Yellowstone Elk Has Learned How To Avoid Wolves and Mountain Lions

Above, elk gathering in a defensive group circle in Grand Teton National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It is interesting that the following article appeared in the National Parks Traveler following my trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

It is about how Yellowstone elk have learned how to avoid mountain lions and wolves.

One defense we saw came in Grand Teton National Park. A herd of elk gathered into a giant group circle with their young at the center. A bear was in the vicinity. We watched the gathering of elk from a rise about a half mile away.

The article is an interesting one. It begins with:

Viewed as prey by both wolves and mountain lions, elk in Yellowstone National Park have figured out how best to avoid those predators, according to a new study. 

While the elk aren't always successful, the ability of many elk to dodge the predators on a daily basis explains why elk, mountain lions, and wolves all are "thriving on the Yellowstone landscape," said Dan Stahler, a Yellowstone biologist who participated in the research. 

According to the just-released study, mountain lions prefer to hunt at night in forested areas, whereas wolves usually hunt in the morning and early evening hours on flat, grassy areas of the park's Northern Range.  

"Elk sidestepped both cougars and wolves by selecting for areas outside these high-risk domains, namely forested, rugged areas during daylight when cougars were resting, and grassy, flat areas at night when wolves were snoozing," explained Michel Kohl, the research paper's lead author who now is an assistant professor at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia in Athens.

To read more, go here. 

Wolf Spotted At Crater Lake National Park

Above, Wizard Island at Crater Lake National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Several years ago, wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park and are currently thriving.

However, this is the first I've heard of wolves in Crater Lake National Park in recent years.

According to the Herald and News:

A local woman had a unique experience with a wolf at Crater Lake National Park on Wednesday and was able to capture photos of the encounter. 

Erika Clements said she was making her daily deliveries to the park for UPS when she came around a corner and saw what appeared to be a dog digging in the snow. 

As she drove closer she realized it wasn’t a dog or even a coyote, but an engendered gray wolf.

To read more, go here. 

Yellowstone's Ecosystem and Wolves

Above, a wolf in Lamar Valley. Wikipedia photo.

When my daughter Amber and I visited Yellowstone National Park two years ago, we managed to see elk, bears and other animals. But we didn't see any wolves even though they're there.

The Plaid Zebra has an article on how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park "saved" the park. I don't know about "saving" the park, but they did much to restore the ecosystem within it.

They began their article with:

Walking through Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming you’ll be happy to see an abundance of willow and aspen trees and hear the melodies of song-birds, a very different impression than that of 20 years ago. This change in the park’s ecosystem is due in part to the restoration of wolves in the area that has rejuvenated the environment. 

By the 1930s people had killed off all the wolves in the park. Wolves were seen as competitors in the hunting of elk so killing off the population was done in part to make human survival easier. It was also done during a time where the euro-centric public discourse favoured civility, of which the wolf represented the opposite. 

Then, due to a changing attitude toward the environment in the 1970s and the creation of the Endangered Species Act, there began a movement to bring back wolves to the area. Finally after much consideration and public debate in 1995, 41 wolves were taken from areas in western Canada, tagged, and transported to Yellowstone National Park over a period of three years. Once taken to the park the new wolves were hesitant to leave their cages, now 20 years later the population has reached its carrying capacity of around 100 wolves.

To read more, go here. 

Seeing Wolves In Yellowstone National Park

Above, somewhere in Lamar Valley of Yellowstone are wolves. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Lucky people who visit Yellowstone National Park are the ones who get to see wolves. Unfortunately, despite two trips to Yellowstone, I haven't seen any.

According to an article in the Idaho Statesman, winter and the early spring are the best times to see wolves.

They wrote:

Three dark-colored wolves loped in single file on a stark, snowy, wind-swept bench along Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar River after feeding on the eerie-looking skeletal remains of a bull elk. 

“There they are,” a photographer whispered on a February day in a highway turnout, about 40 miles deep into the northern part of the park at Lamar Valley. 

The tight parking area was spilling over with vehicles and excited onlookers with spotting scopes and cameras with 2-foot-long telephoto lenses mounted on tripods.

“This is addicting,” said Don Andrews of Vancouver, Wash., as he peered into his scope. Right next to him was his wife, Gail, with her eyes glued to another scope watching the wolves romp silhouetted against the snow. The Andrewses were spending 12 days in the park in February searching for, photographing and watching the storied Yellowstone predator.

For them, seeing Yellowstone wolves doesn’t get old. They keep coming back year after year in winter.

To read more, go here.