Welcome Back, Canyon Pack! ... A Video

In Yellowstone National Park, anything can happen. Who would have guessed that a mid-afternoon drive would lead to an amazing discovery of the Canyon Pack on a newly dispatched female elk. No one else was on the scene, and I watched the white alpha female of the pack and her black and gray pups for over an hour before anyone else arrived on the scene. The significance of this moment of solitude with this pack was not lost on me.

The alpha female will be 12 in April, and her mate 712M will be 11, and in mid 2017 they will have been an alpha pair for 9 years as well! Nine years together makes them the longest mated alpha pair in the history of reintroduced Yellowstone wolves! Needless to say, I was honored to have this special moment with this amazing pack. Amazing also in that these two senior citizens among wolves also had pups this last April!

The alpha female of the pack is white because of a genetic trait that also saw her mother -- 540F, the alpha female of the Hayden Pack -- turn white with age and now her daughter as well -- the alpha female of the Wapiti Lake Pack. Three generations of white alpha females blessing this amazing home that is Yellowstone National Park!

December 3, 2016

My apologies for the shakes and sniffles in this video. It was a hand-held moment amid frigid temps, high and chilly winds and still suffering syptoms of a cold.