Winter Wolf Tracking Adventure

This winter we went on a wolf tracking adventure. Winter is the best time to see wolves as their prey, mostly deer and moose, are all concentrated in their winter area. This means the wolves are concentrated too. The wolves like to run the ice of the frozen lake, it not only gives them security, but they can easily hunt their prey. A deer with hooves slips pretty quickly on the ice which gives the wolf an advantage. Knowing these things about the animal you are trying to track is important. Otherwise you might spend all day in the wrong place. And in the winter time, sitting out in the cold for a long time is definitely a challenge to once perseverance.

So knowing these things about wolves and understanding their patterns, we hiked a ridge along a big frozen lake until we found a kill on the ice. The wolves would definitely come back to eat from their kill. Now we were prepared and made sure we were sitting in a hidden spot on the ridge early the next morning as dawn and dusk are the prime time for seeing wolves. We started our hike still in the dark. We oriented ourselves by following our tracks from the day before and completely relied on the moon light as we did not want our flashlights to give us away. Wolves are very perceived and know when you are there before you have any idea about them. We made it to the spot on the ridge and hid behind a bush. Now we just sat there quietly. It was -15 degrees Celsius and I had many layers on, so except on my cheeks I didn’t feel the cold. I kept wiggling my toes to make sure they stay warm.

Slowly the sun started to rise and we could see more. After about half an hour of waiting there we heard big loud howl. It was coming from right behind us in the trees. We turned around, but with all the trees couldn’t see anything. It was quite again. We waited. It was so cold I could see my breath. And then there it was again, a big long howl. It sounded like a lonely wolf was looking for its pack. It went quiet again. It kept repeating its howling over the next half an hour. Eventually it just stopped. By that time the sun had already risen over the mountain tops and it was day light. We kept looking across the lake with our binos, but nothing. Suddenly I heard something walking in the snow behind me. We had split up and one of us was up the ridge behind a tree while I stayed behind the bush. I was looking for the other person, thinking it was them making the nose. Not seeing anything, I turned around to look at the lake, when I saw something just on the other side of the bush that I was sitting behind. A small coyote had made its way up the ridge. I whispered “Coyote” to the other person and could see the coyote stopped and looked around. The other person moved to have better look. The coyote noticed the noise, turned around and run back into bushes. After an already exciting morning, we went back to the lodge to warm up. With all the activity, we were determined to come back in the evening.

Late afternoon, we hiked back to our lookout spot. We looked around and saw a coyote eating on the kill. So focused on the coyote, it took us a moment to see the big black wolf that was laying half way on the ice. It looked like it was just having an afternoon nap, soaking in the warm winter sun. We watched for a while before it run back to the shore, up the hills and was gone into the woods. A few more coyotes came on the ice and they had a big howling contest. Their howl is way more high pitched then the one of the wolf. The sun started setting and it looked like the sky was on fire, it was so red and orange. With it getting dark, we headed back. On our way we came across a wolf track. The track was bigger than my hand, showing what big and majestic animals wolves are.

Being out tracking animals in the winter is a great nature connection. Not only did I connect with the animals by learning about them, understanding their patterns and then having the opportunity to observe them real live. I also connected to myself by learning to sit through the uncomfortable of -15 degrees which not only connected me to nature, but also to myself. I got to tap into a different side of me which allowed to not give in to the un-comfortableness and pain of the coldness. It showed me strength I have within and the ability to persevere discomfort. As in the end perseverance wins the race as we we got rewarded with not only hearing but also seeing coyotes and wolves.

Lea D., Germany