Whilst our main focus on this trip to Katmai National Park was to observe and film Brown Bears, there was always the hope of a close encounter with wolves. This beautiful Coastal Gray Wolf paid us a surprise visit whilst we were in Geographic Harbor.
Canis lupis, the Gray Wolf, comes in a wide range of colours. They have an acute sense of smell some 100 times better than humans. Their hearing is also much better than ours. They are usually found living and hunting in packs. In the summer months, as food becomes more abundant, the packs fragment. There is some debate as to whether or not those animals found on the coast represent a distinct sub species or are ecotypes adapted to living on the coast.