Yellowstone Wolf Hunt

Hi all,
These aren't the greatest photos as wildlife photos go (heavy crops as well as very far away) but I thought I'd share because it isn't every day you get to see wild wolves hunt (and it is kind of an interesting story to boot).

One night we were watching for wolves/bears on one of the lookouts in Hayden Valley when we spotted these two wolves approaching a herd of Elk. Eventually the wolves got a little to close and in one large group the Elk actually chased the wolves off into the woods. The kind of ironic thing is that in the woods were the wolves were chased happened to be a family of Elk... a few minutes after the wolves disappeared they came running out of the woods chasing the family and eventually catching on calf.

So first is a shot of the wolves chasing a couple of Elk, the Elk ran back to the herd:

Man, what an experience to witness. Good work.

Matt.

Great pics thanks for sharing, what lens were you shooting how far away from the action?

Wow - this time of year the calves are pretty big. That'll be a good meal for the wolves!

Tom Reichner wrote in post #8559525
Wow - this time of year the calves are pretty big. That'll be a good meal for the wolves!

good job John. there was a special recently on the animal planet about a particularly hard winter in yellowstone. while the others animals weakened the wolves were in their time of plenty and just kept getting stronger.

ed rader

very nice

I'm planing to making a trip to yellowstone next year...nice pix

Awesome captures! Curious, what lens were you using for the reach?

Thanks for the replies eeryone!

Cyclop wrote in post #8570322
Awesome captures! Curious, what lens were you using for the reach?

I was using a Canon 400mm f/5.6L, but I'm guessing these shots are from a mile or so away...

John

That must have been an amazing thing to see.
Is it possible the black wolf has a collar on? If so I would assume it's a tracking collar for study purpose, it just looks like there's something around its neck to me.

That was VERY cool. Wow.

I have a book on wolves. They work hard. They have a 10% success rate when hunting. Must be frustrating. But sometimes they get a feast.

Where my father lives (and where I grew up) in California, the coyotes try to befriend the domesticated dogs and lure them into the canyons to kill and eat them. Amazing. We had two cats taken by coyotes. In the evening we had to make sure they were in. They were not allowed to leave the house at night.

My father feeds wild animals at his home (completely surrounded by canyons). The wild animals we've seen up close are rabbits, coyotes, skunks (he feeds them by hand sometimes) a bobcat, and tons of raccoons.

They claim to have seen a mountain lion, but nobody's sure. However, the large city park a couple miles away has signs warning of mountain lions.

Oh, and rattle snakes of course.

Great shots! Thats's something that not many people get to see in the park. My guess is that this is the Canyon pack, with the black wolf being 712M and the gray possibly being 587M. The alpha female of the pack had a pup this year! So they're likely bringing some back for the kiddo too.

Oh how cruel...not, it's the circle of life, like it or not. It is quite a feat to witness such things and you did a fine job capturing it.

That is an interesting sory and photos, I'm glad you shared. Even though we all would probably like to capture stunning close up photos of something like this, the photos still tell a pretty good story even though from a distance.

Congrats on a great spectacle to witness.