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Winter weakness

The harsh Yellowstone winter gradually wears down the wolves' prey.

It’s November and winter is beginning to take hold in Yellowstone. As it gets colder, there's one animal here that gets stronger: the wolf. The winter is their time. Gradually it weakens their prey. The Druid wolf pack - one of the largest and most powerful in Yellowstone - has a bull elk surrounded, but there’s a problem… the pack won’t follow the bull as he runs away into the river. They won’t risk freezing to death in the ice cold water. What’s more, the elk’s antlers are now at just the right height to keep the wolves at bay: it’s a stalemate. The elk is now the one with a problem. Although it’s only knee deep, he can’t stay in this freezing water forever either. A young female wolf is not prepared to let him go and stays near on the bank as the elk decides to make his move. The elk is strong, though and one on one he has the advantage. Her only support is another youngster. They are neither strong or experienced enough to bring this elk down, but they're enough of a threat to make him turn and run back to the river where he knows they won’t follow. The longer he stays in the freezing water, the weaker he will get. Others before him have waited here too long, as an antlered skull on the river's edge shows, and wolves are patient. Right now his strength is his only advantage. He has to try to escape again. This time even the young wolves stay put. Without the support of the pack they don't really stand a chance - and the pack has already decided that this early in the winter a bull elk in his prime is just too strong for them still. But as the winter gets colder and the snow gets deeper the tables will turn.

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5 minutes

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