The Yearling

This is a year old Wolf, referred to as a Yearling, he once belonged to the Leopould pack. He has had a rough start to life as a pup he battled a bout of Mange which began in the fall.

Mange is a parasitic disease that eats away at the fur coat of an animal, surprisingly even with little fur he managed to live through a harsh winter which killed the parasites that were destroying his fur coat.

He also was evicted from his pack sometime during the winter and now is a lonely traveler. He scavenges for food from other kills and catches small rodents to get by.

His howl was one of emptiness and sadness

The good news is I showed this image to one of the biologists at the park, he was excited to see the picture and informed me that he is looking much healthier than before and will probably make it, hopefully in the near future he can be reincorporated into his pack or find other lonesome travelers to form there own park and stake out a corner of Yellowstone as there own.

This experience was a special one to me and the highlight of my last trip to yellowstone.

There was no one else around the entire time, he is actually on the other side of a river which calmed his nerves down some, even still I had to remain well hid in the bushes laying down while watching him. He calmly left after a short while but eventually returned three more times, he was walking a large loop in search of prey that was hanging around a recent elk kill.