This afternoon I left Mammoth for my permanent home at the Old Faithful Inn.  We decided to take one last trip up to Silver Lake Flats.  Wolves from the Canyon Pack had been seen frequently in the area…but I hadn’t had any luck.  Later on I want to write a lot about the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone; both the successes and challenges–but I couldn’t wait to post this event.

We got there at the very end of a National Geographic story…a herd of bison were in the field,  gathered around a new-born.  Initially the newborn didn’t seem to understand that it needed to stay in between the ‘big guys’ and stay very close to it’s mother…so a quick prod from a rather large horn put it in it’s place.  The wolves tried three times to separate the baby bison from the herd–with no success.  The white wolf was a quite thoroughly butted by a bison.  The wolves  finally gave up and collapsed in the field as the bison crossed the road and moved quickly out of the area.

That’s when we came upon the scene.  We were told the story by several of the videographers on the side of the road  (almost every photographer in Yellowstone LOVES sharing their triumphs.)   Just seeing these marvelous animals put me on a high that lasted for hours.  I was so excited I could hardly keep my camera still.  At one point the female was less than 40 feet away…

More of the pictures can be seen on my Flickr site; just click.