Tracking wolves in Montana
Silver Gate man spends days recording wolf moves
Thursday, September 4, 2008 11:59 AM PDT
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| Wencke and Peter Kieft, of Nijmegen, Netherlands, stand behind Rick McIntyre as he talks about the wolves of Yellowstone National Park, Aug. 20, 2008, in Silver Gate, Mont. McIntyre watches the wolves daily, charting their movements for the Yellowstone Wolf Project. |
BRETT FRENCH
Associated Press
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo.— A grizzly sow battled wolves to protect her cub about a mile from where Rick McIntyre sat upon a black fold-up stool.
Just another day at ‘‘the office.’’
Two times a day, seven days a week, visitors to Yellowstone National Park can find McIntyre gazing through a 60-power Swarovski spotting scope as he observes wolves and records their movements into a handheld tape recorder.
‘‘Part of my job is to count the wolves,’’ he said from his perch upon a hill in the Lamar Valley on Aug. 20. Just west of where Soda Butte Creek joins the Lamar River, he could see the Druid Peak pack grouped near a bison carcass.
Soon, the view grew more exciting.
‘‘We just started seeing the pups a few weeks ago, so I’m trying to get a count on them to see how well they survived,’’ McIntyre said.
McIntyre, 59, is a half-time employee of the Yellowstone Wolf Project, his wages funded through grants.
After transcribing his field notes on observations of the wolves, he gives them to the Wolf Project staff.
The other six months of the year he volunteers for the program.
The work is close to his home, a cabin in Silver Gate near the park’s northeast entrance.
‘‘If he wasn’t getting paid he’d be out there doing it anyway,’’ said Doug Smith, the Wolf Project leader.
With a voice as smooth as well-aged bourbon and the patience born of hours of observing wildlife in all kinds of weather, McIntyre also offers insight to visitors about wolves, their behavior and their history while sharing the drama that plays out in the lens of the spotting scope.
His knowledge is encyclopedic.
He even authored and photographed his own book on wolves, ‘‘A Society of Wolves,’’ published in 1996 by Voyageur Press.
He’s worked in Yellowstone since 1994, starting out as interpretive ranger before joining the Wolf Project.
‘‘What’s been fascinating to me over the years is they really have a well-developed sense of people watching them,’’ McIntyre said.
That’s why he’s positioned about a mile away.
‘‘We want to be respectful of their rights,’’ he said. ‘‘They are afraid of people, so if they saw people they would run away. We want to observe them in their natural state.’’
It is a sight that Peter and Wencke Kieft traveled almost halfway around the world from their home in Nijmegen, Netherlands, to see.
‘‘Yesterday was the first time I saw a wolf,’’ Wencke said as a strong evening breeze blasted the hillside. ‘‘It was very exciting. We heard about it, we read about it, we saw the movie, and now we saw it.
The Kiefts aren’t alone in their desire to see one of the 171 wolves that roam Yellowstone’s confines. Wolf Project staffers counted 32,600 people viewing wolves in summer 2007.
Because there are plenty of wolves, it’s now just as common to have ‘‘wolf jams’’ as ‘‘bear jams,’’ when visitors and their vehicles clog Yellowstone’s roads as tourists jostle to see, photograph and film the wildlife.
The Hayden Valley pack especially garnered lots of attention when it located its den close to a park road and the Yellowstone River.
It was one of the most human-tolerant packs in the park.
According to the Wolf Project’s 2007 report, ‘‘Some nights hundreds would gather to watch them ...’’
But the opportunity was wiped out last year when the alpha wolves of the pack were killed by an adjoining pack, sending the rest of the Hayden Valley wolves wandering.
There are still other opportunities to see wolves, especially toward the end of summer as bull bison rut.
During their fights, the big bulls are sometimes gored or otherwise injured and die or are killed by wolves.
The bison’s huge carcasses attract wolves and bears for days, offering tourists a chance to see the predators interact.
