Agate Yearlings

Four Agate pack wolves could be seen heading towards the road about 200 yards east of where we were standing. We jumped into our car and drove down to the next turnout just past and much closer to their projected cross point. I was lucky to get the last parking spot in the cramped parking space, but that did not stop other cars from crowding in around my car. I opened the trunk, grabbed my tripod with the Canon 500mm f4 lens, and 1D Mark4 camera attached and set up my gear while hoping that I was not too late. Just then, two yearlings of the Agate pack (one gray, one black) appeared on a berm overlooking the road about 200 feet away. I was ready. I photographed the gray female yearling as she stopped and scanned the scene below her. She is a beauty! I then swung the camera to the right where the black yearling appeared in the cross-hairs of my lens – thank you photography gods!

Gray Agate Yearling Wolf - Scanning for Threats

Gray Agate Yearling Wolf Sniffing the Wind

Black Agate Yearling Wolf View1

Black Agate Yearling Wolf View 2

In 30 seconds it was over. The 2 yearlings retreated back behind the berm and disappeared from view. Five minutes later, the members of the Agate pack were seen climbing up-slope to the woods in the distance.

Agates Move Upslope

Another exciting wolf event in Yellowstone National Park.

See my previous post on the Lamar Canyon Wolf Pack Pups photographed during the same trip to Yellowstone (January 2012).

A thank-you to Laurie Lyman, a volunteer for the Wolf Project, for providing identification information for the Agates and Lamar Canyon packs. Laurie does a daily column on the wolves in www.yellowstonereports.com

~ by richardseeley on February 14, 2012.