This incredible encounter was filmed by photographer Siddharth Gandhi in Lamar Valley, a region of the park that's been hailed a wolf hub since the animals were reintroduced in 1995.

"We were driving back in the evening when the wolf appeared on the side of the edge of the road," recalls Gandhi, who immediately stopped his car to let the animal move on safely. "It was an amazing experience to see a wild grey wolf so close. I was in awe."

But why is this grey wolf sporting a black coat? Despite their name, these animals come in shades that range from pure white to mottled grey and even black. This stunning female (who we're pretty sure moonlights as Rickon Stark's direwolf) is a member of the Prospect Peak Pack, a group that currently has ten members.

Grey wolves once roamed across North America, from Alaska all the way to Mexico, but habitat loss and unregulated extermination programmes saw them all but disappear by the early 1990s. To give populations a boost, 41 wild wolves from Canada and Montana were released into Yellowstone in the latter part of that decade.

Today, at least 98 wolves in ten packs live primarily in the park, and over 500 can be found in the greater Yellowstone area.

"I believe this individual is known as 'White Dot'," says Gandhi. "There is a lot of misunderstanding about wolves. They are an important part of the ecosystem. I am really impressed with how intelligent they are."


Gandhi's early encounters with wildlife left a big impression. He regularly visited national parks in both the US and India as a child, and still makes regular photographic pilgrimages. Because his goal is to showcase wildlife in a natural setting, he captures his images without the use of bait.


That means his encounters can be both short and unpredictable, but Gandhi is appreciative of each glimpse.


"Eventually the wolf seemed to lose interest in our vehicle and it just headed off the road," he says. "It was very dark so we lost sight of it almost immediately. I felt extremely lucky."
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A very striking image to see in the wolf is a beautiful black coat offsetting the deep, soulful yellow eyes. The black wolf tends to stand out clearly in a pack of gray wolves. This coat color is well entrenched only in North America as there are no black wolves in Europe or Asia (with the exception of a small group of Italian wolves recently hybridized).

But the black coat is not a naturally occurring color in wolves. It did not exist in the beginning when wolves first evolved many hundreds of thousands of years ago. So where did the black coat come from and why?

The black coat in wolves originally developed from the interbreeding of Native American's companion dogs. The black coat is a mutation that first showed up in dogs around 45,000 years ago. It appears that the wolf picked up this mutation around 12-15,000 years ago. Scientists have found that the black coat in wolves and coyotes is the same genetic mutation as that of dogs. The molecular - clock analysis shows this mutation to be the oldest in dogs, therefore dogs had to have passed it onto to wolves and coyotes.

But why was the black coat beneficial to the wolf? The black coat seemed to establish itself very rapidly among the forest dwelling wolves suggesting that it might have provided a major advantage to them. One frame of thought is that it could have meant improved camouflage to the wolf in the dark forests. This may not be the real reason though since wolves do not hide from their prey but rather run them down out in the open. As for camouflage from human extermination campaigns, these are recent efforts from mankind. The wolves and the Native Americans lived for thousands of years in harmony with each other.

Whatever the original reason for the increase of the black coat among wolves, there is no evidence of recent interbreeding between North American wolves and dogs. The real reason may always remain as a mystery, but the beautiful black wolf is here to stay.