Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

track in the snow.
We left about 11.00 p.m., first driving down to see whether we could see more of these wolves, then
driving up past Lamar Valley to Soda Butte to check for the Crystal Bench pack. No luck there. 7
bison. 18 bison.
The Cooke City road follows Soda Butte Creek beyond here, the Lamar Valley goes up another
way, with no road.
The radio tracking on the ground is done by Nathan Varley (John Varley's son) and Dan McNulty.
Nathan has just finished a M.S. at MSU; Dan finished CU Boulder.
Afternoon. Lecture. Study of track casts. Wolf pups are born in a den and later moved to a
rendezvous site, which may be moved around some. But the pups do not stray much from the
rendezvous site, to which the parents return carrying food or regurgitating food every day. A
rendezvous site is usually recognizable, there are bones all around and lots of scat. By the time
the pups leave the rendezvous site to roam freely, their tracks are already bigger than those of a
coyote.
Large dog tracks will be as big as those of a wolf, although not many breeds of dog will be.
The front foot print is bigger than the rear. The interdigital pad has three wings on the front foot and
these are indistinct on the rear foot.
In a track you must distinguish between the minimum outline, which is the size of the foot, and the
deeper exaggeration that results from squishing out further the mud or snow.
There is a ridge of callous on a red fox.
Cats have two lobes on the interdigital pad, and rarely show claws. But the bigger the dog, the
more often the claws also don't show.
Snow print wax. A beeswax spray made in Sweden. You have to spray it over a track in snow and
it forms enough crust that you can pour plaster of paris into it; it will set in about forty minutes,
though do what you can to insulate it while it sets.
Late afternoon. Out in the vans again. 2 coyotes. 50 bison on a ridge. Back to Slough Creek,
where we had seen them in the morning. Coyotes. Bear claw marks on an aspen tree. 12 elk.
There were two wolves back on the carcass, which was now more opened up, in the cold at dusk.
Wolves don't have many fleas; fleas are on cavity nesters.
Saturday evening lecture by Doug Smith, who tracks them in the airplane. John Weaver made the
studies in the 1970's that recommended that wolves be reintroduced to Yellowstone. In the
American public as a whole, about 80% favor the reintroduction. In Montana and Wyoming about
50%.
One of the newly capture wolves bit John Weaver, and took a chunk out of his thumb. According
to protocol, it was killed to check for rabies, although Weaver were perfectly willing just to watch
it in the pen and to be content with the blood test, which is less than perfect.