Kathie Lynch: Detailed report on the Hayden wolves

Kathie Lynch sent this story to me on July 21. I was in Yellowstone at the time. The scene for watching the wolves was perfect — sit in the shade at the Otter Creek picnic area and wait for them to appear on the other side of the Yellowstone River about 175 yards away.

Kathie’s report below is mostly about the Hayden wolves, but she does discuss some of the other packs. Kathie told me today that the Hayden Pack appears to have finally moved — to the Alum Creek vicinity (not far), and they can still be seen.

I hiked across the valley and up the canyon to Cache Creek and then up the Cache Creek canyon a way today. I was looking for signs of the Druids. I thought perhaps I heard a distant howl, but I saw nothing but a few old scats. Given the temperature, I’d bet they are with the elk high up on the Absaroka crest somewhere.

Here is Kathie report.

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Awesome! That’s the only word to describe the amazing viewing over the past two weeks of the Hayden Valley wolf pack across the Yellowstone River from the Otter Creek picnic area. Since July 7, the entire pack of four adults and five pups has put on an incredible show for the awestruck visitors lining the river bank. Seasoned wolf watchers and photographers alike agree that this has been their best pup viewing ever!

My best day, July 18, began at 5:30 a.m. with a blanket of fog over the river and no sign of wolves. By 9:30 a.m., the crowd of hopefuls had started to thin, and I debated about leaving for awhile. But, at 9:45 a.m., the cry of “There they are!” went up, and the entire group of four gray and one black pup burst into view on the river’s edge.

We watched with delight as the pups, strung out in a perfect line, gamboled along the shore. They played chasing games, pulled tails, practiced pouncing, explored rocky caves, leap-frogged over backs, straddled logs, and made life miserable for a pair of spotted sandpipers who kept trying to lure them away from a nearby nest. The most fun of all was watching them take turns slipping and sliding down a steep, sandy hillside with front legs straight out and toes splayed wide. Some even went down on their bellies with legs forward and back like a frog!

hayden-540f-with-pups.jpg

The one black pup is everyone’s favorite. Big and bold, he has a white spot on his chest and a white ring around his tail. He is often the leader on expeditions and is the first to try everything. He is especially fond of water and will wade in to snap at his own reflection or lay right down in the river to lap up a drink and cool off at the same time. He already shows signs of being a great hunter as he stalks ravens and seems to instinctively know exactly how to position himself and how to communicate with his littermates for a coordinated attack.

The presence of the black pup confirms an important fact—his parents are not the alpha pair, so there must be two litters in the pack. Since black coat color in wolves is caused by a dominant gene, he could not be the offspring of the white alpha female, 540F, and the gray alpha male, 541M. Of the four gray pups, only one is actually thought to be out of the alpha female (who is known for having small litters), and the other three grays and one black are thought to be out of a second mother.

Besides the alpha female, there are only two other adult females in the pack, an uncollared gray two-year-old and a gray yearling. The breeding age two-year-old must have left the Hayden pack for a time last February and bred with an unknown black (those of you who know him are probably thinking 302M!). She then returned to her natal pack to have her pups and showed signs (missing hair on her belly and obvious nipples) of lactation.

It makes sense for her to seek a mate outside of her natal pack since the only male in the Hayden pack is her own father, with whom she probably would not breed. DNA studies have shown a very high degree of heterozygosity (genetic diversity) among the Yellowstone wolves, indicating little inbreeding.

At various times during the day, the adults venture into view, often returning from a hunt to be mobbed by the pups, who lick the adult’s muzzle and beg for a regurgitation of a meaty stew. One time, the black pup carried away his prize, a shoestring of sinew, and carefully buried it to cache for later. The adults are often so full when they return from feeding on a carcass that they can barely waddle. The alpha male especially often looks stuffed. Once he regurgitates and beds down, he looks like a flat pancake lying in the green grass at the water’s edge and doesn’t move for hours.

Despite the crowd of people watching from the picnic area, the pack has seemed almost oblivious to human presence 173 yards across the river. The only times I’ve seen them react were when a siren went by and they responded with a great group howl (including high-pitched puppy voices!) and when someone in the crowd unwisely whistled; the alpha male raised his head and peered intently in that direction for about a minute, but he didn’t rise.

The day may come soon when the pack moves to their rendezvous, perhaps much farther away and harder to see in Hayden Valley. Although these pups were probably born near the end of April (about two weeks later than those in the Northern Range), they must now be about 11-12 weeks old and are way past due for the move. In fact, July 20 produced only two possible sightings in the vicinity of Otter Creek, so the show may already be over.

When the Haydens do move on, wolf watchers could face a difficult challenge. The Druid Peak, Slough Creek, Agate Creek, Oxbow Creek, and Leopold packs have all chosen rendezvous sites in far away, out of sight locations. The Druids have not been seen since June 30, and we have heard little about them. We can only hope that their pack of 11 adults and six pups (three black and three gray) will be big enough to contend with the resurrected Sloughs, who now have nine to ten adults and as many as 13 (!) pups (10 black and three gray).

Five Agates materialized one morning traveling east on top of Specimen Ridge above Little America, and I was thrilled to recognize my favorite, former alpha 113M, trotting proudly along in the procession. He appears to be fully recovered from his terrible injuries of last winter and is now officially the oldest wolf in the park, having turned 10 in April. He will break the previous record for a park wolf if he survives to this fall.

Although the Agates denned in their traditional area up Antelope Creek above Tower, they did not move progressively closer this year as they did last year. Instead, they disappointed those who had watched their pups last summer and instead moved in the opposite direction. Only lone individuals are only occasionally sighted.

Hypotheses abound as to why they moved farther away. One is that there have been too many bears in their former rendezvous site (this gets my vote—bears, especially grizzlies, have been everywhere there!). Other possibilities include that the new alpha male (former beta 383M) had different ideas, the very dry summer forced the elk up and away early this year, or perhaps the throng of people and traffic on Dunraven Pass road bothered them (although it didn’t seem to last year.)

Only a few Sloughs have been seen occasionally, often just passing through on their way to find food for their 13 hungry pups. As many as five Sloughs were observed feeding on bison carcasses in Lamar Valley and Little America for several days in early July. Although the Sloughs are one of the few park packs which knows how to kill bison, these two carcasses were not thought to be wolf kills.

Gray Agate Creek wolf 524F lost her life on July 4 near the bison carcass in Little America. Telemetry picked up her collar’s mortality signal, and researchers determined that she appeared to have been killed by other wolves, most likely Sloughs. She had ventured alone into Slough territory, and, perhaps driven by hunger, she took a fatal risk by going to another pack’s kill.

You may remember that 524F was one of the few survivors of the disease epidemic which killed so many pups in 2005. When she was collared at the age of eight months, her blood sample showed that she had antibodies to canine distemper. Her teeth were in terrible condition and looked like the worst old dog teeth that had never been cleaned. They were dark brownish black, and some were crossed or missing.

Nevertheless, 524F grew up to be an interesting and useful Agate pack member. She was once observed leaping at the throat to bring down a cow elk. I have a special memory of watching her and black Agate 525F circle around a newborn bison calf for two hours as it stood facing backwards under its mother’s belly for protection. The wolves lunged in and the cow kicked out until other bison finally came over to chase the wolves away. Every time I drive by that spot in Little America, I think about that calf (which we think survived) and what a story it could tell!

Agate 524F will be remembered as a wolf who beat the odds to survive and had to deal with great hardship in her two years of life. Perhaps it is a blessing that the end came swiftly rather than a lingering death due to starvation. When she died, she weighed less than 70 pounds and was missing many teeth. It does make you wonder about the condition of the other wolves who survived the epidemic, including her littermate, the former Agate who is now the new Slough alpha male.

Whether experiencing the joy of watching healthy, happy Hayden pups frolicking on the edge of the Yellowstone River or feeling the loss of a wolf who endured so much in her short life, the Yellowstone wolves have given us all the chance to feel connected to wild nature.

In return, the greatest gift we can give them is to help them survive and thrive outside the protection of the national park as they face possible delisting from the Endangered Species Act. Every one of us whose life they have touched has a great responsibility to help them coexist as they venture out into our world. We are their only chance.

20 thoughts on “Kathie Lynch: Detailed report on the Hayden wolves

  1. Kathie, thank you for another great report! I watched 524F and 525F in the Fall of 2005 in the Antelope Creek area with a Yellowstone Association class. It was really a beautiful experience. I hate to hear of her passing.

  2. Kathie, I always look forward to your reports and this was one of the best ever! Thanks so much for telling us all about your adventures. I finally saw the yearling of the Haydens this year, my first Hayden sighting ever, but next year I think I will be camping out at Otter Creek so I can finally see the Alphas! What a great picture, thanks again for sharing!

  3. Well stated, Kathy!!!….Once again thank you for your wonderful reporting….Nancy Sharpe

  4. Kathie, thank you once again for this outstanding account. In my mind’s eye I am following your every observation and location of the areas mentioned. You are the only source we Yellowstone wolf watchers have, when we’re not there.
    So thrilled that old 113M is still making it. Wow, I miss the wolves this year!
    Douglass, NC

  5. Kathie…You do a great job in reporting. Im a wildlife photographer and can only come to Yellowstone several times a year so your detailed reports keep my interests up. And Marks photo with this story was great as usual. See you in the fall Mark….Phil

  6. Thank you Kathie for sharing your great reports . Thanks to Mark too for the fantastic photos. The Gods really smiled on you all. Otter Creek Pinic area viewing. Doesn’t get better than that.
    Your eulogy about 524F brought back all my memories of watching the Agates in the Fall of 2005 for 14 days solid.
    She was shining star! Always on the go and into something. There was never a dull moment.
    Thanks for filling us in on who the interloper was during breeding season too.

  7. Kathie…..Wow what a great indepth report! I remember watching 524F and the black trying to get the bison calf. It was the first time I ever saw a wolf in the wild. Thank you for taking time to give us such detailed reports….Dave

  8. Thank you for your heart warming reports of the wolves in Yellowstone. My family and I were not able to make our yearly trip to the park this summer. Your detailed reports bring the wolves right home to us. The Agates were the first wolves I heard howl. It brought tears to my eyes. On the last day of our vacation in 2006 we stopped at the high viewing parking lot of Hayden Valley. The white female came out of the woods for a brief look and then she was gone. We felt like she came out just to say goodbye for now!! Thank you again for writing your reports of the wolves. Pray that our president and such will somehow have a change of heart about our wild animals!!!!! Janet

  9. Hi Kathie

    Once aqain you have submitted a complete and comprehensive report. You always capture my attention because of your sensitive attention to all the details. You bring me into your stories as if I was sitting right beside you (which I have been several times), you are a wonderful story teller. You should spend less time in California and more time observing and writing about Yellowstone Wolves and sharing your wonderful stories with all of us.
    Thanks Kathie, this was a wonderful report.
    Seeou Soon

    Jack Bean

    Jack Bean

  10. HI JACK!!! Long time no see…..Thanks for the shots and report. I can almost be there!! Keep up the great work everyone!!

  11. My husband and I were at Otter Creek picnic area from July 16-19 in the morning and late afternoons/evenings. We were there on July 18 in the morning. I love how you expressed what we observed. We feel that we were a part of many very special experiences those four days. I look forward to sharing them with my third graders this year and only hope they will be able to in some way grasp the importance of taking care of our earth and all of its inhabitants. Thank you again.

  12. Great update. i do believe, however, that black adults can have gray pups…i wonder where your info comes from on this. While there may be 2 litters in this pack, i would be interested to know where the data comes from that says blacks can’t have gray pups.

  13. Hi Sally,
    You are correct: black adults can have gray pups. However, I reread my story, and I think I stated it correctly. I meant to convey that two gray adults can not produce a black pup, not that black adults can not produce gray pups. Since black is dominant, at least one of a black pup’s parents must be black (i.e. if B = black and b = gray, parents of a black pup could be BB x BB, BB x Bb, BB x bb, Bb x Bb or Bb x bb). Depending on the parents’ genotypes, either black (BB or Bb) or gray (bb) pups could result. However, two grays (bb x bb) could only produce gray (bb) pups. I hope I have this right!
    Kathie
    P.S. Perhaps some confusion arises when wolves which appear “gray” produce black pups. Such was the case with former Druid alphas 21M and 42F, both of whom were born black and grayed significantly with age. They produced both gray and black pups, and if you saw them in their later years, it would have appeared that two “grays” had produced black pups.

  14. A beautiful report, Kathie, thank you. We really enjoyed several lovely hours of watching the Hayden Pack at the OCPA a couple of weeks ago, and it was just as you described – marvelous! We were fortunate to see the pack interact with an adolescent grizzly bear, with a brief stare-down (the wolves won), and a subsequent howling episode to roundup the pack for a head count. The pups were adorable and fun.

    Looking forward to watching their progress in Hayden Valley next month…will be there August 11-12-13 am.

  15. Kathie,
    I understand the genetics part of things, but I am not sure where the information comes from that black is the dominant gene. i am not doubting you, just wondering where the info comes from! I cannot find any information on wolf color genetics. Thanks!

  16. Kathie, thank you so much for your well written stories.
    Sally, Rick McIntyre was at the Otter Creek area several mornings. He was kind enough to share a great deal about the Haydens, including the genetic information.
    Mike Wilson

  17. Kathie,
    Thanks for another brilliant report. We have truly enjoyed watching the Haydens every June for the past three years and it sounds like this July at OCPA was as good as late June of 2005. We were a bit early this year and only got a brief glimpse of the pups but my how they have grown! Thanks again for your great reports and we look forward to seeing more of them. THANKS!
    Joe James

  18. Wonderful, Kathire! The last time we spoke in June, you were off to see if you could find the Haydens. I guess you did!! I also loved the coyote den near Trout Lake the you directed us to. Thanks so much! Mac Nelson

  19. The wolf genetic research Kathie refers to is being done by Dan Stahler, a phD candidate through UCLA. An article about Yellowstone wolf genetics, including some pedigrees on some of the packs, will be published by Dan and his collegues within the upcoming weeks. If anyone has any questions I would suggest reading the article!

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