Wild Memories Photography Tours

4/22/2015  More Bears!

Ahh yes, it is bear heaven in Yellowstone right now.  Particularly with seeing and watching the sows with cubs.  But, the boars are still dotting the nearby landscape, looking for food, which is in short supply when it comes to the carnivorous appetite.

But, I am getting ahead of myself and this day in Yellowstone.

I decided to venture out into wolf land first thing this morning to see what was going on.  Yesterday I had zero wolf sightings and did not like that one bit.  Well, they had some Junctions in view first thing and it looked like they had a carcass.  All were present and accounted for except the new mama, 970, who is no doubt keeping her pups warm in the den.  Looks like the pack is taking good care of her.

I drove out to Lamar and saw 2 coyotes on the bison carcass on Jasper Bench.  Apparently a bear had been at the carcass but was gone.  No signals on 926 but I could not help myself – I had to go check the den area and Soda Butte Valley.  I am way too familiar with the emptiness of the Lamar Canyon den area and it was so apparent today.  Elk were grazing on the slope.  926 might be in the den but if she is, she has no help for those pups.  Truthfully, I want to cry and scream over the unfairness of it all.  All this time of watching and waiting for them/her to be a pack again and she has lost it all.  She is tough but I see  no way she can keep pups alive by herself.  And, how unfair – after her sacrifice to Middle Grey for her to be alone.  After she worked so hard to raise 6 healthy pups.  Life isn’t always fair, which is something I am way too familiar with.

But, I will continue to hope for that miracle.  The return of the pups or of Twin, maybe with some help.  I know she tried her best and gave it her all to do the right thing.  But, in life the right thing doesn’t always win.

And, so I left, after going all of the way to Round Prairie.  And, along the way did manage to find Scarface grazing behind Soda Butte Cone but basically said hi and moved along.  I did stop back at the Junctions but couldn’t see them.  And, there was such a crowd there.  And so I continued on, stopping to help Lizzie look for the Prospects but could not find them.

Continuing on to go south.  The construction is awful.  I am sitting here now, on my way back north, first in line, and the dust is choking me.  There is no visibility.  It is after 7 and we wait for 20 minutes now – miserable and wasting my valuable time.  Wasting my evening light.  Oh, here is the pilot car finally, I will get to drive through the dust some more.  To be continued…

Home, and images edited so time to continue the story of today.

Got down along the Gibbon River and found Beryl and Chubs grazing on the hill.  Not a lot of  people standing around but enough and because they were there I decided to photograph them from the car instead of getting out on the hill.  Ultimately wish that I had gotten closer because that cub is so darned cute!  And, I could have positioned better.  But, as it was, things turned out fine.

And, so I had some glorious fairly quiet time with the two bears before they moved up the hill to nap, out of sight.  We waited and waited, which was kind of nice because it was a small and friendly crowd.  So, I got out the chair, made lunch/dinner, and chatted while waiting.

When the bears were seen again, it was way up high and we did finally see a little bit of playing.  As compared to Mini Mom and Mini Cub, these two don’t interact near as much as they are more focused on eating.  I think that Chubs is nearly as big as Mini Cub already.

The sun went down and I left but did hear from Josh that the two bears began to head down hill but were sent backwards by some folks who decided to hike up to them.  Sure wish people would give these bears a break and quit being so darned selfish and stupid.  I would not go anywhere near that mama.

Here are some images from today.