We were up early today, 5:30 AM. Without even a cup of coffee, we headed out to the Hayden Valley and the overlook where the ranger said we might see wolves. It was worth the early start.
We arrived at the overlook parking area at about 6 AM and there were already a half dozen cars there, still plenty of room for Speedy to park. We hopped out with our binoculars and Ellen's new camera. There was a couple there with a spotting scope and a long lens DSLR, who told us that there were two wolves way out on the other side of the river harassing a lone bison. We took a look and were able to spot them. They were far enough away that we could just make them out clearly with binoculars. There was a big black wolf (the ranger, yesterday, said this was the alpha male) and a gray one.
They would stand just away from the bison. The bison would lie down and a wolf would come in to it. The bison would get back up; the wolf would move away. This went on a while, so we made coffee and brought it out to continue watching. The couple next us said that they had been here last evening and watched wolves harassing a bison in the same spot and they believed it was the same one and it was injured.
After a while the black wolf left and went up into the woods above the valley, only to re-emerge a few minutes later with the rest of the pack, a white wolf (the alpha female), another small gray wolf and three wolf pups. The small gray wolf and pups were mostly playing away from the bison, but the three adults went back to work, attacking the hindquarters of the animal whenever they could. The white female jumped up and grabbed its rear quarters and hung off the bison at one point.
The bison would retaliate, but not move, aside from turning in circles, and the adult wolves moved off for a while. Another bison approached and stood by the injured one for a while, keeping the wolves at bay, but at some point the injured one fell over and the wolves really moved in, attacking the hind end. It tried a couple of times to get up and eventually rose, walked about 30 feet and collapsed for the final time. It seemed to be sitting up as the wolves bit at it.
At one point, another bison came over and head-butted the injured one, whether this was an attempt to get it up or a dominance move, we don't know. When I talked with rangers later, they had never heard of such behavior before. The dying bison responded, but couldn't rise and the wolves were still attacking. Finally, the bison fell over completely and we could see no more movement.
After the wolves gnawed at the bison for a while, another larger group of bison came over, as the mass of the herd was moving nearby. A couple of them actually chased the wolves off, then the group of about ten stood around the dead animal, with the wolves lying in the field a safe distance away.
It had been about two and a half hours since we had started watching. The bison were not moving and the wolves were waiting. It was a bit gruesome, but was an action seldom seem except in nature films, and they don't take the time to show it all.
After we left, we stopped at the Fishing Bridge visitor center and I reported the kill to the rangers there. They had not heard of it yet and wanted to know all of the details. They said that we had been very lucky to see it and that site would be a prime place to watch for the next two or three days as the bears, coyotes and birds will all show up to compete with the wolves for a piece of the carcass. The bears will prevail, the wolves will get their fill and the coyotes and the birds will get the rest. It was a good result for all, visitors who would have good viewing, animals who would have a good meal at this time of year—all except the bison, of course.
It was, so far, the wildlife highlight of the trip.
We then went on to Grand Teton National Park, actually traveling all the way through it to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for lunch, groceries and fuel, returning to the Gros Ventre campground at the southern end of the park. Our wildlife adventures for the day were not over.
On the road into the campground, which parallels the Ventre River, we saw a jumble of cars parked by the side of the road. It was for a female moose and her calf, who were down in the river shallows, knee-deep in the water, munching away in a patch of willows. The calf tore off the ends of branches and chewed away, but mom's technique was much more advanced. She would grasp a branch near the bottom and slide her teeth up the branch, stripping the leaves off cleanly, leaving a bare branch. They were about twenty feet down from the bank and no more than about 50 feet away.
Our final sighting came as we were finishing up with dinner: a badger came strolling through the campsite. He was just kind of waddling about in the grass around the site looking for food. We were able to watch for about 10 minutes as it poked around in the bushes through our site and the next, before wandering off back towards the river.
The Gros Ventre campground is not particularly attractive. It is on the flood plain of the river and looks as though it may have been flooded earlier in the year as there are river stones scattered everywhere. One of our guides describes it as "inconveniently located", and it is. While the closest to Jackson, it is relatively far from most of the park so we will probably move on tomorrow.
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