News and reviews

As many of you will know, Danny has always had a thing about wolves and so after many years of visiting and guiding in Yellowstone during the winter months he’s finally decided to share the body of work with those iconic mammals in their iconic location.

I have been visiting Yellowstone National Park during the winter months for over 15 years now and it is one of my favourite locations to do so. It is an awe-inspiring place which supports some of the most iconic species that can be found in the US. One of the main reasons why I went in the first place was hopefully to capture images of the Wolf. The wolf had been absent from the park for many years but during the mid-nineties around a hundred wolves were introduced back into the ecosystem and so began the restoration of the balance of the nature in the park.

The success was almost instant as the Wolves quickly established themselves and naturally started to control the large numbers of Elk that could be found. These large numbers of Elk were over-grazing certain areas especially the Willow beds and the pressure from the Wolves kept them moving and so the Elk were forced to change their habits. With in a few years Moose and Beaver started to move back in and so a natural balance was restored, that is what an apex predator does. Move on 30 years and there are still around 100 wolves that can be found in the park, so their numbers have never increased which was a main concern of the people that opposed them.

At that time images of Wolves were hard to come by as they are so elusive and avoid man at all costs but the images coming out of Yellowstone were fantastic as these Wolves accepted the human presence and they were free from persecution inside the park. It was a subject I really wanted to capture and so finally I got the chance to go, and I have been going ever since. Those first few years produced a blank for me, but I finally got an opportunity to see them, so I was hooked, and I have been obsessed with wolves ever since.

Over the past couple of years, my luck has changed, and I have had some amazing encounters with a pack called the Wapiti Lake pack. This pack is huge and some say 26 strong. The pack can mainly be found in the interior of the park and over the past few years they have started to specialise in bringing down Bison, that’s why the pack is so large. They are still difficult to find because their territory is huge and so you still need to be extremely lucky to encounter them.

Last year I was leading a trip with my good friend and fellow guide Stan Tekiela, and we had some good information that the pack had brought down a large Bison in the Firehole River. We were heading into the interior of the park the following day and so we knew that they should still be in the area as a bison can last a few days. They were and so we then spent the next two days with the pack. It was an amazing opportunity for photography because the pack were resting in some trees next to the river and when they decided to come and feed, they had to cross the road to get to the river where the carcass was. It was without doubt my best encounter of Wolves and I loved the image I managed to take over the course of the two days.

I didn’t think it could get better than that but on a trip this year I was given the opportunity of another amazing encounter.  The pack had not been seen for over a week and so we thought they had made a kill in the Merry Mountains which is an area of the park that you can’t access. Big numbers of Bison use the trails across the mountains to access different parts and so that was the logical answer. Then as we were checking out the Thermal Basin area around Old Faithful, we encountered them and as it turned out the whole pack. They had started to hunt the bison in the area and were trying to pick out any weak individuals. This is what Wolves do, and it can be over a course of several days. This encounter was just amazing, and we spent a whole two days just following them and trying to predict where they would show up next.

The problem with chasing wolves in Yellowstone is you can get side tracked and it is a mistake because there is so much to see and photograph. Coyotes are a common sight and is the most likely Canid that you will encounter, and I had some good ones this year. Because of the deep snow they travel by walking down the roads so they can cover more distance and so when you come across one this gives you a great chance.  Without doubt the most impressive animal to see in Yellowstone is the Bison and the Park supports around 5,000 of them. Like the Coyotes they also travel by the roads as it is much easier for them than walking through deep snow. This is a great opportunity when you come across a herd doing this as you can they get out and shoot from a low viewpoint as they walk towards you.

One of my favourite animals to see in Yellowstone is the Red Fox as it looks at its best in its winter coat. You don’t see them every year as their numbers depends on the vole numbers. If it has been a vole year when the population reaches a peak, then the Fox numbers increase too. On the trip this year I had some great encounters with this beautiful animal.

Yellowstone is not an easy place to photograph the wildlife as you must cover huge distances to find anything and so you do need a huge amount of luck on your side. But the landscape is beautiful in the winter and so when you do find something the chances are it will take a great photo. The Wolves are special though and I am already planning on returning next year to hopefully catch up with Wapiti pack. We are fully booked for next year, but we do get cancellations from time to time so drop us an email if you would like to be on the waiting list.