Article content

BANFF NATIONAL PARK — Back in the spring of 2009, a wolf pup was born as part of the Bow Valley pack. The wolf, known as Skoki, was fitted with a GPS collar by wildlife experts with Banff National Park in December 2009.

During the next year, the black-coloured grey wolf and his family travelled more than 6,500 kilometres throughout the park and taught officials a great deal about how wolves use the landscape.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or The early life of Skoki the wolf in Banff National Park Back to video

They moved as a pack throughout the Bow Valley in the winter and hunted. When Skoki’s mom had another litter of pups in April 2010 they hunted for her, too.

“It’s entirely fascinating to see how far these wolves were travelling each day to go out, hunt, find food and then bring it back to the pups and the mom,” said Jesse Whittington, a wildlife biologist with Banff National Park.

Photo by Parks Canada / For the Calgary Herald

By summer, Skoki went up to higher elevations — heading up on Bonnet Glacier and Wapta Icefields. He travelled through former caribou range near Lake Louise and even hunted mountain goats as they came down from the craggy cliffs to cross through valleys in search of water.

He left his pack in mid-December 2010 and went to Kananaskis Country, where he formed a pack of his own after finding a mate and fathering at least one set of pups the following year.