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Sunday, October 06, 2002

By Lewis F. Nettrour

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- Northeast of Old Faithful with its tourists and motor homes is a Yellowstone National Park that few visitors ever experience. It's Yellowstone as President Theodore Roosevelt meant it -- unbridled nature preserved for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

	A Yellowstone National Park tour bus stops at a distance to let a wolf cross the road. (Nati Harnik, AP)

Yellowstone hosts nearly 3 million visitors annually, most of them crowding around the park's well-known sightseeing spots between June and September. Although Yellowstone is open year-round, only 140,000 visitors witness the grandeur of the park in the other seasons.

I was fortunate to be among this minority when I joined a wolf wilderness trip to the Yellowstone area in March, sponsored by the International Wolf Center (www.wolf.org) in Ely, Minn.

Established in 1985, the International Wolf Center is dedicated to the conservation of the wolf. A nonprofit group, the center teaches the public about the wolf's biology, its associations with other species and its relationship to humans. The center hosts several ecotourism wilderness trips a year to locations such as Yellowstone and the central Arctic in Canada's Northwest Territories.

Several weeks after making the necessary arrangements, I was on a plane heading to Bozeman, Mont., to rendezvous with the group.

The mild Pittsburgh weather did not prepare me for winter in Yellowstone. In March, the weather can vary from extreme cold to almost spring-like. During our trip, we experienced the former. Near-zero morning temperatures were our wake-up call, and pushing our 15-passenger van through deep snowdrifts added to the adventure.

March is a busy time for wolves and wolf researchers in the Yellowstone area. During this time, park biologists and technicians monitor wolves daily from both air and ground. Their objective is to determine the maximum kill rate during the period when prey is most vulnerable.

	If you go... GENERAL: Expert-led wolf expeditions are available at certain times throughout the year at Yellowstone National Park and the Arctic (Northwest Territories). The cost for the Yellowstone wolf expedition is $1,000. Expeditions to the Arctic are $3,500. Many expenses -- food, lodging and van transportation while at the park -- are included. Air fare is not included, but transportation from the airport in Bozeman, Mont., is provided. Although wolves and other wildlife, including bison and elk, are often spotted on these trips, sightings and photo opportunities are not guaranteed. ACCOMMODATIONS: Participants are responsible for lodging and expenses for three nights outside the park at the Alpine Motel in Cooke City, Mont. Accommodations at the Yellowstone Institute's Buffalo Ranch are included in the overall cost. The guest cabins at the Ranch are cozy, with hot showers and catered meals. Bedding is not provided in the heated cabins, and guests should pack a sleeping bag and small pillow. INFORMATION: Contact the director of development or trip coordinator at the International Wolf Center at 1-763-560-7374 or 1-800-365-4695. The Web site is www.wolf.org Space is limited. Typical group size is 10-15 people plus group leaders. -- Lewis F. Nettrour

The group spent each day the way the park's biologists do -- searching for wolves that are often on their own search for prey. We were up and moving in the park by dawn each day. Patiently, we set up scopes and waited beside the wolf technicians as wildlife photographers and other groups do. Using mainly radio communication, our goal was to position ourselves where the wolves were most visible. Though the wolves we observed were usually seen from a distance of 150 yards to two miles, they were dramatically magnified through the scopes 45 to 60 times, and we could clearly view the wolves in their natural habitat.

By 6:30 a.m. on our first day in the field, we watched a variety of wildlife foraging through the snow, including bison, elk, mountain sheep and a rare cow moose.

Within minutes of these observations, our scopes and cameras were focused on four wolves, including the alpha male, alpha female and two yearlings of the Druid Pack, the largest pack of wolves in Yellowstone. The wolves passed within yards of two bison before bedding down in a snow pack. Bison, especially healthy bulls, are rarely targets of wolf predation.

L. David Mech, distinguished wolf biologist and International Wolf Center founder, soon joined our party and discussed the wolves' hunting behaviors. Because it is difficult and dangerous for wolves to attack and kill large prey, they select animals who are compromised by age or physical weakness.

Exactly how wolves determine such weakness is a subject of current investigation by biologists at Yellowstone. With its abundant prey and thriving wolf population, the park is a living laboratory for this type of research.

We continued to observe the wolves as they bedded down for most of the day. Just before sunset, they rose and passed within 200 yards of our party before disappearing into the twilight. The group was pleased with the day's activities and returned to our lodgings for dinner and discussions with the experts about the day's observations.

We spent the first three days of the trip based out of the Alpine Motel in Cooke City, Mont., and four nights at the Yellowstone Institute's Buffalo Ranch in the prime wolf, elk and bison habitat of the Lamar River Valley.

With its abundant wildlife herds, Lamar Valley is sometimes called the Serengeti of North America. Its relative isolation from the mainstream of Yellowstone tourism has protected the area's abundance of herds.

In 1907, long before the establishment of the institute, this beautiful valley was chosen to be the home of Buffalo Ranch, a federal effort to turn around the drastic decline of the West's bison population that took place toward the end of the 19th century. Today, the old bunkhouse building that remains from the original structure houses the Yellowstone Association Institute's education facility -- classrooms, a large kitchen and bath facilities.

Each year, the institute offers more than 125 courses, and more than 60 instructors share their expertise with more than 1,000 students.

The institute facility at the Buffalo Ranch creates a comfortable, retreat-like learning atmosphere. Our group enjoyed delicious catered meals during the Wolf Center trip. Lunch was usually brown-bag in the field, but the prepared breakfasts and dinners brought a touch of luxury to our rustic accommodations.

The mournful hooting of a great horned owl summoned us wolf watchers to breakfast in the predawn hours of our third day. After a hearty breakfast, we received a radio call from the field alerting us to the whereabouts of the Druid pack's alpha pair along the road called Little America. Their long moaning howl greeted us as we set up spotting scopes and scanned the snow-covered hillside with binoculars.

Soon, several members of the Druid pack, including the alpha male and female, emerged from a cluster of trees and set off together out of sight. As they disappeared from our view, a radio call reported 11 yearlings several miles farther west on the Lamar Valley Road. We missed their pursuit of a bull elk but arrived in time to witness the young wolves turn the hillside into a giant playground as they engaged in elaborate tag games and wrestling matches.

The group of young wolves is the subject of intense interest among the researchers. The parents separated from the youngsters a week earlier, and the young wolves seemed to be developing their hunting skills by trial and error.

Later in the week, these yearlings took down a cow elk only to have a herd of bison force them off. The bison continued to protect the wounded elk from the wolves and ravens for several hours as it struggled to get back on its feet. The Yellowstone researchers had never seen such behavior.

The elk eventually died, and the bison gradually lost interest. The wolves and bison singularly or in groups charged each other on many occasions. The patient, hungry wolves soon won the challenge.

As the pups finally began to eat, Mech explained that the average wolf consumes up to 22 pounds of meat in about 18 minutes. Because their digestion is rapid, the wolves return repeatedly to the carcass to eat. Meanwhile, smaller carnivores, birds and insects all have their turn at the kill until nothing is left but scattered bones.

Wolf wilderness trips are part of a growing ecotourism trend. In fact, the Smithsonian Magazine and the United States Tour Operators Association's Travelers Conservation Foundation recently announced the International Wolf Center as the winner of the first Smithsonian Magazine/USTOA Conservation Award. It recognizes an individual, organization or destination in the travel or tourism industry that has committed to preserving the environment and its resources.

Lewis F. "Pete" Nettrour, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon with Tri Rivers Surgical Associates in Pittsburgh, is a wildlife enthusiast who has traveled extensively throughout the world.