A small group of people huddle together on the bridge where the Miette River slowly trickles into the Athabasca River. It’s a still night, and although it’s cloudy, the moon brightly juts out from the grey. It’s a scene where you imagine a wolf should be sitting beneath, howling slowly, the only movement amongst the stillness. 

Just then, a wolf call does burst out into the night – its long, howling cry almost sends trembles down your neck, until you realize it’s not the fearsome hunter, it’s a human. Cléone Todgham is a naturalist who used to work for the Jasper National Park, and the gathered group is about to join her in a chorus of howls. 

On Jan. 17 and 24, Todgham held a Wolf Howl at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives. The evening began with an informative presentation about the habits of Jasper’s wolves, and a history of the three main packs in the area – Signal, Brazeau and Maligne. 

Wolves have extraordinary senses that surpass human ability. They can hear about six times better than us, they can detect motion with their distinctive yellow eyes and can run up to 40 km/h. 

Despite their colours that can stick out from the white snow – wolves can be a variety of different colours from white, brown, black and grey – the animal has an ability to hide and blend in.

Todgham says that just because you don’t see a wolf on a landscape, doesn’t mean it’s not actually there. 

“They’re good at hiding,” she said. 

They’re also good at finding advantages, which has made them the perfect predator for the rapidly declining Woodland Caribou. Even though wolves have long legs that help carry them through snow, the caribou have the edge when it comes to running through deeper powder. Wolves have been known to use roads and cross country ski trails to help them pad through the deep snow, giving them the upper hand once again. This sneaky tactic has led Parks Canada to close areas caribou frequent to give them a better chance. 

Caribou aren’t the only animals that wolves love to snack on. 

“Different wolves can adapt to different prey,” Todgham said. “There’s different skill sets out there.”

She remembers a pack that once snacked on smaller prey like deer and the occasional elk. Then one day another wolf joined the pack and suddenly the group was taking down moose for a feast. 

Deer are a good occasional food source for wolves because they are easier to catch and less dangerous than an elk, but the reward is small, and sometimes not all members of the pack will be satisfied with such a small bounty. Elk are the next step up – big enough to support the group, but difficult to kill with their large, thrashing antlers and hooves. A wolf pack will usually single out a sick or injured elk and take it down instead of attacking a healthier specimen. Moose are a prize, but are the most difficult to kill. Sometimes the wolves themselves can become casualties of a moose hunt. One local Jasper pack hunts mountain goats and big horn sheep as well. 

By the time a wolf is three and a half months old, they can generally take care of themselves within the pack. They are about as big as they will be at that point too. 

Wolf families have a different dynamic. Human families would choose to feed their children over the adults if food is scarce. With wolves, the adults will eat first to keep the alpha male and female strong to protect the entire group. Youngsters are generally the first to be voted out of meal time if the prey is too small, and can sometimes go without food for several days. 

That family dynamic is related to the hierarchy amongst a pack. Each pack is led by an alpha male and an alpha female, who are the only members of the group to breed each year. After the alphas break off to breed and rear their young, they recall the pack and reform each year. 

Packs can fluctuate and sometimes split up. They can also cover a large territory, hindering wolf research, Todgham said. Because of this, it is unknown exactly how many wolves are within the Jasper National Park borders at any given time. 

Wolves are territorial animals, and sometimes if a wolf crosses into another pack’s range, they can be killed for the crime. JNP biologists recently found a wolf that appeared to have been killed by its own kind, possibly for this reason. 

Wolves do not like to share food with other species, but there is much documentation of it happening whether they like it or not. Coyotes have been spotted sneaking up to wolf kills and eating while the wolf has left briefly. If they are caught snacking on a wolf kill, they can be killed. Todgham remembers watching a family of grizzly bears chowing down on a kill, with an alpha male wolf watching just metres away. As soon as the bears took off for a few moments, the wolf pounced on the kill and began gorging on the food. The bears returned a few minutes later, and the wolf was shunned to his waiting area once again. Todgham doesn’t know if the roles would have reversed had the pack been bigger with less bears to take on. 

Wolves’ distinctive and almost eery howl is done for many reasons – some that biologists don’t fully understand. They believe it’s social, and possibly to mark their territory. 

Every child grew up listening to the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, but Todgham insists the bad reputation is not true.

“The vision of wolves being blood thirsty animals doesn’t hold,” she said. 

Often in cases of wolves attacking humans, the animals were found to have rabies. The event is actually very rare with few recorded violent interactions between people and wolves. 

While there are no wolves howling back the night Todgham and her group are out, it’s easy to imagine the Signal Hill pack lurking in the trees of Signal Mountain nearby on the cold, quiet night.