A few years ago I witnessed and photographed an amazing natural history moment. The Grant Creek wolf pack in Denali Park attacked and killed a baby moose while the cow moose attempted to fend off the predators.
These wolves have been in the news again as discussion about a buffer zone around the perimeter of Denali National Park has made headline news recently. Wolves from this pack were legally trapped just outside the park boundary last year, and apparently the did not reproduce this year. Wildlife viewing is a significant reason for many visitors coming to Alaska and it has intrinsic economic value. Re establishing the buffer zone would likely give some protection to these animals. Unfortunately, the popular wildlife sightings of these animals in the recent past along the Denali Park road will likely diminish considerably in the future.
Cow moose defends her newly born calf from the Grant Creek wolf pack who attack them in a small tundra pond, Denali National Park. In the end, the wolves got the baby moose.
The still images that I took from this event can be viewed on my previous posts:
http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/blog/2010/06/wolf-pack-kills-moose-calf/
http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/blog/2010/06/wild-wolfs-denali-national-park/
Hey Patrick,
I was just telling a co-worker about this video in regarding of How wolves actually hunt. In this case the alpha female distracts the cow while her pack concentrate on taking out the calf. Wolves are very intelligent & adaptive hunters unlike humans which put out some bait & sit on their behinds & shoot when they see their target go after the bait fire away or worse yet do what Coke Wallace did and just kill his horse & set up snares around it. He didn’t even care about the fur but instead waited til after the April thaw to check the snares! I fear for the remaining wolves in Denali as the chances for re-implementing the buffer as the board seems stacked with wolf hating hunters and they may fall prey to similar scum.