Solo elk hunts are a bad idea for wolves. At best they end with the wolf going away hungry, and frequently the wolf gets stomped.
One study showed that lone wolves hunting elk have a about an 8% success rate, and “I think that is a high estimate,” wolf researcher Kira Cassidy told Cowboy State Daily.
The Brave Wolf That Couldn’t
Wildlife tour guide Bo Welden caught video this summer of a wolf in Yellowstone National Park taking off after an elk and trying to bring the animal down itself.
The wolf initially tried getting some elk calves to flush, Weldon told Cowboy State Daily. And when that didn’t work, the predator dared a short chase after a cow elk that was separated from its herd.
But before long, as the video shows, the cow makes its way back to three other elk. That’s when the wolf has an “oh crap” moment.
Realizing it’s up against insurmountable odds, the wolf abruptly ends his pursuit of the cow, turns tail and runs away.
One of the cows, possibly the one the wolf had been chasing, tears after it with a vengeance.
After nearly getting ground-pounded by the livid elk, the wolf finally manages to get away clean. Still hungry, but likely wiser.
Welden said that he’s seen wolves break hunts off on a few occasions.
“Eventually, they just decided that the return on the investment wasn’t worth it,” he said.
Roadside Drama
Weldon said he was driving through the Hayden Valley area of the park on his way to pick up some tour clients. He spotted a black wolf that was “quite visible, standing across the river.”
He decided to stop for a while and watch the wolf. He’s familiar with many of Yellowstone’s wolves, and thinks the black wolf was a 2-year-old from the Wapiti Lake Pack.
Even wolves that are members of established packs will sometimes strike out on their own to scout, and possibly hunt, Welden said.
He watched the wolf approach a group of elk, at first trying to pick off a calf.
The wolf’s tactic was to try getting a calf to flush and flee into the open, making it an easy target. But the mamma elk were having none of that and kept their calves still, Welden said.
Next, the wolf apparently tried getting the entire elk herd to panic and run for the river. It’s plan might have been to single out the lone cow it was chasing, while the rest of the elk waded into the water.
But the wolf’s plan didn’t work out.
“That cow elk said, ‘Not today, my friend, not today,’” Welden said.
Watery Stomp Fest
Elk sometimes wade into water to evade wolves, Welden said.
“The water is up to the elks’ bellies, but that means it’s up to the wolves’ noses,” he said, adding that puts the wolves at an extreme disadvantage.
“If you’re a wolf and you get to close and try to bite the elk, the elk is going to step on you and break your leg, or break your ribs,” he said.
Even for a pack of wolves, elk hunting is challenging, Welden said.
“When it comes to elk hunting, there’s not an easy cheat for that,” he said.
Solo Hunts Extremely Rare
The wolf that went after the elk alone was brave, or foolhardy, because that’s rare behavior, wildlife biologists said.
“Of the many hunts I’ve seen, only one was by a wolf alone. A wolf by itself can kill an elk but it is fairly rare,” said Cassidy, who is a research associate with the Yellowstone Wolf Project.
Most wolves are good at figuring out when they’ve tried to bite off more than they can chew, Wyoming Game And Fish Large Carnivore Specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily.
“Wolves are smart and adaptable, they do best when they work in a group as a team but obviously transient wolves need to eat and they're not going to pass up a meal, but they also know when they're outmatched pretty quickly,” he said.
Even going after calf elk solo is a dicey proposition, Cassidy said.
“I’ve seen plenty of elk calf hunts and the cow can usually protect the calf well unless there are multiple wolves,” she said.
Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
