This morning, we had woken up at 4 am at the Rainbow Point Campground near West Yellowstone. We did this so we could make a 2-hour drive into Yellowstone so we could meet up with Yellowstone Wolf Biologist Jeremy SunderRaj to look at and learn more about the wolves that live in the park.
Jeremy had a couple of scopes set up for us so we could look at the wolves, as we were still a pretty significant distance away from the wolves since visitors are not allowed to get near them or else they will be fined. We got up so early because we are more likely to see the wolves being active earlier in the morning.
The wolves were being pretty sleepy this morning, so all we really saw was some of the pups laying down in some sagebrush. There were a few people though who saw their little ears poking over the sagebrush.
After some time of looking at the wolves, Jeremy started to talk to us about their history in Yellowstone. By the early 1900s, wolves had become scarce throughout the United States, and from 1995 to 1997, 41 wolves from Canada and Northwest Montana were released into Yellowstone. This came with a wide range of opinions from the people, ranging from excitement for the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, to people not wanting it to happen because of their threat on nearby livestock. Most of their prey is elk, with them sometimes feeding on deer and bison. A lot of other animals in the ecosystem benefit from the wolves being reintroduced as they were a key piece of the Yellowstone ecological “puzzle.”
Jeremy had shown us some of the tools they use to keep track of each wolf, and one of those tools was a collar that could be tracked using radio telemetry. Each of their collars had a specific code associated to it, in which the radio telemetry could be tuned to so they can track each wolf individually. Another interesting fact is that about half of the wolves in Yellowstone have dark black coats, while the other half have grey coats. Talking to Jeremy had been super informative and looking at the wolves through the scopes was a really cool activity that I am glad I got to do, even with us having to get up at an early 4 in the morning.
