September 5, 2014

More wolves.

First thing in the morning, I drove out to Soda Butte and saw several wolf pups. The light was wrong for photos and we were a bit down the valley, so the distance was too far, as well. But here's what I got:

In the first picture, there is a fifth black pup behind the tree in the bottom left.

Then, I was going to go back to camp and do chores, but I stopped at Slough Creek and the Junction Butte pack was out all morning. I counted 8, but may have seen as many as 12. It was tough to keep tack as they were all moving around.

One interesting wolf thing happened while we were there. Wolf 889 (that's her collar number and how she's identified) seemed to be trying to join the pack. She is the sister of the alpha female of the pack and hasn't got a mate. The hunting is hard this time of year and the Junction Butte pack has lots of members to help hunt. They are much more successful than a single wolf. It remains to be seen if she is allowed in.

After lunch I went into Gardiner and updated the blog and did some email stuff, then it was back to camp for chores and dinner. After dinner, it was back out to Soda Butte where I saw 3 pups tussling for just a few seconds. Josh suggested that one woke up and had to go to the bathroom and, in the process, woke 2 others, so they had to have a wrestling match.