When Wolves Meet Grizzly
Dear mullentown bloggers:
I could give you 335 reasons why I love my husband. But on this particular day, I love him for his ability to witness a rare moment in nature and to describe it beautifully, and for his interest in keeping this neglected little blog alive. I must say I’m not sure where mullentown is going. I’ve been concentrating nearly full-time on building the City Weekly blog. It’s in its infancy, and like any new baby needs huge attention. I’ve been posting at least once, sometimes twice a day there and am trying to get the rest of the staff to join in regularly, too. Check it out; we’re having great fun.
So … that means in the interest of feeding my blog while I’m crazy-busy with other work, I’ve asked Ted Wilson to share another entry here with you. It’s a lovely piece. The only missing element is photos. And as Ted and Rick explained to me, the scene they witnessed was so far away they could only have seen it through a spotting scope. The average digital camera couldn’t have worked. So you’ll have to rely on Ted’s fine eye for wildlife (he’s been integrally involved in the big outdoors his whole life). Enjoy!
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From Ted Wilson, with help from his friend, Rick Reese:
Yellowstone National Park–Our principal mission last week was the wily Cutthroat trout. But we were sobered while hiking to the Yellowstone River. Suddenly, we found our path dotted with huge fresh grizzly tracks in the mud. It’s the kind of deal that causes you to appreciate the small canister of pepper spray slung on your chest. But, like a soldier hitting the beach, just because you have a weapon your survival is not assured. Most grizzly attacks are so devastatingly swift that putting faith in weaponry is laughable.
We had the “Yellowstone Buzz,” a deep atavistic feeling rattling in your head when you realize you are not at the top of food chain. You know and you fear a creature lurking over the next rise or secluded in a clump of brush whose sheer ferocity and power can heaven-send you like lightning. The Buzz makes Yellowstone even more fascinating and strangely alluring.
So we clattered down the Hellroaring trail on a cloudy October morning yodeling, hooting, and hollering to fend off Old Ephraim. After a nice hike, our fears slid away as we stood alongside the magnificent waterway of the Yellowstone, the longest untamed river in America. The fishing was good and the scenery magnificent, but not the high point of the day.
Exhausted by fishing, we slogged back up the 600 vertical feet to the car and began our drive back to Gardiner, Montana, at Yellowstone’s north gate. I shared the day with old friend Rick Reese, long time Yellowstone expert and former director of the Yellowstone Institute. Rick knows the park as well as his back yard and he encouraged me to pull off the road where several people were already posted with their long-range optical gear.
It was a pretty routine stop. Thousands of people these days take pleasure animal watching in Yellowstone. The grizzly and black bear offer unusual viewing. And the sight of bison, elk, and deer are routine after the 1988 fires that exposed thousands of square miles of wild life forage. The newcomer is the wolf. And, though the animal is wild and elusive, sighting a wolf is now a big time spectator sport that brings many to the LaMar Valley, the Yellowstone River, and other parts of the park.
We didn’t expect more than the usual long range sighting as we approached the watchers. “What have we got?” Rick said in the tone of voice of an expert who has seen hundreds of wildlife sightings over the years. When one guy gushed, “15 wolves and three grizzlies alongside a herd of elk,” Rick’s eyebrows rose in astonishment and skepticism.
But squinting through Rick’s binoculars, we discovered the guy knew his numbers. Exactly three grizzlies and a bunch of wolves were scattered over a sage-covered hillside not more than a half-mile from our passage earlier on the Hellroaring trail near the Yellowstone River.
Even Rick couldn’t mask his excitement and dashed to the car for the spotting scope. A bit stunned, I was thrilled to see my first wolves. As an erstwhile Yellowstone gazer, I’ve spied plenty of bears but wolves had escaped my view in spite of several attempts to spot them.
Rick set up the scope and focused. “You are not going to believe what is going on,” he muttered. Reese is not given to overstatement so my enthusiasm caused me to lean hard against his shoulder to signal my turn squinting through the scope. More people had arrived and leaned over our shoulders to see what was going on.
A full pack of wolves was circling, nipping at the heels, and fully stalking a grizzly bear. I gushed, “How often, Rick, does a pack of wolves try to down a grizzly?” His reaction–now remember, I’m asking a Yellowstone expert of more than three decades–was simply, “I have never seen this before and never heard about it from any of the park biologists.”
The wolf is a serious killer. A carnivore, wolves work together in packs and use strategy to down their prey. No animal in Yellowstone is immune from a wolf pack. Except perhaps the grizzly, an animal so large and so amazingly equipped with size, speed, strength, claws, jaws and teeth to command almost any meal in the park. And here we were seeing first-hand that yes, huge bears do get attacked by wolves.
The wolves were serious and continued their harassment of the bear for a full 30 minutes. The bear was dark and appeared very large though at the distance we were viewing we could not be sure. Perhaps it was young or even sick, causing the wolves their interest. But the bear was moving well, at times kicking back his rear legs, and another time breaking into a lope.
I have no doubt the wolves were out to down the bear and share a meal. Rick thought that improbable and brought up the aspect of play. I’ll leave that to experts. The pack dispatched one wolf to continue to drive the bear down the hill while the rest circled to set a trap. When the bear slammed into the circlers, he merely brushed by and carried on his way. No wolf ventured forth to set his teeth into bear fur.
Rick said if the wolves attacked, his money was on the bear. That calculation may have occurred to the wolves, too. They eventually dispersed and allowed the bear a chance to rest.
Off to the side of the main circus, another grizzly hunkered down behind a rise stalking the elk herd. Rick said the main tactic was for the bear to charge the herd to see which elk did not run well because of youth or illness. The unfortunate, slow elk makes a meal for a hungry bear about ready to enter the winter den. The grizzly has been very active feeding recently in the park because of poor forage from a sweltering summer. We saw no charge of the bear.
We packed up our scope and drove back to Gardiner through a spectacular sunset. Today, I feel like I have just watched the classic movie, Jaws. Many years ago, after seeing that film, I felt a creepy little buzz in my shower the next morning. As if the teeth of that massive Jaws shark were going to come up the drain and grab me. This morning, I looked into my back yard and I was sure I saw a grizzly stalking behind the fitzers and the chestnut tree.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for a great article. It is a little past my normal bed time but I’ll sleep well after reading this and reflecting on the wonders of nature.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Good narrative Ted, thanks. The Harvard Law of Animal Behavior states that: “Under the most carefully controlled experimental conditions animals will behave as they damn well please”. In the laboratory or in the field, I guess it holds. I’ve had students carefully transcribe this “Law” during a lecture and ask if it will be on a test. I guess I’m too droll.
Intriguing is the possibility that the grizzlies were working as a pair. The wolves were unwitting enablers. Unless the grizzly being stalked was weakened or infirm, the wolves were not going to win that encounter.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:55 am
One group that I admire is the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. They seem to be really trying to help the ecosystems of the area…everything from the animals to limiting snowmobiles.
I went to a board meeting several years ago, hosted by America`s #2 Fun Couple, Ted & Jane. Their vision of the future was optimistic, but this was before Bush & co.
The worst example of awful or nonexistent urban planning is Idaho`s Teton Valley. The ignorant locals have zero aesthetic sense…shacks and garbage everywhere. A shame.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:09 am
`Grizzly Man` comes to mind when thinking about bears. Sort of like `Jaws` and carnivorous fish. Werner Herzog`s amazing documentary about the loony Tim Treadwell convinced me that getting too close to bears was a bad idea. The helicopter pilot who retrieved Treadwell`s remains expressed the opinion that Tim got what he deserved…pity about the poor girl.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Yeah, Utahns don’t have a monopoly on lack of planning and stupidity.
Us Idahoans have plenty of it too. It’s a shame, as the area is so beautiful.
Great article by Ted. I could almost see it all happening, makes me want to go to Yellowstone.
Holly, please don’t quit this blog. Nothing wrong with City Weekly and it’s your job so it’s important but it’s nice to see “you” and not the “job you”. I don’t think they are tons different, but on some things they can be as they are for all of us. Just sayin’….
October 27th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Nice, Ted–quite an experience.
chardonnay and lost in utah–who poisoned your gin? Why is it that every time you comment, you have to slam people?
Hopefully mullentown will continue. In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed a couple of midwestern blogs: Prairie Home Companion, with its gentle letters and Garrison’s answers, and the delightful columns from Mrs. Sundberg. And a blog called the Bleat, by James Lileks. Running commentary on his life and family, with a heavy side of wry. If interested, Google them, as I apparently can’t post URLs in the blog.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
At least I slam myself.
‘Nuff said.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:28 am
msteele: It’s great to see your interest in James Lileks–he writes for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. I used to work with him 20 years ago at the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. He’s very funny. I never thought I’d get to the point in life/career where I could claim acquaintances from two decades ago and halfway across the continent. Wow. And yes, I would second your suggestion to read Lileks. Very funny and sometimes touching stuff…
October 31st, 2007 at 1:58 pm
I have a rather high opinion of Randall Lake and a Ted portrait should be a keeper. Almost as good as Alvin Gittins.
Utah does have some world class artists.
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:13 pm
We have to come up with a new name for the departing Rocky.
How interesting that he engineers a last minute ‘take down” of Jenny via his cheap shot Op Ed, and now he is doing the same last second take down of the proposition to fund new police and fire buildings. What is it with this guy? Is he that terrified of being out of the limelight?
What a sad, sorry, insecure guy. Amazing how close genius is to insanity.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Sigh. A blogger’s (and blogee’s) paradox. Over at City Weekly, a plethora of pretty good blog entries, but hardly any commenters. Here at Mullentown, a plethora of willing commenters, but hardly any blog entries.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:27 am
msteele;
I agree. Too bad as this was a comfortable forum for my lefty views.
November 17th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
So, Holly, is this blog caput? Nothing from you since October 25. I hope you resume this site. Very nice place for progressive exchanges, to say nothing about your great leadership in writing and blog ideas. Please re-contact with your bloggers.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:49 am
Holly, this blog MUST be dead if you can ignore this!
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan says top administration officials — including President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — were involved in his “unknowingly” passing along false information about the leak of a CIA operative’s identity.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Please give us a Thanksgiving treat and post!
December 1st, 2007 at 4:44 pm
And so, I bid a fond farewell to Mullentown. I have visited City Weekly, but Holly, your stuff there is a little too edgy for me, lacks the warmth that accompanied the passion here and on the Trib. But, I wish you well. Larry and I still would love to meet you sometime if we can cross paths along the Wasatch. Take care, friend.
December 14th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
“When Wolves Meet Grizzly” is such a good story that I’m linking to it on my Amazon blog for “Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler’s Companion to the National Park.” Thanks for sharing it!
April 12th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Just thought I’d check back in and see what’s happened with mullenghosttown.com.
My footsteps echo eerily in the silence, the floor is covered with dust, all the furniture is covered with canvas tarps, and several of the windows have bb-shot holes in them. The roof leaks, and one of the ceilings upstairs has a stain and bulge from where rain water has collected.
The for sale sign outside has fallen over and is covered with weeds. Sigh, such pleasant memories and gone to ruin, all in six months. If she’d only come by one more time to say goodbye, maybe I’d gain closure…