Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

  

  Previous versions of sum1sgrampa's message #14274927 « Gray wolves at Hallo Bay »

  

sum1sgrampa
Offline
Upload & Sell: On
Re: Gray wolves at Hallo Bay


morris wrote:
Beautiful set Grandpa. I prefer the ones where the wolf does not appear affected by your presence

Morris


Thanks Morris. I can understand that.
FWIW, I'll mention that under no circumstances did we ever approach any of these animals. The areas where we had the best chance of viewing bears or wolves were about a mile hike from camp. Although there were times when an animal would pass by the camp, which sat on a very shallow bluff overlooking the beach.
We would hike down to that area, find a spot and wait. When an animal came into view, we would continue to wait until a photo opportunity arose. If nothing was happening, we would hike a little further down the beach and wait at another spot. I am sure there are some who would say that our mere presence alone would be an intrusion. And to a certain degree it would be foolish to discount that 100 %. I'm not a youngster and have vast experience observing wildlife. The animals were obviously aware of our presence but I honestly never felt we were in any way hindering their normal routines. Keep in mind, there is an abundant food supply in this area and the animals were certainly more focused on salmon than on us.
To be clear, this response it not so much directed at your above comment, but more so informational for anyone who may be unclear.
That first shot is really the only time I felt directly connected to any of the wolves. This was late one evening when I was out alone with just one guide.This alpha male was on a mission to approach us. He came directly at us and stood about maybe 15 feet away and just stared. By this time I had already lowered my camera and we both stood there with nothing but walking sticks wondering what this wolf was going to do. And I was left thinking, " how did I find myself in an absolute wilderness in Alaska staring down a wild wolf ? " The photos are deceiving also. This wolf's head was well above my beltline, and I'm six feet tall. So we stared at him and he stared at us and my guide calmly started speaking in a more and more aggressive tone letting the wolf know he needed to move on. This lasted 2-3 minutes and he finally, calmly walked away.
Here are the first and last uncropped shots of that encounter to give some idea how far way we were before he approached us.



Dec 02, 2017 at 01:44 PM





  Previous versions of sum1sgrampa's message #14274927 « Gray wolves at Hallo Bay »

 




This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.