DATES: MARCH 3 – 6, 2025
PRICE: $3,221 | TUITION, LODGING, & MEALS
LOCATION: LAMAR BUFFALO RANCH
GROUP SIZE: 13
ACTIVITY LEVEL: 2
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Winter’s silence is pierced with a mournful howl, elk scatter across the landscape, and an unkindness of ravens descend on a recent kill. As classic as these scenes are, it has only been 30 short years since wolves were brought back to Yellowstone National Park, yet so much has changed. This unique and unforgettable seminar will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reintroduction of wolves. The event will feature a full day of engaging and insightful interpretation by renowned experts Dan Stahler, Rick McIntyre, and Joanna Lambert.
Participants will have the rare opportunity to learn from these distinguished guests while searching for wolves across Yellowstone’s winter landscape. Joanna Lambert will delve into the long history and evolutionary relationship with wolves. Rick McIntyre will share captivating stories from his decades of observing Yellowstone’s wolf packs. Dan Stahler will discuss ongoing research and the ecological impacts that wolves have had in shaping the park’s landscape.
DAY 1
WELCOME & ORIENTATION
The program starts with an evening orientation. Participants will get to know one another and be introduced to the program. Throughout the evening, the itinerary and seminar key concepts will be discussed, as well as what to expect to pack for the field each day.
DAY 2
The morning will be spent searching for wolves across Yellowstone’s Northern Range. Rick McIntyre will join the fray to offer his unique perspective and experience formed through decades of wolf observations. Participants will return to Lamar Buffalo Ranch for lunch, stories, and a book signing by Rick McIntyre to follow.
In the evening, NPS Wolf Project Biological Technician, Nikki Tatton, will provide an overview of current research on Yellowstone’s wolf population.
DAY 3
The morning will be spent searching for wolves across Yellowstone’s Northern Range. Dr. Jeff Reed will join the seminar for the day to discuss current research efforts involving the bioacoustics and Cry Wolf project.
Dr. Joanna Lambert will join the seminar this evening to offer a unique perspective into the evolutionary history, behavior, and contemporary conservation efforts of this fascinating species
DAY 4
The morning will be spent searching for wolves across Yellowstone’s Northern Range. Dr. Joanna Lambert will continue with the group today expanding further upon the evolutionary history, behavior, and contemporary conservation efforts of this fascinating species. Lunch will be held at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch with an afternoon classroom lecture to follow.
DAY 5
CHECKOUT & DEPARTURE
Dates & Times: The program begins at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 3, 2025, and goes through Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.
Lodging Check-in & Check-out: Lodging check-in begins at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, March 3, 2025, 2025, and lodging check-out is at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, March 7, 2025.
Meals: This course is catered. Catering begins with dinner on the first evening and goes through breakfast on check-out day.
Optional Airport Shuttle: We provide an optional airport shuttle for those interested. The shuttle service is provided on the first day of the program with a 1:00 p.m. pickup and the last day of the program with a departure from the Lamar Buffalo Ranch at 8:00 a.m.
1st Day of Program | Shuttle Pickup Location: Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport
1st Day of Program | Shuttle Drop off Location: Lamar Buffalo Ranch
Check-out Day | Shuttle Pickup Location: Lamar Buffalo Ranch
Check-out Day | Shuttle Departure Location: Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport
If you opt-in to the shuttle service, please ensure that your flight booking will allow for you to be picked up and dropped off during the above timeframes.
Whom to Contact: For any questions, concerns, or additional information please contact the following:
Program itinerary, health forms, payment, and general program questions please contact Yellowstone Forever at [email protected] or 406-848-2400 extension 3
Road updates, park conditions, and general park information please contact Yellowstone National Park Service at https://www.nps.gov/yell/contacts.htm
If running late for a program, please contact 406-641-2185.
General Information: For general information about the facilities, preparation for classes, what to expect, cancellation policies, and more, please see the Lamar Buffalo Ranch – Winter General Information document.
ACTIVITY LEVEL 2
- Be prepared for hikes on snow-packed trails, or snowshoe or ski trips, up to 3 miles per day with climbs up to 250 feet.
- Most activities will take place at elevations between 7,200 to 8,000 feet. Participants residing at lower elevations may want to arrive a day early to adjust to the altitude.
- To learn more about how specific medical conditions can be affected by Yellowstone’s environment and our activities, please visit our site page on health information.
- All field activities will be conducted as a group. If members of the group cannot participate in the day’s activities, they need to let the educator know in advance.
- To participate in this program, each participant must fill out and sign a health questionnaire and assumption of risk waiver. These forms must be completed and returned at least 30 days prior to the program start date.
Whom to Contact: For any questions, concerns, or additional information please contact the following:
Program itinerary, health forms, payment, and general program questions please contact Yellowstone Forever at [email protected] or 406-848-2400 extension 3
Road updates, park conditions, and general park information please contact Yellowstone National Park Service at https://www.nps.gov/yell/contacts.htm
If running late for a program, please contact 406-641-2185.
General Information: For general information about the facilities, preparation for classes, what to expect, cancellation policies, and more, please see the Lamar Buffalo Ranch – Winter General Information document.
BOOK THIS FIELD SEMINAR NOW
Rick McIntyre
Amanda Evans | Lead Field Educator
Joanna Lambert, Ph.D.
Jeff Reed, Ph.D.
Nikki Tatton | Yellowstone Wolf Project
Rick McIntyre is the acclaimed author of the Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone Book Series, which includes The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog and The Reign of Wolf 21: The Saga of Yellowstone’s Legendary Druid Pack (coming October 2020). McIntyre has recorded over 100,000 sightings of wild wolves–which is more sightings than any other person in history–and has written more than 7 million words of wolf observations, making him one of the world’s foremost experts on wild wolf behavior. In 1994 he became Yellowstone National Park’s first Wolf Interpreter, educating thousands of park visitors each year on Yellowstone’s now-famous Wolf Reintroduction Project, which sought to reintroduce wolves to the park after the last wolves were shot and killed by park rangers 60 years earlier, in the 1920s.
Amanda Evans | Lead Field Educator
Amanda Evans is a Yellowstone Forever lead field educator with over 5 years of experience in Yellowstone. Her passion for wildlife and wild places has taken her to working in California, Texas, Wyoming, Alaska, and Montana. Amnanda feels that it is through firsthand experience with the natural world that people build the strongest connections to it. Her goal is to use education to foster the same appreciation she feels and to inspire others to preserve and protect nature in all spaces.
Joanna Lambert, Ph.D.
Joanna Lambert, Ph.D. is a scientist and tenured professor of animal evolutionary ecology and conservation biology at the University of Colorado – Boulder. She has a deep passion for the natural world resulting in a career spent publishing and teaching about the ecology, evolution, and conservation biology of wild mammals. Her wildlife research has taken her to every continent on the planet though she has spent most time working in equatorial Africa (>30 years) and more recently in Yellowstone National Park where she studies canid biology. One of her proudest recent conservation-related contributions has been in the effort to restore gray wolves to her home state of Colorado, an initiative founded on the science of reintroduction and recovery of wolves to Yellowstone National Park.
Jeff Reed, Ph.D.
Jeff was raised in “Paradise Valley” near Yellowstone National Park, hiking, fishing and foraging the Absaroka Mountains of his Montana youth. And, listening to wolf howls. He is a research affiliate for the Cry Wolf Project, a large-scale bioacoustics study of wolf communication in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. After a PhD involving ancient languages and computational linguistics, he spent a thirty-year career in software and hardware technology, and then turned his attention to a childhood passion for animal communication. Focused on the iconic howl, he leverages AI, as well as the neural network between his ears, to decode what wolves and other wildlife are doing with sound. His most recent venture, GrizCam (www.grizcam.com), develops battery-operated, AI-infused cameras and acoustic devices used by biologists and conservationists. This groundbreaking work was recently featured in the Washington Post and Nvidia’s Developer Blog. Committed to measurable conservation, he works through business alliances and auditory projects to preserve rural and wild soundscapes and understand what they might be telling us, from elk bugles and chickadee alarms to the dialects of wolves and his dogs.
Nikki Tatton
Nicole Tatton is working on her Master of Science degree at the University of Minnesota and advised by Dr. L. David Mech. She is focused on gray wolf homesite selection. Nikki works on the Yellowstone Wolf Project as a Biological Technician.
An aerial photo of the Druid Pack pursuing an Elk. Aerial monitoring is one of the many ways the Wolf Research Project studies and documents packs across the park. NPS/Doug Smith
***Review our Cancellation & Refund Policies here.