Wolves are an elusive creature. To humans, the wolf’s mysterious nature and tendency to travel in a pack makes it an animal to respect and fear. It is a great joy to hear the howl of a wolf, but to actually see the animal is an absolute treasure. I had the good fortune to do both on our expedition down the Kobuk River in Alaska.
On August 13, 2008 at around 22:40 I was fishing on the Kobuk River when I heard a pack of wolves howling. They certainly were not howling at the moon, as it had not yet risen to chase away the long arctic day. The yelping and howling of what seemed to be three or four wolves was the first I had ever heard. The sound was musical and spooky all in one. This wild sound was yet another reminder of the remoteness of our location. The howling let up almost as suddenly as it had begun. The next morning, howls of the wolf pack could again be heard as our group packed up camp and set to the river.
The next two days provided ample audio evidence of the presence of wolves in our area. At campsites and stops along the way, expedition members found wolf tracks along with bear and moose tracks. The pure density of tracks was impressive to say the least. The size of some of the tracks was outrageous. Some of the wolf tracks were as big as a human hand with the fingers truncated just above the knuckles. Evidence of wild animals was everywhere, it almost seemed impossible that we had seen so few of the animals making these tracks.
Floating down the Kobuk River on August 15th, it finally happened. As the lead boat in our expedition passed in front of a confluence of the Kobuk and a tributary flowing from the south, an individual in the boat cried wolf. And I mean that literally, she really did yell “wolf”, which was strictly against our plan for wildlife viewing. While the wolves may or may not have heard this blunder, they did sense us and they initially ran back into the shrubs along the banks of the tributary. After a second thought, two wolves came back out of the shrubs, ran up stream and crossed the river where they then proceeded eternally out of our view. On account of their quick, shy nature, we have no pictures to prove we saw them, but we retain the memory of two bushy, white and gray tails retreating away.
