Wolves in Yellowstone, LIVE! | Yellowstone Live

How're you guys doing? We're live in West Yellowstone ahead of Yellowstone Live tonight at 9:00, 8:00 Central on National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild with Trent, a naturalist at the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center. Thank you so much for being here.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the Discovery Center.

All right, welcome everybody! I'm glad to be here, and we have some wonderful things to talk about. I’ll tell you a little bit about the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center. Every summer, we are a nonprofit wildlife park and education facility. We're in the town of West Yellowstone, just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Our mission is to allow visitors to the area an opportunity to observe, understand, and appreciate grizzly bears and gray wolves.

This morning, we're talking a little bit about wolves here at the facility and about why we have wolves here. We have two packs—what we call our Granite Pack. The wolves in this pack include Summit. Summit is the male, and when you're looking, he's the larger one; males are about 20% bigger than females. He also happens to be lighter in color, but you can't tell a wolf's gender based on its color. In this case, he has a unique fold, and it's right here. So when you see him, you should notice him.

Then we’re looking at a she who is the female—she's a little bit smaller and happens to be darker in color. So those are the wolves we’re talking about looking at this morning.

Great! And guys, please comment below with questions, and we'll get to as many as possible.

Can you tell us a little bit about the history of wolves in Yellowstone, generally in the United States, North America, and then focus in on Yellowstone?

It's all tied together. Wolves are native species; they lived all across North America, historically living from Central America to the Arctic, and certainly including Yellowstone National Park. As European settlement happened, wolves were exterminated, and in 1926, the last wild wolf was killed by park rangers in Yellowstone National Park. Part of the extermination of predators like wolves and mountain lions was actually conducted up here by Soda Butte in the Lamar Valley.

So, the wolves were gone from Yellowstone and the surrounding region for about 70 years. In 1995 and 1996, there was a reintroduction of wolves, both in the national park and in central Idaho. The purpose of that was to bring this native species back and allow it to play an important role in the ecosystem. Over the course of those two years, 31 wolves from Canada and 10 wolves from northern Montana were brought back into Yellowstone Park.

Now, we have about a hundred wolves—just slightly less than a hundred—that have their territories fully or partially inside Yellowstone Park.

What are their impacts on the ecosystem after they were reintroduced, and what was the effect when they weren't there?

Wolves are really important in the ecosystem. They are known as keystone species. The keystone species is a really important concept in ecology. Keystone species are those that play an extraordinary role in the ecosystem; they’re the keystone of an arch. As apex predators, they affect populations and behaviors of other species.

Once they were brought back, they did exactly what wolves do: they hunted. They hunted elk, deer, bison, and moose—mostly elk, as they are the most abundant ungulate, the most abundant large four-legged animal in the area. They certainly impacted their populations and their behaviors.

Interesting science shows that when there isn't a top predator around, elk or deer hang around at river bottoms and things like that, eating. Wolves help scare them up into places where they have a clear view of the landscape. That change in behavior affected how elk interact with the landscape, and we've seen recovery of things like riparian vegetation in our river habitats.

So, wolves affect behaviors, which affects the ecosystem. Once you bring them back, you know, reintroducing them into the park, the next important thing is mating. Can you tell us a little bit about the mating of the wolves?

Wolves are social animals that live together in packs. Here in the Northern Rockies, a pack typically consists of about eight to ten wolves. They have specific roles within that pack, and very few of the wolves are actually breeders. The typical wolf pack is led by what we call the Alpha pair, which has a single litter of pups from the alpha female each year in the breeding cycle.

The birth of the pups significantly affects the whole calendar year of the pack. Breeding takes place in February, and pups are born in April. The alpha female builds a den; she actually digs it out and gives birth to the pups there. The pups live in that den for about eight to nine weeks, so the whole life of the pack is centered around that den for that time. Then, she'll move the pack to a series of what are called rendezvous sites, which are based operations for the pack.

The pups are being babysat by all the members of the pack over time, while individual wolves are out hunting, patrolling, and protecting the territories. There are these hubs of activity, and then like spokes of a wheel, they're heading out to their territories.

If you guys are just tuning in, we're here at West Yellowstone at the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center, ahead of Yellowstone Live tonight at 9:00, 8:00 Central on National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild. We have a couple of questions. If you guys have any questions, comment below and we'll get to as many as possible.

We have a question from Anastasia who asks, "What are some misconceptions about wolves?"

There are lots of different misconceptions about wolves; they are really not very well understood. Some of that is due to popular media and things like that. One misconception is how dangerous wolves are to people. Certainly, any animal can be potentially dangerous, but wolf attacks on humans are exceedingly rare—extremely rare.

There are other ideas that people have when they visit the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center. One of the things they can't believe is how small the wolves are. A male in the Northern Rockies generally weighs about a hundred pounds; females are typically about eighty. We're looking at a female here who’s right in that eighty-pound range or so, whereas people are expecting wolves to be huge, the size of like a Great Dane or a big dog. They're more the size of a medium dog; German Shepherds are a really good equivalent for weight.

Sure! Last night, we had our aerial reporter in a chopper for Yellowstone Live. We had a general wolf up there, and she was looking for wolves, but it was kind of hard to find some of them. Can you tell us where to find them and a little bit about their scarcity and where they hide around the park?

Right! Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres, the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. It's a huge area just for Yellowstone National Park. And again, there are just less than a hundred wolves living in that whole area, so that does make it a difficult species to spot.

But there are certain areas in Yellowstone that have a higher concentration of wolves. The northern range, what's called the Lamar Valley—from Tower Junction out to the Northeast Entrance—is the most likely place to see wolves in Yellowstone. The Hayden Valley, from Canyon going to Lake, is another good spot.

Wolves tend to be crepuscular animals, which means they are most active around sunrise and sunset, and they sleep in the middle of the day and at night. When you're wildlife watching, especially for wolves, going during those early morning or late evening hours really increases your chances of spotting these animals in the wild.

Okay, tell us a little bit about their speed and its importance to hunting, and how often they eat.

Wolves can run fast; they can reach speeds of about 30 miles per hour. However, they're not evolved for sprinting; they'll do that over short distances, but they are marathon runners. They can maintain a slower speed for hours and hours, meaning wolves are chase predators.

They're not ambush predators like a mountain lion that will surprise and spring. If an elk is being hunted by wolves, it is fully aware of it. There's no subtlety to the process. They will actually get a herd running, chase the herd, and then ultimately what they're doing is seeking out individuals—usually the ones that are slower, perhaps injured—and they will switch to hunting specific animals.

That endurance helps them because they can keep going for long distances. There seems to be a division of labor based on gender; we talked about the size of the wolves. Males are definitely bigger than females—about a 20% difference in size. The smaller females tend to be faster and end up doing most of the actual chasing. Once they have worn the animal down a bit, the males generally come in to do the actual killing during the hunt.

Wolves are cooperative animals, as well. We talked a little bit about the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone. Can you tell us a little bit about its impact on other animals, particularly those that may be flourishing because of the wolves' reintroduction?

Let’s talk about that a little more. We discussed how they affect behavior, and what we’re seeing is some interesting recoveries of certain species. We're also seeing some species that are declining. Certainly, elk numbers and populations are affected as wolves are their primary prey.

The animal that’s been affected the most was actually coyotes, which had to deal with the recovery of wolves—coyotes are their competitors for food resources. They moved out of river bottoms where they used to thrive.

Interestingly, with the decrease in elk in those areas, aspen and willow trees have bounced back. They’ve helped shade rivers and keep the temperatures down, which helps prevent erosion. As rivers have come back, beaver populations have increased. Beavers are engineers of the landscape, and they create wetlands.

As they’ve created the wetlands, amphibian populations have also seemed to recover. Ecosystems are incredibly complex, and dynamic. They're constantly changing, and if a species is removed from an ecosystem, it affects many other things—things that we just wouldn't even expect.

These connections between wolves and organisms like boreal toads have surprised researchers. When the species came back, all these changes occurred; things we just are not expecting. This is still being closely studied. Wolves were reintroduced back in 1995, and it's been 23 years since then, so every year, there are new findings that researchers discover about wolves and their connections to the rest of nature.

Great! If you're just joining us, we're here at the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Again, comment below with questions; we'll get to as many as possible.

We talked a little bit about the reintroduction and the habitats, and now we want to get to the people. If you're out in the park or around the park and you happen to run into a wolf, can you tell us what to do and what not to do?

When you're in Yellowstone National Park, you want to be aware of all wildlife. All wildlife includes wolves. You want to be conscious of their presence. The animals seen in Yellowstone National Park are wild; people need to think about that and understand they're not like raised pets—they're not tame or domesticated. Any animal can be potentially dangerous, including wolves.

There hasn’t been in human injury by wolves in Yellowstone National Park, and we hope that continues. It’s very rare that humans are ever injured by wolves anywhere in the world. The animal in Yellowstone that actually causes the most human injuries is the bison.

So, in Yellowstone National Park, the rule is to stay at least 25 yards away from any animal and 100 yards away from bears and wolves. Keep your distance, and take amazing pictures! Yellowstone is an incredible place to see wildlife.

Trent, I want to thank you so much for joining us, and thank you to everyone who's watching. Make sure to tune into Yellowstone Live tonight at 9:00, 8:00 Central on National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild. Thanks so much, guys!

All right, have a wonderful day! Please come visit the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center!