Howling at the Moon

Hello everyone,

The last time I blogged to you, you had many, many questions. I received a few more, so I will answer them for you. I was asked if the electric ever goes out. The electic lines are run underground, so we haven't lost electricity yet. If we do lose electicity, it will be because it went out in Babb. Hopefully, in that case it will be turned back on within a few hours. We do have a generator and also a wood stove and some candles, so we will be alright if it does go out. I was also asked if we will have a Christmas tree. We are hoping to get to town this weekend, but we are under a winter storm warning. If we are able to make it to town, we hope to pick up a tree. We aren't allowed to cut down any trees in the park. We do have a gingerbread house kit though! One last question, has ice formed in the hotel? There is no water in the hotel. The water had to be turned off so that the pipes would not freeze and burst. There are, however, a couple of pots in the lobby that were catching water from a leak in the ceiling. Those are frozen solid. It is only 20 degrees today!

Wednesday, when I woke up it was only 4 degrees! It warmed up to the lower teens. Jeff and I worked a half day, and then we went snowshoeing. Neither of us had ever been before, but it was actually very easy. The snowshoes made a huge difference in the snow. It was so easy to walk! We hiked about five miles and saw all kinds of animal tracks. We saw moose tracks, deer tracks, mountain lion tracks, snowshoe hare tracks, and wolf and coyote tracks. We also saw the tracks of the first brave animal to cross Swiftcurrent lake, a coyote!

Thursday, we spent all day over in the hotel painting. It was very, very cold in there. On the bright side, we had 3 days in a row of clear blue skies and hardly any wind, but BRRR! After work, Sumio, the professional photographer I've been telling you about, came over. He is out here camping for four nights trying to capture photos of rams fighting. Mating season is almost over for the bighorn sheep, so he is trying to get some last photos. Sumio came over to thaw out and eat some dinner. Jeff and I enjoyed the company. We may go on a hike with him on Saturday to see where he photographs the animals.

Friday, it started to snow. We are under a winter storm warning, like I said, so we will be staying in and keeping warm.

Check out the forecast for this week. Look up Babb, MT 59411. It is going to be chilly.

Since I heard some wolves last week, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to teach you about them. The National Geographic site has some info, but more importantly, you can listen to audio of a wolf's call. I have never seen a wolf in the wild, but I have heard them a few times. I used to hear them as a kid when I lived in Alaska.
Go to: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/wolf.html
Page down and click on the button to listen to the call of a wolf.
Now go to: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/coyote.html

Page down and click on the button to listen to the call of a coyote.

Notice how the coyote call is much higher pitched the the wolf call.

Now, check out this site for various wolf calls. http://www.wolfcountry.net/WolfSounds.html

Gray wolves are one of the predators present in Glacier National Park. Back in 1991, a gray wolf named Pluie was captured and radio-collared in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Alberta. Through the use of satellites, Pluie was tracked for nine months. In those nine months she traveled over 100,000 square miles, an incredible distance. Unfortunately, Pluie was killed in a legal wolf hunt in 1995. The Rocky Mountains provide a relatively wild and safe home for single wolves and packs of wolves. Although I may live very close to the territory of a pack of wolves, I may never see them. They are very elusive animals.

Assignment: Break up into groups. Each group will be assigned to one of the questions below. Research the answer to your question, and make a poster with words and pictures to present to your class. Be thorough because you will be the teachers.

1. Describe the structure of a wolf pack.

2. What are the different roles within a wolf pack?

3. How can the structure of a wolf pack change?

4. Explain how wolves communicate with one another.

Here are some links that may aide your research:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/wolves/gabout3.htm

http://www.wolveswolveswolves.org/WhatAreWolves.htm

http://www.wolfweb.com/facts-pack.html

http://www.wolfpark.org/wolffaq.html#communicate

These sites will get you started. Feel free to find other helpful sites on your own.

Now, one more activity. Get back into your groups. This activity is to stress the non-verbal communication between wolves. You teacher will assign one person in the group to be the alpha male or alpha female of the group. The alpha will then be secretly given an assignment. The alpha's job is to make the rest of the group complete the assignment without using any words.

Examples: Move to another location, begin a hunt, play, hide, lay down, etc.

How easy was it to get the assignment done?

What strategies did you use to get your message across?