Saturday, July 5, 2008

Day 3

DAVE: We tracked a wolf we think may be the breeding male tonight. We observed lots of raised leg urinations (RLU’s), and he disappeared into a gully about 2 miles away and stayed there for 30 minutes. We were watching with binoculars from half a mile away. Finally we howled, and he popped up out of the gully. Not sure what he was doing there, but we like to think he was there because it is a den or rendezvous site. Probably not, but could be. So that’s our first order of field work tomorrow evening. This wolf looks a bit like the breeding male of 2006 (see 2006 trip blog) but with a gray streak on his back, so he must be someone else. In any case, that really makes us optimistic that we will find the rendezvous site.

DEAN: Saw a dominant male wolf tonight, several RLU’s. When the wolf left the area where we were, we followed him a bit to the north but lost him in a gully. We didn’t see him leave the gully, so he had to still be there. After about ½ hour Dave and I howled, hoping to bring him out, and sure enough, we did. We didn’t get a reply to our howls. Could be we just didn’t hear them. We were hoping that after this male popped up from the gully, another wolf would, too, but alas, none did. Tomorrow, we’ll check out that spot. I think we’re going to have some fun this week.