My wildlife encounters continued in Yellowstone National Park. This week finds me on the side of a mountain (Mt Washburn) looking down into a very large and open valley. Below me are seven wolves, four black and three gray, which are busy doing wolf things such as sleeping, playing, chasing each other, hunting and so forth.

After two decades of legal challenges and opposition from local ranchers, wolves were reintroduced into the Yellowstone ecosystem in January of 1995. Twenty nine wild wolves’ were trapped in Alberta Canada and transported back to Wyoming and Idaho. Fifteen of the wolves were released immediately in central Idaho while the remaining fourteen wolves were held in holding pens in Yellowstone National Park. They were later released in March.

The wolves that were released in Idaho stayed in the intended area and one year later, three females had formed their own packs and were thriving in their intended area.

After the release of the Yellowstone wolves only one was illegally killed. The rest stayed very close to their release site and settled into their new home ranges. No livestock were killed as was predicted and the wolves started to reproduce, producing nine pups in the first year.

By all accounts the reintroducing of wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem was a huge success. For nearly 100 years wolves had been absent from park and now the ecosystem is intact and supports the full array of predators and prey animals.

This brings us back to me standing on the side of the mountain with a pack of wolves in front of me. As a naturalist / biologist and wildlife photographer I couldn’t be happier. It is not often that I get to see a complete ecosystem functioning the way its suppose to.

For the next 6 hours I stand, sit, stretch, and just about every other on you can imagine while I watch and photograph the wolves. For the most part they are sleeping or at least I assume they are sleeping. Many times they lay down in the grass and all I can see is the tips of their ears. Now and then they will stand up, stretch and lay back down again–just like your family dog might do.

Then I notice a black wolf trotting towards the group from the other side of the valley. One by one the sleeping pack starts to stir. The approaching wolf is getting closer and the pack is all standing and looking at the approaching wolf. I have no idea if this is an interloper or a family member. Only time will tell.

When the approaching wolf is close enough, several of the smaller black wolves trot out to great the approaching wolf. What takes place next could have been in any wildlife documentary film. The greeting wolves start to run faster towards the approaching wolf with their tails tucked between their hind legs and when they come together it is obvious they are family.

With tails wagging and playful prancing the group of wolves greet each other enthusiastically with much mussel licking and submissive behavior. It’s now obvious that the incoming wolf is an adult who was out hunting and the greeters are youngsters who are begging for food or just greeting an elder.

Off to the side a large gray wolf that was sleeping in the middle of a bison wallow (exposed dirt) slowly gets up and stretches. With its tail held high, it’s obvious this is the alpha (leader of the pack) male or female. All attention of the pack turns towards this large gray wolf. The greeting party and the incoming wolf join the rest of the pack and all trot over towards the large gray wolf.

The group swarms over the slumbering gray wolf in what can only be described as a dog pile. Suddenly the large gray wolf breaks free from the pack and starts to run off with the rest of the pack in tow. There is much playing and pouncing as the group moves off to a stand of trees and I loose sight of the pack. Slowly I pack up my camera and think to myself how good it is to have the wolves back in Yellowstone. Until next time…

I think most people consider December as being part of winter. And you would be mostly right if you thought this since the meteorological first day of winter is December 1st. This is different from the solstice. It’s the day that most meteorologists consider the start of winter or at least the winter weather season. I say, good enough for me.

Getting back to the solstice. The solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall. Every day the earth is tilting on its axis either towards the North Pole or towards the South Pole depending upon the time of year. The axis is the imaginary line drawn through the earth from the North Pole to the South Pole.

At this time of year the earth tilts on its axis moving the northern hemisphere (us) away from the sun and exposing the southern hemisphere more to the sun. The furthest the earth tilts is 23.5 degrees north or south of the equator, or about a quarter angle to the sun. When we reach the end of our movement north or south the tilting comes to a stand still, which is called the solstice. The name solstice comes from the Latin, sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). 

Believe it or not, just that small amount of tilting away from the sun is enough to give us winter or summer. What makes it more mind boggling is the earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical pattern and during winter we actually move closer to the sun by over 2 million miles than we are in summer. So even though we are closer to the sun in winter the angle or title of the earth is enough to plunges us into the cold depths of winter.

Adding to Decembers interests, this year on December 1st we had a very interesting celestial event. The planets of Venus and Jupiter were seen lined up with the moon in the night sky. This is known as a planetary conjunction. The lining up of these planets only happens once every 13 months. Venus and Jupiter are our brightest planets making this conjunction an amazing sight. Just after sunset and lasting for only a couple hours the crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter we so bright and obvious that anyone with clear skies and the inklings to look up were treated to a very cool celestial show. I know I spent nearly an hour looking and photographing the night sky event.

So with snow blanketing most of the upper Midwest and temperatures that force us to wear hats and gloves, I would say that December is definitely a winter month no matter if you consider winter starting at the first of the month or the 21st. Until next time…