On the way to the ski hill I took a short detour to scan for wildlife and was I ever rewarded for it. I slowly pulled up to a clearing that looks down onto the Bow river and couldn’t believe my luck. A lone black wolf was racing around and leaping in the air at a flock of ravens fluttering just above it! Not knowing how long this would last I pulled over and snapped off a few not so great photos before it was apparent that the wolf was going to stick around and finish off the bone it was protecting. Once in a better position, I got to watch and photograph this young wolf for about 45 minutes as it periodically chased after ravens and magpies in between gnawing on a bone.

There are several researchers that believe if wolves are raised in close proximity to ravens, they become accustom to each other and the wolves will not try to harm ravens. I’m not sure this explanation fits for every case, particularly in a food limited environment.  In this particular case, the wolf seemed to enjoy displacing and chasing the ravens but he didn’t seem to really want to kill them as he had several opportunities where he easily could have.  See below for several other photos documenting this interaction.

Advertisement