The following images are a sneak peak into this once in a lifetime event that I refer to as The Tek Event. This took place from July 27 to August 11 of 2000 and is quite simply the most exciting interaction between grizzlies and wolves that I have witnessed in my thirty six years of working in Denali.
Five different grizzlies were involved in this interaction: a female with two spring cubs and two independent bears that charged in separately to claim the moose carcass.
Shortly after this event took place, I wrote an article titled: The Struggle for Survival that described the interaction and its roughly fourteen day length.
Once my season in Denali is over, I will plan to scan, process and upload more images into this gallery in October. This will include many images from the exciting climax.
An excerpt from:
The Struggle for Survival - All images and Text © Bill Watkins
Day 1 of the Photo Shoot - Thursday July 27th, 2000 on Professional Photo Permit
In the early pre-dawn morning, discordant howling awakes me from cat-napping in the back of my black, Toyota Tacoma parked on the east side of the Teklanika Bridge.
With little sleep, I wearily crawl out from my sleeping bag and notice the yearling bull moose standing near one of the braids of the Teklanika River. The many channels of the Teklanika flow and meander across the wide gravel bar on a cool, cloudy and misty Thursday morning.
Spruce trees and willows line either side of the many channeled Teklanika with mountains rising in the near distance as mist clings to the ground forming an ethereal shroud as the night creeps into dawn.
The yearling bull moose stands at roughly six feet tall at the shoulder with small, palmate antlers with no brow tines. From the rear, a long gash runs up the right, rear ham with bite marks below the gash, causing the moose to favor his leg. Most likely, inexperience combined with his recent separation from the cow moose contributed to his current and most certainly, fatal predicament.
Suddenly, the young bull walks into the glacially, cold current of the river; a defensive technique to help protect him from his lupine adversaries.
Five spectral shapes drift out of the willows and mist resolving into the gray wolves from Denali’s most legendary and viewed family group - East Fork which is also referred to as Toklat by Dr. Gordon Haber.
The lead wolf gazes at me with amber eyes and decides that now is not the time to press the attack and four of the five wolves drift back into the willows and mist. The fifth wolf stays behind to monitor the moose and lies down on the rocky, river bar.
With the danger temporarily past, the moose gingerly steps out of the glacial river, having been standing for close to twenty-four hours. I suspect by now, the young bull’s muscles and tendons have probably tightened with fatigue from the cold of the river and the length of time standing.
As the morning progresses, the ballet between predator and prey continues. One to two wolves persist in probing and investigating the moose but they do not press the attack. Each time the wolves approach, the moose walks into the rushing river near the east side bridge abutment to help protect himself.
Finally, by 9:00 am, the wolves fade into the willows allowing the young bull to lie down on the shoreline of the river to get some much-needed rest.
After resting for three hours, the moose's ears suddenly swivel towards the direction of the wolves in the willows (up river) and he stands up as a wolf approaches. The bull gingerly walks upriver for several hundred yards with the wolf shadowing and then enters the rushing current. The wolf approaches the young bull and the moose turns and explodes from the river lashing out with both front hooves.
Retreating, the wolf then crosses the river and approaches the moose yet again, forcing it to walk back down river. The wolf then retreats from the moose and lies down on the gravel bar.
Sensing an opportunity, the young bull crosses to the western side of the river and walks up Igloo Creek out of view with the wolf following at a discreet distance.
Briefly, the moose returns to the river bar, crosses the park road, and disappears into Igloo Forest where a collective and disappointed moan (whether imagined or real) comes from myself and the small group of photographers.
With the moose disappearing from view into Igloo Forest, none of us expect to ever see it again, we knew it would go down, it was just a question of when?
End of excerpt.
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All the best,
Bill Watkins