My name is Kira Cassidy,
and I'm a research associate for the Yellowstone Wolf Project.
Here we're watching a video of a single wolf from the Lamar Canyon pack,
the alpha female who just recently had pups,
hunting a single cow elk in Soda Butte Creek
in the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park.
The wolf has already made some contact with the elk before
the video started as you can see by the injury
on the back right leg of the elk.
And that's a typical spot for a wolf to grab on
to an elk to try and not only slow down the elk
but control one of the back legs so they can avoid being kicked.
It can be incredibly dangerous to try and take down an animal that,
in the case of a cow elk, may be five to seven times larger
than a pretty large wolf
and really their only mode of doing that is with their teeth.
15% of the collared wolves who've died inYellowstone National Park
have been killed by one of their prey species.
In fact, healthy elk of prime age
could be considered nearlyinvulnerable to wolves.
The successful hunts have something wrong with them
that we maybe had no idea just by lookingat the animal while it's alive.
Something like a broken bone that's been healed
and calcified over may make that animala little bit slower than the rest.
Issues with teeth abscesses, where an older animal
may wear down their teeth to a point that
they're just chewing on their gum line.
Even overgrown hooves, which may cause an animal
to be slower than the rest of them.
Yellowstone is one of the best places
in the world to observe wild wolves.
And because of that we get to see thesereally amazing behaviors
that may occur nearly daily in a wolf's life,
but to be able to see it up close like this
is a pretty special situation.
Although something like a large predator
hunting a large ungulate species can be something
that is difficult to watch,
because we are able to place ourselves
in both of their mindsets,
it's important to remember that these two species,
especially here in the Yellowstone ecosystem,
evolved together for thousands of years.
And the wolf is the speed and the size it is
with the adaptations it has because
it's had to keep up with strong elk
and fast elk and aggressive elk.
And the elk are that way because
they've had wolves nipping at their heels
for thousands of years.
It's really an incredible partnership
between elk and wolves.