Weekend with the Wapitis, Part 7 - Valentin's day 2026
By Isaac and Katie Milesky-Rath
Photos by Isaac and Katie Milesky-Rath
The morning of February 13th started off as normal as any Old Faithful Photo Safari would - We departed the Snowlodge at 8am, heading north along the Fire Hole River towards Madison Junction. We made a few stops that I would normally make, but soon enough, I noticed that no southbound coaches had come by. It was well past the time when they should’ve made it to this area on their journey to Old Faithful, so it struck me as odd. When we arrived at the warming hut, 16 miles into our journey, very few coaches were present. Another guide approached and relayed the news: The Wapiti Lake wolf pack was hunting a bison on the Madison River, just a few more miles up the road to the west. I thanked them, and let my guests have a quick restroom stop and run into the hut for refreshments, and then we made a beeline to the action.
When we pulled up, there were two wolves harassing an isolated female bison on the banks of the river. I noticed that they had already taken a few bites out of her backside and legs, and knew it was only a matter of time till they finished her off. My guests were happy and content to spend the rest of the day watching this go down, so we stayed put.
As I was watching, I found myself reminiscing on a similar event two years ago along the Fire Hole River, the event that started the “Weekend with the Wapitis” saga. See weekend with the Wapitis part 1 if you’d like to reminisce as well!
As we watched and waited, multiple wolves came in and out of the forest, some to help harass the bison, others to watch. The Wapiti Lake pack, unfortunately, lost all of their pups this year to a disease outbreak, so there was no teaching to be done - these were all experienced hunters. However, in a family of this size, it pays to rest when you can and take turns wearing down the target. At one point in the day, we ran back to Madison Warming Hut for a restroom break, and when we did so, we encountered a single black wolf on the road. We watched him for a while and even got to see him take a swim across the river to get back to the pack.
Eventually, the bison had had enough harassment and started to cross the river to the other side so the wolves would stop harassing her. When she did this, multiple wolves came in and started eating the snow that she had dripped blood on. We could hear them whining and whimpering to each other. Now, the bison was on our side of the river, which was not good because if she died on that side, we would not get a good sighting of the wolves or scavengers. When we left, the bison was on our side of the river, and from this point on, I don't know what happened that night, but I am speculating.
When we left in the late afternoon, the bison was still alive. When we returned in the morning, the wolves’ hunger had been satiated. Luckily, the wolves took her down on the far end of the river, so we were in a safe place to view from the road. We’d only seen about five members of the pack the previous day, but today we noticed tons of tracks leading down the hill and across the river, so we guessed that when it was time for the takedown, some more members of the pack showed up to help.
When we arrived, nothing was on the carcass. The wolves had fed on it overnight, but there was still way too much left for them to be gone. They were in the area; we’d just need to be patient. About an hour after we got there, still no wolves had shown up. We started to hear some howling coming from the forest, so we got our cameras set up and waited. About 15 minutes after we heard them howling, a single collared grey came out from the forest and began feeding on the carcass. It definitely knew we were across the river watching it because the tail was always tucked, and it looked skittish, constantly looking around, making sure nothing was sneaking up on it.
The wolf fed on the carcass for a few minutes, then left and went up into the forest, and it looked like he carried a piece of meat with them. When the wolf left the carcass, all the Ravens dispersed and went up into the trees. The wolf went back into the forest, ate his piece of meat, and came out and fed again on the carcass. She still looks very skittish and very on edge, and I don't know if that was for us watching her or if she knew something we didn't. After a few minutes of feeding, she left for the woods.
When the wolf left, it was quiet again for a while before the howling started again, and another wolf came down shortly after. Same as before - skittish, tail tucked, looking around nervously. After about a minute of feeding on the carcass, another wolf came in, and once that other wolf came, her tail was no longer tucked but wagging and more confident. For some reason, this other wolf made her very comfortable and confident. We watched these two feed for about 45 minutes until we had to leave to get back to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
I noticed another very interesting thing throughout the morning: dozens of ravens were hanging around the carcass, but never approached or started feeding. When the wolves came out, they started to mob the carcass and eat. Studies have shown that ravens are very cautious around carcasses until wolves have arrived, because this tells them that it is safe to eat.
This entire time, Katie had been stuck at Old Faithful Snow Lodge in a forced quarantine. She’s been sick with a migraine one day and called out of work, but because of our close living situation with the entire Old Faithful Staff, they take many precautions. Since the migraine had caused her to be sick, she had to follow the GI Illness quarantine protocols - this meant she couldn’t leave the room for 72 hours after symptoms subsided. Thus, Katie missed most of the action, and I spent Valentine’s Day with wolves instead of my wife. She had a private charter with photographers, and they specifically wanted to try to find wolves. Katie brought them to the carcass and watched for about 2 hours - in that time, they only got the single collared grey. The wolf came down to feed for a few minutes, and if they had been able to stay longer, they would’ve gotten a few others, but this family wanted to travel the entire lower loop that day, so time was limited. They also got to watch a wolf/coyote encounter, and at one point, had NINE bald eagles in the vicinity of the carcass.
Over the next few weeks, the Wapitis came over to Old Faithful and even made an appearance in the Upper Geyser Basin. I would often see them around the area actively hunting, specifically near Black Sand and Biscuit Basin. I didn’t get to see it, but the pack did go back down the River and made a kill down there on one of my off days. This was a young bison, and this meant they were done with it that day, and back to hunting two days later, again down at Old Faithful. These guys can cover a lot of ground in just a few hours. For the rest of the season, we had some good views of the wolves, but nothing as long or as good as we had over Valentine's Day. While of course I wish I could’ve spent the day with Katie, but the Wapitis made a great replacement Valentine!
