Isle Royale National Park - Blossom Time
Summer comes in a rush, beginning in June. The air is alive with mosquitoes, blackflies, and midges, all aswarm around the heads and flanks of adult moose (the calves are well protected by their wooly coats). Dainty clusters of diminutive calypso orchids -- the most elegant of Isle Royale's 34 wild orchid species -- have sprung up form the rich mold of shady woodlands, and the fiddleheads of ferns have unfurled. Iris and clumps of yellow lady's slipper orchids edge the bogs where, among thick mats of tawny sphagnum and the spare vinery of cranberry, insect-eating pitcher plants rear their nodding flower heads and spread their leafy traps. Deciduous trees and shrubs are in full leaf, and the island is a feasting ground for moose.
Sometime near the last of June the wolf family abandons the natal den and moves by night to another location, usually the edge of an open wood near water and, if possible, a grassy meadow. Here the pups establish beds, trails, and digs; they exercise, contest for dominance among themselves, and even begin to hunt the moving insects or other small creatures that show themselves. No longer dependent on mother's milk, they joyously greet the return of the adults from a hunt, nipping and licking at their jaws. This is more than an affectionate gesture; it is a biological trigger guaranteed to produce a semisolid meal of regurgitated food.
In the course of the summer there may be three or four more of these child-care centers, or rendezvous areas, where the pack is temporarily headquartered and from which the young begin to venture out with the adults to travel and hunt. During their first year -- one of learning by trial and many errors -- the pups will have extraordinary privileges in dealing with their tolerant elders. Then they will be on their own as responsible adults and must conform to the pack's precise relationships of dominance and submission.
Tagging along behind its long-legged mother, the moose calf bleats from time to time for food and rest; it will not be completely weaned until August. It has grown into an odd, gnomish creature. Although its body is clearly becoming that of a moose, the most massive member of the deer family, its head remains small and stubby. Not until fall will it begin to develop the long moose face, complete with the characteristically bulbous snout. At that time, too, round velvety knobs will begin to sprout on the foreheads of bull calves -- rudimentary indications of future antlers.