Rangels chase animal carcasses

The thing to do here, apparently, or at least as far as we've deduced, is to hear a rumor about an animal carcass and go check out what's eating on it. The best times to go see animals other than crows are early in the day or near dusk. Yesterday evening, we set out with vague directions from Del, one of my new coworkers who's never been here before. The directions really don't matter so much just as long as we head down the right road as wildlife sightings are really easy to spot by all of the cars pulled over on the side of the road. (Note: It is illegal to stop in the middle of the road, no matter how exciting it is to see whatever you're looking at.)

We pulled over as soon as we spotted all of the cars. There it was - the picked at remains of an elk partially in the Gardiner river with a dark gray wolf tugging chunks of meat off. Having had our dog, Juna, for 11 years, we could easily tell the signs of the wolf vs the oft mistaken-for-a-wolf coyote. This one was a darker color, still easily blending in to the surrounding brush and rock. He (I was told this was an alpha male of one of the Yellowstone packs) tugged off chunks of meat from the hindquarters for a while, then decided to pull the head out of the river and nibble off of that. Perhaps an ear would be tasty? No, that's not so good. Maybe the rear was better after all. Only the magpies dared to get close while the wolf was eating, but they stayed towards the other end of the carcass. There were a few ravens nearby, but they were willing to wait their turn. (We were told that ravens will notify the wolves should they come across a carcass. How? Emailing and texting were discussed as possibilities, but probably not.) Alex, ever the deft wildlife spotter, soon spied a bald eagle sitting in a tree nearby, not wanting to challenge the wolf.

Eventually, the wolf had its fill and wandered off. As it was walking away, I'm guessing too full to lope or run, we could see his belly distended from the feast. Wolves, according to the display at the Albright Visitor Center across the street from our dorm, can eat up to 20 lbs of meat in a sitting or can go without for up to 2 weeks, depending on their food availability. Shortly after the wolf left, the bald eagle flew down to take over the kill. Then Alex spotted another one in the sky. The eagles traded places, only to get driven off by a golden eagle, the apparent master of the eagles. This one definitely out weighed the bald eagles and was not challenged even when a 3rd bald eagle showed up (again, spotted by Alex in the sky).

The carcasses are definitely the place to be for animal action. My question of the evening - what were the 2 pairs of geese doing nearby?

Again, no pictures as we don't have a telephoto lens, but here is a link to get an idea of what the wolf looked like:
http://library.thinkquest.org/2551/species/graywolf2.jpg