Druid pack losing grip on Yellowstone
Associated Press
The Druid Peak wolf pack, once the largest and most recognized in Yellowstone National Park, is slowly vanishing in the rugged wilds of the Lamar Valley.
At its height near the end of 2001, the pack numbered 37 and was one of the most popular attractions for visitors. But biologists say its members have been either dying off or leaving to form four other packs.
It now has only eight members at most and is facing an uncertain future as its leaders age and other packs are expected to make incursions into Druid territory.
“They’re getting by on borrowed time now,” said Doug Smith, Yellowstone’s lead wolf biologist. “They had their day, and now it’s the other packs’ day.”
Formed in 1996, a year after the wolf reintroduction program started in Yellowstone, the pack became a dominant force in the Lamar Valley.
It ballooned in 2000 after three females gave birth to 21 pups, 20 of which survived. In most packs only one female typically gives birth each year.
The pack took over more territory and eventually nudged out the Rose Creek pack on the western end of Lamar Valley. But the pack got so big that feeding all its members became more difficult.
“The average pack size in Yellowstone is 10 wolves,” Smith said. “There’s an equilibrium with the size of the prey base. When you get much over that, you have to kill more elk, which is hard because the elk are good at rebuffing wolf attacks.
“With 37 in the pack, they couldn’t keep up.”
Although several members of the pack died, many simply left the pack. One joined a group of wolves north of Yellowstone and others banded together to form their own packs.
“Some of their key individuals left and were the foundation for other, new packs,” Smith said.
The Geode Creek, Slough Creek and Agate packs were started by Druid wolves. Another new pack, led by wolf No. 261, has not been named yet.
At the core of the remaining Druids are the aging alphas, No. 21 and No. 42, both born in 1995.
“They’re old and they show it,” Smith said. “They don’t kill elk anymore, they let the younger pack members do it. And when they move, you can see them kind of creak.”
No. 42 is the last of the wolves introduced in the park in 1996. Her sister, No. 41, lives east of Yellowstone in Sunlight Basin.
“She’s remarkable and historic,” Smith said of No. 42. “She was jet black to begin with and now she’s totally gray.”