he had romanced during the two mating seasons he had lived through as an adult. Since he seemed to have a short attention span, it was probably a lot.
In late October, the Druids chased two big bull elk. The bulls stopped and faced the wolves. As the Druids approached, the nearest bull lowered his head and lunged with his antlers at the closest wolf. He repeatedly charged at the wolves and tried to gore them, but they managed to dodge all those thrusts. I had examined a dead Druid wolf several years earlier with an antler wound in his chest and knew how deadly those lunges could be.
In my early years in Yellowstone, I heard of a man taking photos who had gotten too close to a big bull elk. It was the mating season and that bull was in an aggressive mood. He charged at the man, lowered his head, and lunged forward with his huge antler rack. The man had backed up against a wooden fence and couldn’t dodge the thrust. The spread of the antlers was so wide that the points on each side ended up jamming into the fence just barely to the man’s right and left. The story ended there and I never heard how the guy got away while the bull struggled to get his antlers unstuck from the fence.
Unlike the horns on bison and bighorn sheep, antlers are shed in late fall and regrown in early spring. Shed antlers can be sold for decorative purposes, and the Yellowstone rangers frequently catch people trying to sneak out of the park with a load of stolen antlers. One day I was searching for wolves from a ridge high above Lamar Valley and saw a man picking up antlers and hiding them in thick brush close to the road. He likely intended to put them in his vehicle when no one was looking. I used my park radio to report the situation to the local ranger and he caught the guy. As the ranger gave him a ticket, the man asked how they knew what he was doing. Protecting his source, which was me, the ranger looked up in the sky, pointed at a random spot, and said, “See that satellite up there?” The guy looked that way and nodded his head.
302 was still with the gray female and the two black pups on October 28, a period of eighteen days. For 302, that qualified as a long-term relationship.
On the last day of the month, I found the Druids back in Lamar Valley. 253 had a bad limp on his left front foot. It was his right front paw that had been caught in the steel trap in Utah, so this was a new injury. Despite that hindrance, he was leading the pack the next morning. He mostly held his left paw off the ground as he traveled. When he rested, he licked it. This was his third injured leg.
That day I got a report that the Druids had dug up a carcass that probably had been buried by a mountain lion, for they customarily cover kills with dirt. The wolves pulled it out into the open and frequently looked up into a nearby tree as they fed. They must have been seeing the lion there, waiting for them to leave.
On November 9, the Druids went back to the bison that had died on August 26 and scavenged on the ten-week-old carcass. No meat was left at the site so they mostly chewed on the bones. When they left nine hours later, 253 kept up with the other wolves but held his left front paw off the ground as he walked. It took until nearly the end of December for the paw to heal to the point that he was putting weight on it most of the time.
21 and 42 did some flirting in the third week of November. He put his chin over her back, then she rolled on the ground and playfully kicked up at him. When she got up, 42 wagged her tail at him. Both were now eight and a half years old, about sixty-eight in human years, and still affectionate with each other.
Doug did some radio collaring that day. He went after the Geode wolves and darted three of them. One was a black adult female. When Doug got out of the helicopter to process her, he found her hiding under a boulder. It turned out that the dart didn’t go into her, so Doug jabbed her with a new dart by hand, then collared her when the drugs took effect.
I saw 302 with the gray female and the two pups in the Elk Creek area on December 8. He had now been with her for nearly two months. The Agate wolves were nearby. Doug did a flight the next morning and radioed down to me that he had both groups close to each other in that area. I saw a fresh elk carcass there, south of the road. Doug added that he had not gotten 103’s signal or seen her for several months. I later checked my records and found that I had last seen her with the Agates on October 5. I spotted 103 away from the pack three weeks later, and the last time I got signals from her was on November 11. She would be over six and a half years old if she was still alive. Without her, the Agate pack now had ten members.
The Wolf Project’s early-winter study had started. After I left the Elk Creek area on December 11, Tim Hudson and Lisa Turner, who were observing the Geodes, saw 302’s group go to the elk carcass. The four wolves fed for forty-five minutes, but seemed nervous, probably because they were getting the scent of the Agate wolves in the area. 302 and the female left, but the two pups continued to feed. The pups suddenly ran off, and the crew saw nine Agates chasing them. As the wolves were going out of sight, the pups were only ten yards ahead of the pursing wolves. Ten minutes later, the Agates came back into view and had a group howl.
The crew then heard bark howling from the north side of the road. That sound is made by a wolf in distress. The gray female came into sight. She had probably sensed that the pups were in trouble. 302 wasn’t with her, and the Geode crew couldn’t get his signal. Later they found the tracks of a single wolf in fresh snow on the road, a half mile to the west. The tracks showed that the wolf was running away from where the Agates would be. Since the gray female was visible to the north, those tracks must have been made by 302.
Two days later, Dan Stahler called me. He had done a flight that day and seen 302 and the gray female about five miles west of that area. No pups were with them. The Geode crew discovered that the Agates had killed one of them and we never saw the second pup, so it likely died as well. That meant that none of 251’s pups survived.
Dan was finishing up a PhD on wolf genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His team analyzed a DNA sample taken from the dead pup and found that his parents were 251 and 302’s younger brother, 301. I never saw those roving Leopold brothers at 251’s den site or got their signals there, so they likely had done either nothing or very little to help her with her litter before she died.
I had to conclude that when the Agates chased the pups, 302, the acting alpha male in his small group and uncle of the pups, had saved himself by running away. The most basic responsibility of a male wolf is to defend his pack, and 302 had repeatedly failed in that duty. For some time, I had thought of comparing the relationship between 21 and 302 to the one between Batman and the Joker, but then I came up with a better analogy. In Superman comics, there is a long-running character called Bizarro who was an attempted copy of the superhero. He had all of Superman’s powers but always acted in the exact opposite way Superman would. That was 302: a wolf who was the opposite of 21.
When I talked to park visitors about 302, I found I had to choose my words carefully. People loved the bad-boy aspect of his character and if I said anything negative about his behavior, they were quick to come to his defense, saying things like “But he didn’t mean it” or “But he was trying the best he could.”
Around that time, there was a change in leadership in the Slough Creek pack. 217, the founding alpha female, was now subordinate to an uncollared black female. We thought the black, like 217, was a Druid.
On December 15, Doug Dance, a Canadian wildlife photographer, spotted 302 and his gray companion south of Slough Creek. Half Black was nearby. 302 went to her and they had a very friendly meeting. The gray female was hesitant about this new rival and kept her distance. The rekindled relationship between 302 and Half Black was interrupted when 21 came on the scene and chased off 302.
But as I had seen in the past, 21 could not control his daughters. Soon Half Black was back with 302, and her sister U Black was with them. The gray female didn’t join in when the trio played together. U Black later returned to the Druids, as she had done the year before, but Half Black stayed with 302. It appeared that he had moved on from the gray female, and we didn’t see her with 302 after that. The next day, 255 reunited with 302. He ran away when 21 charged at him yet again.
The following morning, when the Druid adults were away from the Chalcedony rendezvous site, 302 visited the five Druid pups there and wagged his tail at them. The pups licked his face and jumped up on him. The main group of Druid adults howled and 302 and those pups howled back. The pups moved off and 302 followed them. When they got tired, he bedded down with them. This suggested that he had some sense, perhaps a paternal one, that he should help care for them.
Later, when the main group of Druids arrived at the rendezvous site and met up with the pups, 302 ran away. I saw him off in the distance, sitting up and watching. 253 charged at him with the other Druids just behind him, and 302 raced off. It was a poignant moment to witness. 302 seemed to be trying to establish a connection with those pups, but his past behavior understandably caused 21 and 253 to drive him away.
In the following days, we frequently saw 302 with 21’s three daughters: 255, U Black, and Half Black. When he wasn’t with them, he often was near the Druids and howled a lot, seemingly to contact those females. He also regularly visited the pups. When a gray pup met up with 302, it licked his face and excitedly jumped up and down in front of him. Later the pup did a play bow to 302, hoping that would start a play session. But 302 was more interested in the nearby U Black, and the two adults did a lot of playing together. 21 and 253 repeatedly tried to catch him and beat him up, but 302 always managed to slip away. On the last day of the year, I got 302’s signal back in the Blacktail Plateau area. He was taking a temporary break from 21’s daughters.
I added up the total number of wolves in the Druid pack and the four new adjacent packs that were headed by alpha females who were former Druids. It came to fifty-two wolves.
At the end of 2003, the Wolf Project estimated that there were 174 wolves in fourteen packs throughout the park. That turned out to be highest population ever for Yellowstone. The original wolf population, before wolves were eliminated from the park, was around one hundred. The restored population reached that level in 2000, then gradually rose to its peak density in 2003. After that the wolf numbers trended down and by 2009 tended to hover near one hundred. The counts above a hundred took place when the park’s elk numbers were above the park’s carrying capacity. When the elk population went down to a more sustainable level, wolf numbers reverted to the long-term average.