Life & Death in Yellowstone

WARNING: this post contains photos of a bison carcass that some may find disturbing.

I was fortunate enough to be in Yellowstone at a very opportune time this weekend, and had the amazing experience of seeing most of the Wapiti Lake wolf pack as closely as you’d want to see a wolf!

An injured bison

On Saturday night, we heard from some folks we had met in the park about a bison that had been injured. From what we were told by multiple people, the bison had somehow burned itself in a hot spring. According to one rumor, the bison was chased or spooked by the wolves and ended up in literal hot water.

We haven’t been able to verify the details of this story. There’s some justified skepticism about the wolves chasing the bison, because there’s apparently only one wolf pack in Yellowstone that actively hunts bison, and the Wapiti Lake pack is not the one. A tour guide we talked to promised to look into this and get back to us. I’ll update here when I know more.

Update (March 4, 2024): We heard back, and a ranger who was familiar with the bison said that the bison’s injury appeared to be a wound to its leg that got infected, and not a burn from a hot spring.

An opportunistic kill

During the day on Saturday, the Wapiti Lake wolves harassed the injured bison. They nipped at it frequently, even (from what we heard) biting its tail off. When the bison stood, they backed off a bit, and when it tried to lie down, they went back on the attack.

This is apparently a fairly typical strategy wolves use to take down an injured bison. The bites get the bison bleeding, and by keeping it from resting, they keep its heart rate up so it will bleed out sooner.

According to a ranger we talked to, the bison finally succumbed to its wounds around sunset Saturday night, fleeing into the Firehole River where it died.

Sunday evening

We were on a snow coach tour that wound up at the location of the bison carcass just slightly before sunset Sunday night, around 24 hours later. Nobody was sure what to expect, as information about this kind of thing does not get broadcast on the radio in Yellowstone. We knew that the bison had ended up in the river, but did not know if the carcass had ended up in the shallows, or was in fairly deep where wolves would be reluctant to feed, or had washed downstream.

When we arrived, we were treated to quite a show. The carcass ended up in shallow water, and 5 black wolves from the Wapiti Lake pack were feeding. Most of those were pups born this spring, though you’d never know they were pups by their size!

(The light was poor, so the above photo is not the best, unfortunately. Extensive noise reduction was needed.)

On the opposite side of the river were three gray wolves that seemed content to watch. According to folks who had been watching for a while, the black wolves had been observed carrying chunks of meat over to the gray wolves.

As we were heading back to the snow coach, one of the wolves swam across to our side of the bank, and as we left we saw it slipping through the trees in the dim twilight a dozen feet from the vehicle windows.

Monday morning

We began our transit out of the park this morning, via a snow coach ride. Our route would take us right past the carcass, so we hoped that we would see wolves again in better light, but didn’t really know what to expect.

As we rolled up to the area, we saw a couple coyotes roaming around the area, and the carcass was covered with ravens. One coyote watched us through the trees as we watched the carcass to see what would happen.

Eventually, one of the coyotes waded across, chased the ravens away, and began to feed. It was nervously looking over its shoulders between bites, and at first I thought the people watching were making it nervous. However, very shortly I realized it was wary of being caught in the river by the wolf pack.

While everyone was busy watching the coyote, we realized we were also being observed from the woods by a couple black wolves. (At least, those were the ones we could see watching us!)

Around this time, the coyote left and disappeared into the trees, while the black wolves also slipped in and out of the trees, looking for an opportunity to cross the road.

I saw what I thought at first was another coyote step out of the trees. Then I noticed this animal was too big for a coyote. It turned out to be a large gray wolf, which we were told by our guide was the lead female of the Wapiti Lake pack. She quickly crossed the road, then the river, and began to feed on the carcass.

As we watched, the two black wolves joined the gray, and we were told by our guide that those were two of the pups.

After a few more minutes of watching, a very large black wolf emerged and headed along the road towards the gathered photographers, then stopped and faced us down. (We were told he was the lead male, and I’m guessing he was feeling protective of his pack.) At about this time, rangers asked everyone to move back to their snow coaches, which we did.

We left at this point, and don’t know what transpired next. If anyone else is interested in sharing observations about this kill or this pack in general, please feel free to use the comments below. You can also find some other photos of the coyote and the wolves on my SmugMug page.