It was early June, and I had just come into Lamar Valley to see every wildlife watcher’s dream: the Junction Butte pack hunting bison on the valley floor. We pulled over the car, set up the scopes and spent the next two and a half hours watching the back-and-forth battle of wolves pushing bison herds and chasing the young, and then the bison mounting a counter charge and causing the wolves to retreat to a safe distance. After many nearly successful attempts by the Junctions, and a well-placed kick from a female bison, the pack moved off to bed down through the heat of the day. Perhaps they would try again later, but this attempt had been thwarted.

Although the chances of witnessing a predation event are relatively low, the details of predator-prey relationships in the park are a focus of the Yellowstone Wolf Project, Cougar Project, elk research and the Elk Calf Study. This team of scientists monitors Yellowstone’s predators and their effect on prey. In 2024, the team spent 4.5 months across the year studying predation. They were able to identify over 260 different kills, 211 of them from wolves, and 56 of them from cougars. While these 267 kills likely don’t cover every single predatory event throughout the year, they act as a very good representation for what Yellowstone’s wolf and cougar diets looked like. Of the carcasses sampled, 82% of all wolf kills were made up of elk and bison and 67.9% of all cougar kills were made up of elk or deer. These studies have also revealed that predators are disproportionately targeting younger prey, as well as female prey.

While those statistics are interesting, consider the implications for what they mean in the context of the ecosystem. Within wildlife biology, there is a concept known as carrying capacity. This concept states that there is a certain number of animals within a species that an ecosystem can support. Here in the park, the current population of wolves is around 100 adult animals, and it’s been fluctuating around that threshold since 2008. This 100-animal population size, or carrying capacity, is influenced by a number of factors, including disease transmission, competition with other wolves, and food availability. For cougars, current estimates put the population somewhere between 34 and 42 individuals, with carrying capacity likely near that range.

If we look at the population graph for wolves over the last 30 years, a very clear early spike can be seen in the early 2000s. This “overshoot” of the carrying capacity is common when a predator is reintroduced to a landscape. Oftentimes, in the absence of predators, and with wildlife management norms of the twentieth century, it was common for prey species, like elk, to overpopulate landscapes, and have few ecological controls. This was the situation in the northern range of Yellowstone in the 1990s when the northern elk herd numbered upwards of 17,000 individuals. With an abundance of food on the landscape due to this overpopulation, wolves were able to quickly reproduce and expand their population to over 170. However, by the late 2000s, elk populations started to return to a more sustainable level, not only because of predators returning to the landscape, but also because of a variety of management actions and circumstances. These included a recovery of bear and cougar populations, late season cow elk hunts outside of the park, a prolonged drought and series of severe winters, and competition with increasing bison herds. As elk populations fell, other ecological stressors, such as increased competition with other predators caused wolf populations to slowly decline and level out to the stable and healthy population we see today.

A beautiful thing about carrying capacities is that in a healthy ecosystem, carrying capacities exist such that predator and prey populations become very closely tied together. In years of abundant plant growth, elk calf survival might be higher than normal, and therefore the prey population could increase. This could cause a connected response of predators with more available food in following years leading to higher wolf and cougar survival and perhaps their population increasing. As the prey population begins to fall once more, the predator population will follow. In a healthy ecosystem, these populations exist in a harmonic balance, oscillating above and below the carrying capacity for their species. The predation and population dynamics of wolves and cougars of Yellowstone teach us that beneath every action, every situation, and every population we find in the park, there is a complex web of relationships, interactions, and interdependence.

It’s this complexity that I find brings me back to wildlife watching. Being out there, watching wolves hunt is an experience unlike anything else I have experienced. The range of emotions that are felt when, for example, you watch a wolf pack sneak off with a newly born bison calf can be overwhelming. The pure excitement for the pack, and honestly some underlying sadness for the life the calf didn’t get to live. But, at least for me, understanding what predation means for the landscape, and health of a wild ecosystem, like Yellowstone, acts as a certain type of centering force. It allows me to refocus on the now, and it’s what keeps me waking up at 3:30am to get out there for the chance to see it all again.

by Kyle Wonders, Yellowstone Forever Institute Lead Field Educator

Feature Photo: Lead Field Educator, YF / Amanda Evans

The post Dance of Survival: Yellowstone’s Predators and Their Prey appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

The Winter Wolf Discovery Lodging & Learning package focuses on learning about wolves, and other exciting wildlife, along Yellowstone’s famous northern range. Winter is prime time to view wolves in Yellowstone, and this package is designed to take advantage of this rare opportunity. A Yellowstone Forever field educator will share up-to-date information about Yellowstone wolf biology, behavior, and ecology throughout daily outings. Each evening, participants will return to their comfortable accommodations at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.

The post Winter Wolf Programs in Yellowstone appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

Based out of the iconic Lamar Buffalo Ranch in the heart of Lamar Valley or the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, these multi-day programs offer an insider’s look into the world of Yellowstone’s remarkable wolves. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to see all the wild animals that Yellowstone is famous for including bison, elk, moose, fox, and more. As past participants will attest, these one-of-a-kind experiences will leave you with memories to last of a lifetime.

See below for full details and dates for each program. We hope you consider joining us this winter in Yellowstone!

______________________________________________________________________

The post Winter Wolf Programs in Yellowstone 2023-2024 appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

In mid-February, Yellowstone Forever members funded the articulation of Wolf 302M. Expert articulator Lee Post flew in from Alaska to spend a week in Gardiner leading the project. Skeleton articulation, or “bone building” as Lee calls it, is the process of converting a dead animal into a completely cleaned and articulated skeleton (like the skeletons you see in museums).

Lee’s work on the bones of Wolf 302M is especially meaningful since the animal’s lineage is likely traceable to wolves reintroduced in Yellowstone through the Yellowstone Wolf Project. Born in 2000, Wolf 302 spent many years in the northern range of Yellowstone, mating, defending, and providing food for his pack. He was often referred to as “Casanova” because he mated with many females whereas most wolves are monogamous. He also spent a lot of time near roads making him more visible to park visitors.

When he reached the age of eight and a half, he finally became Alpha of a pack and was beloved by park visitors until his death in 2009. The articulation team’s first few days of work included sorting the skeletal remains of Wolf 302M and identifying what bones go where—a task made a bit easier thanks to meticulous drawings from Lee.

Every day, from sunup to sundown (and often after hours), Lee and the team came into our building just north of Yellowstone to work on preparing this important skeleton.

They connected the bones using a host of materials including epoxy, glue, pins, and wires. Lee explained that skeleton articulation traditionally involves mostly “seen” wires, but his goal is to have most everything unseen to ensure you can really get a feel for the skeleton as it was. The team also discovered plenty of interesting facts about 302M along the way, including many injuries from twisted ribs and broken vertebrae—evidence of epic battles likely fought for food or survival.

The skeleton will eventually head to the Heritage and Research Center as the team works on finding a home for it to live as an educational tool.

With the assistance from members of the Yellowstone Wolf Project and staff from the Heritage and Research Center, Lee was able to bring us insights into the life and journey of Wolf 302M—important information to help educate future generations and improve future conservation efforts.

Wolf 302 articulated be Lee Post and members of the Yellowstone Wolf Project and staff from the Heritage and Research Center.

The post The Articulation of Wolf 302M appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

Ravens begin eating carrion quickly, usually arriving not soon after a kill, but rather—because of their close association with wolves—being there when the kill is made. As many as 135 ravens have been seen on one carcass! Interestingly, these birds will not only eat some of the food, but cache (store) as much as possible. It is believed that in some cases the raven, not the wolf, will harvest the majority of a large animal carcass.

Wolf at Blacktail Pond. NPS / Jim Peaco

Ravens are highly regarded for their social skills, a complicated communication system, and excellent visual recognition. These vocal birds make lots of noise when they find a dead animal, drawing attention to the carcass so that larger, more “tooled” scavengers can open up the hide and eventually provide food for the ravens.

Those social skills have not gone unnoticed when observing wolf/raven interactions. Ravens have often been seen interacting with wolves, especially pups and yearlings. These intriguing birds have been known to grab sticks and play tug-of-war with wolf puppies, to fly over young wolves with sticks and tease the small canines into jumping up to grab the sticks, and even to boldly pull the tails of wolves to initiate a reaction. Some scientists have theorized that individual ravens may even develop special bonds with individual wolves within a pack.

Perhaps we will soon know more about this fascinating animal relationship, as a new research study in Yellowstone hopes to shed light on many facets of raven life, including their relationship with wolves on the landscape.

By YF Institute Staff

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 issue of Yellowstone Quarterly.

The post Naturalist Notes: Wolves and Ravens appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

In the pre-dawn light of winter, you hear a low howl. Anticipation rises as you look through the spotting scope, hoping to get a glimpse in the dim light.

The sun breaks through the clouds, making shafts of sunlight on the valley floor. You spot them! The entire pack is lined out single file across the valley. One…two…seven…twelve…. As they shift in and out of patches of light, you can see the wind fluttering through their guard hairs and the snow flying off their paws. They are heading straight towards a herd of elk. You hold your breath, but they keep going, topping a nearby ridge. You’re left with the prickly-numb feeling that comes from a brush with wildness—and questions: Why didn’t they chase the elk? Was that the alpha pair in the lead? Where are they going?

Wolf leaving shipping container in Rose Creek Pen, Jan 1996. NPS / Jim Peaco

In the winter of 1995, the first howl of a wild wolf pack in more than 70 years echoed in Yellowstone, the culmination of a long effort to reintroduce wolves after they were extirpated from the park in the 1920s. Between 1995 and 1997, 41 wolves were relocated from western Canada and northwestern Montana to Yellowstone, in one of the greatest wildlife restoration stories of our time. As of December 2019, 93 wolves in eight packs had territories in Yellowstone.

First wolf arrives in Yellowstone, Jan 1995. NPS / Jim Peaco

The return of wolves to Yellowstone offered a new opportunity for people from across the globe to experience and study a wild, intact ecosystem. Yellowstone provided an unprecedented window into the lives of wolves, a second chance to understand and reevaluate our relationship with large carnivores, and the means to solve some of the mysteries of their kind.

Wolf #7 in Rose Creek Pen, Jan 1995. NPS / Jim Peaco

Would you have guessed that the color of a wolf’s coat could be linked to how many pups it has, or how long it lives? Or that the nesting site of a Wilson’s warbler could hinge upon the actions of wolves?

The Yellowstone Wolf Project is approaching a remarkable 25 years of research data, obtained from an annual winter behavior and monitoring study. That data, along with a long-term summer study that tracks wolf kills, and blood samples obtained from wolves, has afforded scientists new discoveries previously unattainable.

To date, 85 scientific publications, 3 books, 22 book chapters, and 27 technical reports have been published by the Wolf Project staff. Add in works by other scientists, universities, popular publications, and filmmakers, and wolves in Yellowstone have inspired thousands of scientific and popular narratives.

What have we learned about wolves?

Doug Smith, Yellowstone’s senior wildlife biologist and Wolf Project leader, has been there from the beginning. He says foremost we’ve learned that restoration—even of a controversial species—can work. “You can take a disturbed ecosystem…and restore the original inhabitants and undergo ecological restoration,” he says.

Senior wildlife biologist Doug Smith examines a wolf kill. NPS / Jacob W. Frank

Here Smith is referring to the idea of “trophic cascade,” where wolves indirectly impact the growth of vegetation by affecting the behavior of their plant-eating prey, creating a cascade of effects on plants, birds, and other species. He emphasizes that how exactly wolves contribute to those effects is an ongoing scientific debate.

One of the main knowledge gaps Yellowstone has filled, says Dan Stahler, lead wolf biologist, is a better understanding of wolf social behavior. Yellowstone’s large prey abundance enables more socially complex packs and more diverse age classes than other places, leading to new insights. “We’ve been able to get to know individuals— knowing their genetic background, observing them doing major life history events, whether it’s breeding, raising offspring, hunting, fighting with other packs,” says Stahler. “It’s really unprecedented.”

Researchers have found that younger wolves (two- to three-year-olds) are the best hunters, but older, more experienced wolves are critical to surviving attacks from other packs. Larger packs are better for defending food and territory, cooperatively raising pups, and surviving if a wolf is sick or infirm; but finding food for everyone is more difficult. Not all packs consist of a monogamous alpha pair leading a pack of non-breeding wolves; 25 percent of packs in Yellowstone have multiple females that breed each year. Blood samples have shown that diseases like canine distemper virus can reduce the wolf population up to 30 percent, and cause pup survival to plummet.

Slough Creek Pack, 2005. NPS / Dan Stahler

The project has busted some myths, too, like the idea that wolves are the perfect predator. Hunting elk and bison is a dangerous business. “Everything from their body design to their risk-averse behavior, to the challenges of walking up to an animal five times your size with just your mouth and pulling it down and killing it,” says Stahler, “are limitations to their success.”

Genetic research is another exciting frontier. Complex family trees and DNA studies help shed light on which traits influence survival, how wolves evolved, and even the origin of black coat color—a gene traced back to old-world domestic dogs that plays a role in disease resistance and longevity, among other things.

These are just a few examples of the layers of new understanding about wild wolves.

What does the future hold?

Knowing how a natural population behaves is important for understanding the impact of human actions in other places. Yellowstone is currently part of a study of several parks—including Denali, Grand Teton, and Yukon Charlie in Canada—to better understand the impacts of hunting and human management on wolf populations.

Smith believes social science is key to fostering a positive future for wolves. The relationship between wolves and people is fraught with conflict. Wolves have been delisted and relisted as an endangered species multiple times in an ongoing debate about how to manage them outside the park. A robust wolf-watching community contributes significant economic benefit to local communities and provides a strong constituency for wolves. Outside the park, wolves still incite strong negative feelings in many whose livelihood depends on elk hunting or raising livestock. Social science is needed to better understand the human dimensions of wolf management.

Druid pack pups, 2005. NPS / Dan Stahler

This is part of why the Yellowstone Wolf Project will remain committed to educational outreach, from in-park Wolf Project staff who interact with visitors, to public presentations (Smith provides around 50 programs annually). A new book, Yellowstone Wolves: Science and Discovery in the World’s First National Park, due out through the University of Chicago Press in 2020, will share what the park has learned with a broader audience.

Equally important to the future of wolves is the funding to maintain these initiatives. The Yellowstone Wolf Project was the first program funded by the Yellowstone Park Foundation—one of Yellowstone Forever’s two legacy organizations—and today a significant portion of funding comes from Yellowstone Forever. “We wouldn’t have the highest profile wolf study in the world if it weren’t for Yellowstone Forever,” says Smith.

Back in the park, the wolves have crossed the ridge out of view, ignoring the doings of humans. Yet wolves hold a critical place in the future of wild places. The opportunity Yellowstone provides to see and experience them as well as learn about their biology and behavior gives us new perspectives and pathways to coexistence—for the next 25 years and beyond.

To learn more about the Yellowstone Wolf Project and how you can help, visit Yellowstone.org/wolf-project.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 issue of Yellowstone Quarterly.

The post Yellowstone’s Window into the Wolf World: Celebrating 25 Years appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

The post Get the most out of your winter trip with a Lodging & Learning Package appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

Image and video courtesy of Tom Murphy
-Lamar Canyon Pack, 2013

The post Iconic Image of Yellowstone Wolves Howling Also Captured on Video appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

For many, it is just as exciting to look for the tracks and prints these animals’ have left behind. If you look with a careful eye, you’ll notice a wide variety of animal tracks crisscrossing the park. While some such as grizzly bears hibernate, others tromp, trudge, meander, scurry, and slide through the snowy landscape in order to survive and thrive in winter.

These tracks are a record of what has occurred in the recent past. Animals movements are carefully calculated in order to best conserve energy in these harsh conditions. Maybe a coyote has scampered along in search of food, a jackrabbit has moved from one tree cover to the next, a family of river otters have slid along the shore of the Yellowstone River, or a migrating line of bison has trudged through two feet of snow.

Part of the fun of finding these tracks in the snow is to investigate and guess which mammal or bird they belong to. How big are the tracks? How far apart? Was it a fox or coyote? Jackrabbit or pine marten? Cougar or wolf?

Next time you are visiting Yellowstone in winter, or even in your own backyard, keep a watchful eye on the ground for a unique way of experiencing and understanding the lives of wild animals.

Take one of our popular animal tracking courses through the Yellowstone Forever Institute!

Photos courtesy of NPS

The post Making Tracks appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.

My mom makes a delicious venison chili. But at about seven years old I decided that lima beans were my enemy and by association kidney beans were highly suspect. Something had to be done and good thing my younger sister loved beans. We swapped spoonfuls back and forth until she had a bowl full of beans and mine was mostly venison and tomatoes. Decent problem-solving and teamwork for a pair of little curly-haired kids intent on avoiding slightly unsavory foods.

Nowadays it is clear that cooperation and teamwork are at the center of success in everything from business to sports, innovation to education (and avoiding undesirable legumes?). But this isn’t a new phenomenon; for millennia humans lived in small groups of hunter-gatherers where each person had certain responsibilities—hunt large game, tend the fires, make weapons, raise the children, protect the group from invaders, train the dogs and horses. The division of labor eventually morphed into distinctive occupations as societies became larger. But teamwork doesn’t require a Homo sapiens-sized brain, or bipedalism, or a younger sister who doesn’t yet hate lima beans; a few other species use the same strategy.

Gray wolves have figured out how to succeed by sharing the group’s tasks and responsibilities amongst all pack members. The dominant, breeding females choose den sites that are safe for the new pups and well-placed to be the pack’s summer hub of activity. Wolves between one and three years old are the fast hunters, selecting prey and tiring it out while the large adult males use their weight to bring down ungulates five to ten times larger than any one of them.

Recent studies in Yellowstone have found that male wolves specialize in protecting their own family by fighting off rival packs. Males are about 20% larger than females in size so they are physically built for the task, too—biting, pushing, grappling, sometimes killing their enemies. Male wolves do this to eliminate competition and also to protect their family. This may be why older males become even more aggressive—breeding opportunities are dwindling and they’ve put a lot of effort into raising and looking after their current offspring. Some old male wolves have many family members to protect, such as the former alpha male of the Mollie’s pack who, at six and a half years old, lived in a pack with his mate and their 16 offspring.

Living in such a large pack can also affect an individual wolf’s behavior. A wolf is more likely to chase a rival if they know they have strength in numbers. But females are still more conservative, only chasing if their pack outnumbers the enemy by 1.5 wolves. A male will still chase the rivals even if he’s outnumbered by 3.5 wolves.

Cooperative, family-living carnivores, like gray wolves, are fairly rare. Cooperative siblings sharing vegetables may be particularly uncommon…. But it’s no surprise that gray wolves and humans are so alike in their behavior. They live in family units, they cooperate to accomplish complex goals and everyone is safer and healthier because of teamwork. Specific tasks are taken on by certain family members, just like a male gray wolf will protect the pack from rival groups. It is, after all, a responsibility that evolution has written into his DNA for tens of thousands of years. Protect the family with your life, family lives, genes are passed on, repeat.

This research, using 16 years of data from Yellowstone National Park’s gray wolves, was published in 2017 in Behavioral Processes under the title “Sexually dimorphic aggression indicates male gray wolves specialize in pack defense against conspecific groups.” Contact Kira for a copy of the article at kira_cassidy@nps.gov.

Yellowstone Forever is a proud contributor to the Yellowstone Wolf Project, supporting key elements of the project’s research and monitoring activities including collaring and aerial monitoring. Learn more about the project and how you can get involved.

The post Male Gray Wolves Protect Family Members from Rival Packs appeared first on Yellowstone Forever.