Photo Blog - Niebrugge Images

I have posted a couple of photos of a black wolf over the last week or so.  Actually, these photos were of one of two black wolves with the Toklat pack - I couldn’t tell them apart, but I have many photos with both in them, so I know there were two.  I first saw these two beautiful wolves in the spring of 2001, they must have arrived that winter.  A biologist told me the two were siblings.  They, along with their pack mates would soon become very popular with visitors and photographers as they were regularly seen along the Park road, and even in the Tek campground! 

Unfortunately that all changed a couple of winters ago.  That winter a number of pack members were trapped while wandering outside Denali National Park.  Later that same winter, one of the two black wolves was shot (legally) by a hunter when he too wandered outside the Park.  News reports said the black wolf had been wandering far and wide after losing his mate. 

I saw members of the pack a few times that following summer, and they were very far away and even then very skittish.  So what could be good about that?  The good is what happened to the second black wolf.  (more…)

Up until now, I have only posted photos of the Toklat Pack in Denali National Park.  Beginning in 2002 I started seeing this female fairly regularly much further west in the Park in an area that is typically known as the range for the Grant Creek Pack.  Unfortunately she wore an ugly research collar which made many of my photos of her less desirable.  I was able to hide the collar in this photo by getting low enough for the vegetation to block it.  To make matters worse, her collar didn’t even work.  (more…)

This old photo was one of my first decent wild wolf images.  I was sitting by myself early one morning at a nice viewpoint overlooking a river valley in Denali National Park, Alaska.  It was a valley in which I had seen a lot of wolf activity over the previous days, and I was really hoping for a good photo opportunity.  After sitting for a couple of hours I got this weird feeling that I was being watched.  I turned around and was shocked to see that a wolf had quietly walked up to within 20 feet behind me!  My heart was racing - I wasn’t sure if I should be excited or scared - I was some of both.  (more…)