TIME-TEMPERATURE- WEATHER:

Early AM (first light-9AM): 5:45AM 29 at SG; bright moon, clear. 27 on Blacktail, biting wind 8:30.

Late AM (9-noon) 35 at 11 with constant wind

Evening: 4:30-9PM upper 40s with wind on Bobs; back to SG by 8:30PM

Snow Level (roads/landscape): 1-2 inches new snow overnight. Frozen rain with snow on top on car. Doors & windows temporarily frozen shut. Still lightly snowing when I leave SG. By Ice Box Canyon road is dry and snow has stopped

Water/Ice Level (ponds and rivers):

CROWD COMMENTS: normal for April

SUMMARY FOR THE DAY: No wolves seen at Slough early. Rescues on Eastern Everts seen from S Curves/Nature Trail 8-9AM. Junctions in Marge area 8:30-11:30. Windy

WOLF SIGHTINGS (total; pack; individuals, pullout, time of day): 19 total wolves from two packs

8 Rescues; 7B/1G (including one collared black) on Eastern Everts from S Curves/Nature Trail

11 Junctions 8B/3G (full pack) Nine were seen in the morning. All 11 in the evening near Marge from Slough

COMMENTS:nice to have 2 pack sightings today after being skunked yesterday

NON-WOLF SIGHTINGS (what & where)

Bison: various as usual

Coyote: 2: 1 south from Nature Trail; 1 south of Ranch in Lamar while driving

Elk: From HR

Fox: in SG front yard in the evening, digging on the hillside just above the wood pile

Pronghorn: Little America while driving east to Slough.

COMMENTS: AM Grizzly tracks in snow on road from Entrance Gate to Warm Creek.

EARLY MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (first light till 9AM) No wolves in Lamar or Slough in the early morning. I go west and at 7:30 find Ken S scoping at S Curves. He has Rescues. I see one single black bedded on the eastern slope of Everts, then more appear, (6). They move north and go out of sight.

From S Curves, Jakob (new guy) finds two blacks south near Antler Rock. Laurie and Dan and I move to Nature Trail, Dan finds Jakob's wolves trotting south away from us. At least one is collared. Very windy! Around 8:30 we go back east.

LATE MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (9AM-12 noon) 9:30AM from Bobs: Junctions in Marge area. (They were first spotted in Buffalo Ford from Boulder and travelled east to Marge while we were on the Blacktail)

I get 9 (7B/2G). Not a lot of activity; Seem content to rest here. At 11AM sun warms to 35 degrees. Wind is fierce though, so I head back east.

EVENING HIGHLIGHTS (4:30PM-9PM) This evening from Bobs, Laurie and I get our first really good look at the new Junctions. Highlights include: 1478F exploring den area, den cliff, Crescent Rock Diagonal Forest and back again

1392M, the alpha male, dark coat; lighter fur on rear flanks.

1479F follows 1478F closely; pins her several times. She also jumps on two other blacks, which makes less sense to me, since they are males. The whole pack explores and beds in den area.

1479F goes into sage den.

1484M is beautiful. The uncollared gray is likely a yearling. Very bouncy Tigger type.

Rally on top of the sage den, with at least 8 black wolves and two grays. Tigger jumps over the backs of two wolves, gets snapped at. 1479 pins whomever she is closest to.

Dark black beds below the 890 tree. 1478F goes into the sage den and shakes off dust & dirt when she comes out, as I have seen 907 do so many times.

1385F, the alpha female, looks almost silvery, with more gray than I remember. Her collar remains hard to see.

After the rally, several wolves end up near the bottom of the Crescent Rock. One of these is the uncollared pup (actually a yearling). This wolf looks so small we mistake him for a female which takes a while to rectify.

Yearling notices a single elk (an antlerless bull) in the spring meadow and sets off towards it. The elk charges the pup, then turns and trots away.

The yearling cant help himself. He chases the enormous elk, which draws the interest of a second black wolf.

The size difference between the elk and the pup is comical but the pup takes it seriously and we are all impressed when it gains on the elk.

The second wolf is not as serious, so the pup is now way ahead. The elk runs towards and through a small herd of bison which does NOT deter the pup in the slightest.

The elk seems annoyed that this small wolf is still after him so he switches to a prancy stot to prove his good health. But the stot is a slower pace which allows the yearling to catch up. Meanwhile, the second wolf has stopped.

The yearling is now close enough to be kicked by the elk, and stops, not so sure what to do.

Other elk watch the drama below from higher on the hill.

The yearling finally gives up and heads back to the pack, looking very proud of himself, as if saying See? I got that Elk to run!

The second wolf greets the yearling warmly, as if bestowing congratulations. They both return to the pack which is now bedded on the Flower Hill.

After this, the wolves have another rally near the flower hill, then a chorus howl. Most of the wolves then bed or disappear. I leave around 8PM

SPECIAL NOTE: On the way back to SG tonight, I see Lamar bathed in the kind of light film-makers call Magic Hour”. A single coyote trots jauntily past the golden-glowing river.

TODAY I SAW: bison, coyotes, elk, a fox, 19 wolves from two packs: 8 from Rescue Creek (including 7 blacks and 1 gray) plus 11 Junctions (8 blacks and 3 grays - full pack) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ABBREVIATIONS:

DF: Diagonal Forest (a feature east of the Slough den)

DPH: Dead Puppy Hill, the partly treed hill below the crest of Mt. Norris immediately south of Footbridge pullout. Named by coyote researchers before the 1995 wolf reintroduction. The hill has been a popular area with local wolf packs since wolves were reintroduced. It has held several coyote dens over the years, but to my knowledge, this year is the first time a wolf pack has denned on it. The Mollies chose an area on the western slope above the new growth forest, and produced at least two pups, one black and one gray, which were seen infrequently during June.

HF: Horizontal Forest (another feather east of the Slough den

HR: Hellroaring (large overlook pullout on the Blacktail)

LCW: Lamar Canyon West (pullout on the western side of Lamar Canyon) that overlooks a lot of, but not all of, the area wolves use at Slough.

MST: Marge Simpson Tree (distinctive tree in Slough Flats) In 2024, the Junctions used the meadows below and left of Marge as their August-October rendezvous.

OGR: "The OGR" Old Gardiner Road (current name for the new road hastily constructed after the 2022 flood on top of the former gravel road between Mammoth and Gardiner)

RP: Round Prairie (big meadow south of Pebble Creek campground)

SB: Soda Butte (or SBV Soda Butte Valley) where Soda Butte Creek flows between Round Prairie and its Confluence with the Lamar River)

SG: Silver Gate (small town just outside the northeast Park entrance)

SRT: Southern Round Tree (distinctive tree south of the Marge Simpson Tree)

UCG: Un-collared gray (Junction 2 yr-old bouncy male). Born to the Rescue Creek Pack, he joined the Junction Pack sometime in February 2025.

YGM: Yellow Grass Meadow (a feature east of and upslope of the Horizontal forest at Slough)