A year in the life of some wolves

Existence is absoluteness
in the perpetual day
With stamina and with spirit
You really make your way
A pair of apex predators
Their legion to control
With instinct and intelligence
And of course a lot of soul

Seven feisty fellows
A really wily bunch
Projecting lots of confidence
And now quite a punch
Around the Rockies lowland plains
Ridges and river too
A densely wooded area
So cover that is true

Mountains in The background
That climb into the sky
With jagged snow clad summits
That do rise rather high
A silver male and black female
Host this little troop
Four cubs and an outsider
Present a successful group

They all are expert hunters
They know each other well
They work together beautifully
To bring their victims hell
When they out there hunting
Giving it their all
Its January and the heavy snow
Is really beginning to fall

The small mammals hibernate
That is what they do
So its only really Buffalo and Elk
That are on view
The wolves are very agile
And built to run and run
Up to 50 km a day
Before they feel undone

Its experience that gets them through
The instinctive expectation
Their relation to each other
And their solid creation
They hold mental maps a plenty
And a memory to match
Their brains are so much bigger
Than the domestic dog
So catch
That thought perhaps some thirty
Per cent more
And the knowledge thats always there
With their scent marking and howling ways
The great unknown they share

The wilderness of wonderment
The chemicals they use
To ward off would be intruders
Or even other crews
Who may be inclined to infiltrate
Their kingdom in the snow
They lay their boundaries effectively
As all newcomers know

They have extremely sensitive
Noses and they can
Refresh the hots spots often
This really all began
So as to protect their territory
Which all wolves must do
Clearly obvious signposts
Basically all through

They have their recognition
Their expressions that they use
Dominance and submission
Really they refuse
To fight and injure anyone
Its harmony they need
Playful reassurance
That all of them succeed

With cubs around its essential
That the parents do not leave
For hungry grizzlies may be about
Hoping to achieve
A den of cubs can satisfy
The rumblings of the bear
And with the departure of the mother
Alas her cubs he did share

He needed some fresh protein
And she heard is raucous growls
But by the time she retraced her steps
Despite her aggressive howls
He had finished off her family
Bones and all were gone
And she had lost this years cubs
Her sun had briefly shone

To vanish in the heavens
To scramble and to see
If they could find some protein too
To feed the family
The animals they could try and catch
Were the big horn sheep
But they
had massive armoured head gear
No push over today

The Moose a spectacular solitary
To large and clever too
So unless the beast is sickening
It would not be good to do
The Elk maybe were worth a chase
They were headed further East
A journey to the valleys
To hopefully then feast

Some of them would be pregnant
And week from struggling on
Nit a lot of food about
Their fat reserves all gone
But close to the Northern borders
Into the larger packs domain
They would have to try and contain them
For it could be quite insane

So for seven hours they followed
The weather had been mild
Each would have a calf with them
Running with a child
Raises the odds for the wolf boys
Who must be on their game
And they saw one that was limping
Not a claim to fame

The wolves have a sublimity
And a recognition they
Can see a weakness at a glance
And communicate away
If one is carrying an injury
The wolves will suss it out
And run them down in quick time
And thats without a doubt

But this lot tried to scarper
And the border they crossed o’re
Two of them were on the beast
Trying to make sure
But it was down outside their land
A dangerous place to be
So all they could do was gorge themselves
And on seeing the pack run free

They had cross ed the line
Into no mans land
Their invisible boundary
And they had to get a move on fast
Or end up history
This can happen sometimes
Hours spent on the trail
And then something just happens
And actually they fail

But they managed to take
Quite some rump
And belly and they would
Keep it in their belly
And in their pouches
As they should
Their rivals claimed their benefit
Stretching the sinew long
Tearing the muscle
Its quite some tussle
And dragging the innards along

february and real thick snow
Grazing is bound to get
Harder and harder and it slows them down
For the wolves and bears seem set
Again the wolves are searching
Always after prey
Into march and the snow comes down
And its then when the ruminants pay

Not enough green leaves
No shoots at all
The Solitary Moose must be
Weaker and weaker by the day
So they head over to see
A sky of pink and indigo
Comes the turn of night
The wolves decide to supper
It feels that the time is right

Clearly the moose will be hungry
A really big beast are they
2 metres tall and 300kilos
Thats something and you can say
That is a formidable fellow
The alpha is well on his scent
Through the dense trees
With sublimate ease
Clearly he is very content

Picking up hairs skin and
Farts too
The high fibre diet
Its what Moose’s do
The wolf’s nostrils
Working now overtime they
Know the beast sick
It has ticks
And an array of problems
So badly infested and weak
And the stench of pus
That peculiar reek
All from the scent
How effective they are
And all this at night
Not one to spar

With one on ones journey
Soon it would be
Downed and all eaten
It history
Kaleidoscope eyes
That hang in the night
Bold as the brass
Picked out by the light

Dead on its feet
The great moose is gone
The teeth of the pack
Are heavy upon
Drinking its blood
And its organs too
And filling their stomachs
With protein anew

Moving on its now April
Its warmer by far
Those in hibernation
Wake up soon to star
In Springs emanation
A good time to be
A wolf thats when food
Is abundantly
There for the taking
When squabbles can rise
In the packs some attacks
Its no real surprise

When puppies are born
And love seems to be
Part of wolf life
Fresh spirit we see
That big troop have split
Only 5 wolves are left
Down by the river
Soon are bereft if their kill
To a grizzly
Who manages too
Muscle in on them
Thats what grizzlies do

A year with the wolves
The order of things
The turn of the seasons
And all that brings
The continuity
We’ve seen it all
We ran with them ate with them
Answered their call

Thanks to the BBC wolf battleground