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Gray Wolf Pack

Posted by jodikendall in Inside Wild on September 30, 2010
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It’s possible that as many as two hundred thousand gray wolves once thrived across the United States. But human settlements expanded and the species was viewed as a threat to livestock, and wolves were gradually eliminated from most of their original territory.

But in 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service began a bold movement to capture wild wolves in Canada and reintroduce this formidable predator back into the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park.

Although winter in Yellowstone is a harsh season, wolves remain active. They have two layers of hair – course on the outer and a silky layer closest to their skin – that help them stay warm on even the chilliest, snowiest days.

Wolves live, travel, hunt and raise young in organized groups called packs. A dominant pair – an alpha male and female – are the primary breeders and lead the unit. They will move up to a hundred miles per day in search of prey or territory.

Rarely does a person observe the complexities of a wolf pack from the inside, but naturalist Casey Anderson tracked the silver pack in Yellowstone’s backcountry to learn more about this fascinating species…..

Expedition Wild: Inside the Wolf Pack premieres Monday October 4 at 9P et/pt on Nat Geo WILD!

Video preview: How does the grey wolf survive a brutal Wyoming winter? Casey Anderson explains it to you.

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Related posts:

  1. Mysterious Wolf Attack
  2. What’s Casey Anderson Been Up To?
  3. ‘There’s Fight or Flight, and There’s Filmmaking.’
  4. Casey Anderson Featured on GMA

Comments

  1. MicheleEckhardtGysen
    October 3, 2010, 9:10 pm

    Looking forward to it! Just came across the "Pull up a carcass…" preview and realized that you must have been filming there by the Madison the day before, or perhaps the same morning when we observed the ‘Mystery Pack’ on the same carcass early in the afternoon. The adults were off in the woods and unseen, but we had three adolescents giving us quite a show, providing us with some play behavior as well…was very exciting and thrilling to view the wolves from such a short (but safe) distance :)

  2. tonyaelattrache
    October 5, 2010, 3:40 am

    I feel that it is extremely important to bring awareness to readers about how important these packs are to our forests!
    We need to stop and take a second to think about how big of an impact it is to not have them around. For instance, without wolves roaming the forest, the "turkey, deer, rabbit" population would be so over abundant that we as humans could only pray for a disease to overtake "turkey, deer, rabbit" population to decrease the over abundant population. Of course wolves prey upon the weak and or unhealthy, but that is their instinct. We are unfortunately hunting down these animals for not just their pellets, but for a sheer excuse to kill them seeing them as only a terror or nuisance. They have a huge environmental influence in our forest and as bad as we would like to admit, in our lives. They may be seen more and more in rural developments, but lets face it, they are seeing us more and more in their rural environments,"their forest"! We really can’t sit back and expect wolves to stay clear of us when it is us that continue to reduce the the percentage of natural inhabited with our housing developments.
    Thank goodness we have places that protect the species such as Yesllowstone. They are rarely seen in action in the wild and seen more and more on a mantel of a hunters cabin. Take advantage of the video National Geographic has to offer. It truly is a rare glimse of this feared but yet astonishing creature.
    T.

  3. WolfSister1
    October 11, 2010, 11:11 pm

    My myspace friends and I have been working hard to stop animal abuse and the Idaho wolf slaughter by placing the petitions all over myspace and getting them out there. I watched "Expidition Wild; Inside the Wolf Pack" and loved it. Casey Anderson got both sides of view and he also made it clear about how the wolves actualy help the ecological system. I learned a lot of things I did not know and I look forward to watching future shows. I appreciate ha and his wife, Missy, very much for their efforts in helping man understand the beauty and wonder of the animal kingdom. Thank you Nat Geo for all of your awesome shows. They are very educational and even at 41, I still find joy in learning.

  4. 4starchief
    October 12, 2010, 4:12 pm

    The mind set of the powers that be from Idaho are undoing everything the Species Protection plan has been designed to do. The 70 years that wolves were gone in Yellowstone and the damage to the eco system that caused, should be a reminder of what the destruction of a species can do. In the brief 15 years since their re-introduction, the Yellowstone environment is once again on track. If you aren’t familiar with it, check out Wolf Haven International in Olympia WA. http://www.wolfhaven.org. It is one of the three pre-release locations for wolves, both Red wolves and Mexican grays. Thanks to all for the support of these magnificant creatures.

    Bruce
    volunteer