Gray wolves star attraction of Yellowstone winter

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — It is a sunny winter afternoon, and Simond Raymond has a problem.

His flight home to Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland leaves this evening from Bozeman, Mont. But at the moment, Raymond is standing in the snow of the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, 120 miles away.

He must get his rental car over 30 miles of twisty mountain road, much of it snowpacked and icy, before even reaching the main highway, then another 90 miles, including a mountain pass, to the airport.

How late, he asks, can he delay his departure from Yellowstone? How far can he push his luck before he must leave? After 10 straight days of wolf-watching, how many more minutes can he squeeze in on this snowy, remote roadway, in hopes of just one more sighting?

Still, he assures me, it has been a successful trip.

"We've seen wolves every day," he says, smiling. "Sometimes the weather is very bad — but we saw the wolves."

Raymond fits into a category of Yellowstone visitor that did not exist 15 years ago — the wolf-watcher.

After being wiped out in the park early in the 20th century, 31 gray wolves were re-introduced in 1995 and 1996. They flourished. Today, more than 350 of their descendants roam the park and surrounding area, preying on the abundant elk, deer and bison.

When they were first released, some experts predicted they would fade quickly into the Yellowstone backcountry and sightings would be rare.

But the opposite happened. Wolves quickly learned that humans seldom left the ribbons of asphalt through the park, and that binoculars and spotting scopes fired no bullets. They learned to ignore people, as long as they weren't approached, and Yellowstone frontcountry — that area visible from the road — simply became another part of their turf.

Wolf-watching began almost immediately after the first wolves were released from acclimation pens, and some people became addicted. They have become a subculture of Yellowstone — enthusiasts from afar who devote their vacations, and locals who devote their days off — to watching and recording wolf behavior in the park.

The combination of wolves cavorting close to the road and a dedicated cadre of amateur wolf experts has helped make wolf-watching one of Yellowstone's favorite activities. Longtime wolf-watchers usually are happy to share their expertise with other visitors, explaining wolf activity and often offering to let visitors use their already-aimed, high-powered spotting scopes.