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Elusive Wolves

Wolf Footprints in the River of No Return Wilderness Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer
Wolf Footprints in the River of No Return Wilderness
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer
“A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow…. Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank…. Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.”
Aldo Leopold, Thinking Like A Mountain

In January three wolves were killed by the US Department of Agriculture and Food in Cache Valley, near Avon. The wolves wandered into a corner of northern Utah (more or less north of I-80 and east of I-84) where wolves are exempt from protection.

These were not the first wolves in northern Utah in modern times. I came across tracks in the Bear River Range a dozen years ago. There have been at least 21 documented sitings of wolves in Utah since 2004.

Wolf Footprints Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer
Wolf Footprints
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer

Wolf Footprints in Snow Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer Wolf Footprints in Snow
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer

In the winter of 2002, on the last day of a four-day, fifty-five mile ski tour, deep in Idaho’s River of No Return Wilderness, a friend and I were setting a skin-track (a backcountry skiing term for breaking a trail) from the Salmon River up to the canyon rim. We traveled through spaced-out ponderosa pines through light snowflakes until we topped out on flat ground, 5,000 feet above the river. The forest abruptly transitioned to thick lodge pole pines. At our feet, all the snow was packed down with fresh wolf tracks. There was no new snow in the tracks, yet snow continued to fall from above. A pack of wolves had coalesced where we stood moments before our arrival.

Though I had seen wolf tracks before, I was still taken aback by the sheer size.

There are only two known cases of wolves killing people in the last century in North America. Statistically, you are more likely to be killed by a dear, an elk, a moose, a snake, a falling tree, an insect sting, lightening, or just about anything else than you are to be attacked by a wolf. Even with that knowledge, we could not escape a feeling of vulnerability. We looked around cautiously.

Five sets of evenly-spaced wolf tracks, parallel to one another, lead down the trail—the trail we had to follow. After about one hundred meters of skiing, one set of tracks peeled off to the left, disappearing into the lodgepole pine forest. A hundred meters later, a second set of wolf tracks turned off, this time to the right. A hundred meters more, and another set peeled off to the left. Consistent with pattern, a fourth set veered off to the right one hundred meters later, once again.

The wolf pack undoubtably watched us from all points of the compass. On high alert, we scanned the woods constantly for flashes of movement, for golden eyes peering from behind the timber, but saw nothing.

The middle set of tracks—the fifth wolf’s tracks—continued for another mile down the snow-covered trail before they too, turned off into the forest and vanished. We never caught a glimpse of any of them.

I think about those elusive wolves frequently. A wolf encounter is an zenith wilderness experience.

In Thinking Like a Mountain, Aldo Leopold described his younger self shooting a wolf and coming upon it in time to watch it die:
“I was young then,” he wrote, “and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die [in the wolf’s eyes], I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

I’m not suggesting wolves shouldn’t be managed, but I would like to see wildlife biologists making those decisions and that they are applied with consistency.

Leopold concluded,
“…Too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau’s dictum: ‘In wildness is the salvation of the world.’ Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.”

I am Eric Newell and I am wild about Utah.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Hugh Jones (Rubber Rodeo-Before I Go Away) and to J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin
Text: Eric Newell, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University
Additional Reading: Eric Newell

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah Pieces by Eric Newell

Moilanen, Samantha, State officials killed three wolves in northern Utah. Here’s why., The Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 27, 2026, 4:09 p.m., Updated: Jan. 28, 2026, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/01/27/utah-officials-kill-three-wolves/

Lofton, Shelby, 3 wolves killed in Cache County; picture prompts concern over ‘lethal removal’, KSL.com, KSL Broadcasting Salt Lake City UT, Deseret Digital Media, Jan. 28, 2026, https://www.ksl.com/article/51439305

Allen, Corbin, USU ecologists weigh in on wolves killed near Avon The Herald Journal a.k.a. HJNews, Jan 30, 2026, https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/usu-ecologists-weigh-in-on-wolves-killed-near-avon/article_8132fca5-2ca1-4d69-9ae7-3107b4008f52.html

Gilbert, Lael, USU Ecologists Offer Expert Perspective About Gray Wolves Found in Cache Valley, Land & Environment, USU Today, Utah State University, January 29, 2026, https://www.usu.edu/today/story/usu-ecologists-offer-expert-perspective-about-gray-wolves-found-in-cache-valley/

Leopold, Aldo, Thinking Like a Mountain,, Ecotone, Inc, https://www.ecotoneinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/aldo-leopold-tlam.pdf
See also this copy on the Sierra Club website: https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce/rocky-mountain-chapter/Wolves-Resources/Thinking%20Like%20a%20Mountain%20-%20Aldo%20Leopold.pdf

The Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction: A Timeline, The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, https://greateryellowstone.org/yellowstone-wolf-reintroduction

Wolves in Utah, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, Last Updated: Tuesday, September 9, 2025, https://wildlife.utah.gov/wolves.html

History of Wolf Management, Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/historyculture/wolf-management.htm

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Symbiosis in the Desert

Summer temperatures in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve may often exceed 100 degrees with only a 15 degree drop at night. This is not uncommon in this portion of the Mojave Desert. Over the millennia, amazing adaptations have been made by plants and animal alike to enhance their survival here. Anatomical, physiological and behavioral adaptations are on display every day. Some are quite obvious like cacti, whose leaves have been reduced to spines. What is not as obvious are the remarkable symbiotic relationships that have evolved to enhance survival in these extreme conditions

A symbiotic relationship is best defined as two organisms living together where one or both benefit from the relationship and neither is harmed

Lichen on Rock, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Lichen on Rock
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Anyone who has hiked in the deserts of Utah has encountered rocks splashed with a dazzling display of every color in the rainbow. We call them Lichens, but you may not be aware that they are examples of a mutualistic symbiosis where two organisms live together and both benefits from the relationship. Lichens are actually a partnership between a fungus and a photosynthetic organism, usually an alga or cyanobacterium. The fungus provides a protective structure and absorbs water and minerals from rain, dew, or dust. They also offer shelter from harsh desert conditions such as intense sunlight and temperature extremes. The alga or cyanobacterium are the source of color as they contain Chlorophyl, Carotenoids, Anthraquinones, Uric acid and Melanin’s. They produce food by photosynthesis, supplying life sustaining energy for both organisms

Desert Trumpet with Wasp Exit Holes, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Desert Trumpet with Wasp Exit Holes
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Another symbiotic relationship known as commensalisms, where one organism is benefited and the other is neither harmed or benefited, can be found associated with Desert Trumpet plants. These tall slender plants have hollow and dynamic inflated stems. The inflated portions of the stems are penetrated by Cynipidae wasps as they lay their eggs inside the hollow cavity where their larvae develop in a protected environment. The resulting hole left when the larvae emerge as adults, allows access inside the chamber, sometimes for years. a student of mine cataloged over 20 species of insects, spiders and mites that were secondary inhabitants of the hollow stems.

Rabbit Brush Gall, Opened Below Showing Occupant, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Rabbit Brush Gall
Opened Below Showing Occupant
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Creosote Gall, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Creosote Gall
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Perhaps the most interesting of all symbiotic relationships found in the desert is the creation of insect galls. Galls are remarkable cancerous like plant growths, produced as a reaction to chemicals injected by insects. This is most commonly initiated by gall wasps, midges, and aphids. Galls come in all shapes, sizes and architectural design and serve as a protective capsule for insects eggs and developing larvae. Some look like cotton balls others resemble land mines or satellites or simple cupping protuberances on a leaf. These galls provide both food and shelter for the insect’s developing larvae. Despite the harshness of arid landscapes, deserts host a surprising diversity of galls. Each insect species typically induces a highly specific gall on a particular host plant. Chemicals secreted by the insect or its larvae manipulate the plant’s hormonal pathways, redirecting growth to form a unique structure that supports the insect’s life cycle. I am not averse to stopping and dissecting galls to examine the larva inside. I am occasionally surprised to find secondary inhabitants such as spiders, mites and the like. While insects benefit from the galls protection the host plants generally do not seem to Any significant harm.

I’m professor Marshall Topham and I’m Wild about Utah’s Mojave Desert.

Credits:

Images Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Bob Holmes, Composer, Hugh Jones, Producer, Rubber Rodeo-Before I Go Away, 1984, https://www.discogs.com/release/9698183-Rubber-Rodeo-Scenic-Views
Text: Marshall Topham, https://ees.utahtech.edu/faculty-staff/
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah pieces by Marshall Topham https://wildaboututah.org/author/marshall-topham/

Cane, Jim & Kervin, Linda, Gall Insects, Wild About Utah, January 13, 2011, https://wildaboututah.org/gall-insects/

“Sagebrush is an important member of an ecosystem that helps support many birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, as well as an abundance of insects and microbes. One study found nearly 300 arthropod species directly living on just a few plants including- 72 spider, 237 insect, 42 of which were gall-forming, amongst many other species.”
Greene, Jack, Sage Steppe, Wild About Utah, June 15, 2015, https://wildaboututah.org/sage-steppe/

“Pests and Potential Problems Some ecotypes of rubber rabbitbrush are infected by stem galls, which are caused by two species of tephritid flies (Aciurina species) (McArthur 1979). There are no reports of negative effects caused by the galls. ”
Rubber Rabbitbrush, NRCS, USDA, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/mtpmcpg9696.pdf

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Bug World Athletes

Dragonfly Courtesy Pixabay, DerWeg, Contributor
Dragonfly
Courtesy Pixabay, DerWeg, Contributor
As the Winter Olympics were getting into full swing , I was glued to the TV. I was dazzled by the super speed and skills of the athletes. Then I heard the Natural History Museum of Utah had just opened its traveling exhibit Bug World, which could teach me about the small super athletes of the insect world.

I turned off the TV and took a trip to Bug World.

When I walked in the door of the exhibit, I found myself face to face with an Orchid Mantis. This insect has the unique ability to blend into a patch of orchid flowers, so when another insect comes looking for nectar, the mantis snags it out of the air at dazzling speed. I watched this drama play out on the museum’s video screen. It looked very fast.

Just how fast? The exhibit invited everyone to find the answer using the nearby light board. I stepped up to the board and hit the start button. A light came on in one of the 12 dots on the board. When I tapped the lighted dot, it would go out and another dot would light up. I had 30 seconds to see how many dots I could put out. I got 12. That put me in the range of Slug. That stung. I took a deep breath and hit the start button again. This time I got 25, moving me up to Butterfly speed. So, I took off my jacket and handed my purse to my husband. I gave it all I had. I hit 33, almost getting me up to Spider speed. The mantis can do 50. They are the undisputed champions of attack speed.

I moved on to Japanese Bees. Bees are the champions of wing speed. They can hum along at 200 beats per second. The unique Japanese bees have figured out a way of use this wing speed to protect their hive. When a dangerous wasp enters their hive, they swarm around it, beating their wings fast enough to whip up the temperature to117 degrees centigrade. That’s enough to kill the wasp.

Once again, the museum invited people to test how hard it was to raise the temperature by sliding their hands over 6 lighted dots. Two small kids were already rubbing 4 of the dots and getting nowhere. I stepped up and started working on the last two dots. The temperature went up a little. “Harder!” cried the onlookers. All three of us were rubbing the lights like crazy. I started to sweat. Suddenly a light flashed. We’d hit 117 and killed the wasp. I now know just how hard the bees need to work to defend their hive.

Next up was the Dragonfly. The dragonfly can only flap its wings at 60 beats per second. But each wing operates independently, giving it the ability to fly with pinpoint accuracy. Combine this with its bulging eyes that can see in all directions, and you have the insect predator champion of deadly accuracy. The lion, pointed out the exhibit poster, will bring down its prey 20 times out of 100. The Dragonfly hits its moving target midair 95 out of 100 times.

Every time I turned around I learned something interesting. But this Bugworld traveling exhibit was also interactive and fun.

It’s going to be in Salt Lake at the Natural History Museum until September.
I heartily recommend it.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Utah

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy Pixabay, DerWeg, Contributor, https://pixabay.com/photos/dragon-fly-insect-leaf-lotus-8105990/
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman Utah Public Radio upr.org
Text: Mary Heers, https://cca.usu.edu/files/awards/art-and-mary-heers-citation.pdf
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Mary Heers’ Wild About Utah Postings

Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, http://nhmu.utah.edu
301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108

Bug World Exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah through September 7, 2026, https://nhmu.utah.edu/exhibitions/bug-world

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Life is Like a Box of Wood Ducks

Leap Out Like a Wood Duck Duckling: Wood Duck Hen & Ducklings, Courtesy US FWS, Jim Hudgins, Photographer
Wood Duck Hen & Ducklings
Courtesy US FWS,
Jim Hudgins, Photographer
Sweet aromas of Indian Ricegrass are lifted by the breeze, whirled into a miniature maelstrom within the watery globes of morning dew. The dewdrops quiver and are dislodged from their positions on wisps of down. Tender webbed feet – ornamented with streaks of yellow so reminiscent of the sunlight now greeting them – grip a ledge of fracturing wood. A chick peers out, out away from everything it has known in its near 24 hours of life. The canopy, the spring, the cacophony of bird calls – The world is reflected in the wonderment of its eye. Does the beat of its heart accelerate? Does its breath catch or its muscles seize in this moment? In the second, right before… it jumps?

Duckling, Courtesy Pixabay, Terbe Rezso, Contributor
Duckling
Courtesy Pixabay, Terbe Rezso, Contributor

Duck Nesting Box Courtesy Pixabay, Ray Shrewsberry, Contributor Duck Nesting Box
Courtesy Pixabay, Ray Shrewsberry, Contributor

Wood Duck Pair Courtesy US FWS, Larry Pace, Photographer Wood Duck Pair
Courtesy US FWS, Larry Pace, Photographer

I’m Sally Smith, an intern with the Bridgerland Audubon Society. And the fellow I just introduced you to, is a Wood Duck. Wood Ducks nest in man-made boxes or tree cavities ranging from 2 to 50 feet above the ground or water. Just one day after they hatch, the chicks are called by their mother to take a daring leap. Necks straining, wing buds flailing, they plummet an astonishing distance before splashing into water or ground cover from whence they bounce, uninjured. This ‘bouncing’ is made possible by the lightness of the chicks as well as the malleable nature of their bones. One might relate this malleability to the desirable characteristic of perseverance – being able to bounce back when the trials of life come at us. This would be a good lesson indeed, but as I pondered on these things, my mind came to rest on a slightly different topic.

I suspect there are people listening to this podcast who are similar to me. Who from the windows of their school building or work office, observe a universe of curiosities, hear the enticing meadowlark calls, feel the playful Utah wind beckoning. People who ache to be embraced by that universe, immersed in an expanse of discoveries, a life worth living. I was, and perhaps you are, very well acquainted with the word “wait”. Wait for the right time, wait for the opportunities to come to you, wait for your heart to stop beating so vigorously…. Could it be that that word is only an excuse… we tell ourselves because we are afraid that if we leap, we will fall?

I recently received admissions results from a university I had applied for. I had set my ambitions high, I expected to be like most other birds, to leap from the nest and fly! However, my wings weren’t quite as developed as I’d thought, and rather than soaring through the magnificent clouds – I plummeted into the foliage. But, turns out the foliage is pretty amazing, something I never would have known. And it was there, I discovered this internship in ornithology. We tend to dread failure, fear the possibility of things not going the way that we expect them to. And guess what, we do fail. But so what? Failure is only the route to a more comprehensive success.

Ecology and conservation is rewarding work. Work that is ever in need of more hands. The web of resources and opportunities to get involved is larger than you realize! So, my friends, we might take courage from the Wood Duck, ruffle our feathers, and leap! Not expecting to fly right away, but realizing that the fall can be every bit as majestic.

I’m Sally Smith and I’m wild about Utah!

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy US FWS, Jim Hudgins, Photographer
Duckling Courtesy Pixabay, Terbe Rezso, Contributor, https://pixabay.com/photos/duckling-nature-pen-feather-cute-9660597/
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin as well as Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman Utah Public Radio upr.org
Text & Voice: Sally Smith, Student Intern, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Listen to archived pieces by Sally Smith on Wild About Utah

Wood Duck, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Overview: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Duck/
Life History: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Duck/lifehistory

Wood Duck, Audubon Field Guide, https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/wood-duck

Curtis, Paige, 10 Fun Facts About the Wood Duck, 10 Fun Facts About the Wood Duck, Audubon Magazine, December 13, 2023, https://www.audubon.org/magazine/10-fun-facts-about-wood-duck

Watch a clutch of ducklings leap in the ‘Baby Wood Ducks’ video, in the Duck Stamp article below:
“In late summer, Wood Duck nestlings fledge by the dozens from their nest cavities, hurling themselves to the ground or water far below when prompted by a special contact call from their mother. –more–”
Freeman, Alexandra Class, How Hunters and Artists Helped Save North America’s Waterfowl, Bird Academy, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2015, https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/duck-stamps/