TIME-TEMPERATURE- WEATHER:

Early AM (first light-9AM):18 at SG at 5:40AM, clear

Late AM (9-noon) went in around 12:15 did not record temp

Evening: 4:30-9PM did not go out tonight

Snow Level (roads/landscape): roads dry. Lamar snow melting out. RP still has a lot.

Water/Ice Level (ponds and rivers): Floating Island Lake is thawing slowly

CROWD COMMENTS: normal for April

SUMMARY FOR THE DAY: A slower day today. Two Junctions seen at Slough. We do not go out tonight.

WOLF SIGHTINGS (total; pack; individuals, pullout, time of day): 2 total wolves

2 Junctions (1545M and 1478F. He was bedded in the Marge area; the collared gray was investigating the den area. Both seen from Daves in the early AM

NON-WOLF SIGHTINGS (what & where)

Bison: various in SB and LA seen from the road

Coyote: one on an old bison carcass at Floating Island Lake that has risen from thawing pond. He eats, and it is gross!

Elk: grazing near densite seen from Daves

Pronghorn: LA seen from the road

COMMENTS:Note to self: avoid watching any animal eating a bloated floating carcass in future!

EARLY MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (first light till 9AM) I join Paul on Daves this morning. He finds 1545M bedded below Marge. The wolf gets up and travels towards Aspen Drainage then back. Beds again for an hour. At 7:30 he disappears heading west, likely scent-trailing the Pack (they were not seen last night)

After I drive to Floating Island Lake to join Laurie & Dan looking at a carcass there, I go back to rejoin Paul on Daves. 1478F is below the Western Trees, then she roams around visiting the dens. She beds between the two sets of trees, then disappears.

EVENING HIGHLIGHTS (4:30PM-9PM) We stay in tonight. I ask Laurie if it would be ok for me to stay another week after they go. She says yes. I tell her I will need to resupply in BZN at some point.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT NORRIS FINGERS GRIZZLY A sow grizzly has been seen from time to time up on the 2nd finger of Norris. She has a single cub of the year which is especially tiny. Bill believes she may be a young mother and perhaps brought her cub out a bit too early. We often see mother bears playing with their cubs, but always gently. This sow has been seen grasping her cub by the scruff of its neck, and swinging it to and fro.

It upsets those who see it because it seems too rough for such a small cub. But the cub seems fine once she puts it down.

Krisztina has video but I could barely watch it. It just goes to show we dont know everything about wildlife.

TODAY I SAW: bison, a coyote, elk, pronghorn, 2 Junction wolves (1545M and a collared gray – probably 1478F) 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)