My wolf guide Bonnie picked me up at 6:30 am. This will be our schedule for the next four days. The wolves in Yellowstone are divided into packs. There are about a half dozen packs in the park and they compete with each other for prey and territory.
We headed straight for Lamar Valley where wolves had been sighted recently. Even so, wolf sightings are never guaranteed and I was prepared for a long wait. However almost immediately we saw two yearling pups from the Lamar pack!
 |
| "Big T", a yearling female from Lamar Pack |
The backstory we got from other wolf watchers was that the Lamar pack had made a kill but the stronger Molly pack drove them away forcing them to leave the kill. During the retreat two of the Lamar pups got left behind; they were too weak to keep up with the rest of the pack. One was named "Big T" (because of the T-shaped pattern on her chest). Unfortunately she has a bad case of mange (a skin parasite that affects dogs and wolves); you can see she's lost a lot of fur.
They were both resting under trees in the distance, about a mile away. They were barely visible as tiny specks to the naked eye. You needed powerful binoculars to see them clearly, and I had to break out my huge telephoto lens right off the bat!
 |
| Big Horn Sheep |
|
We didn't see any more wolves the rest of the day, so I took pictures of some other animals included Big Horn sheep, Mountain Goats, and a coyote.
[Anyone reading this blog? Then please leave a comment below and let me know!]
 |
| Mountain Goat |
|
 |
| Lone Coyote |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment