YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

Any day that starts off with a wolf is a good day.

Today was an extraordinary one in nature, with mysteries, intrigue, sadness in death, joy in life.

This morning I was driving through the park, heading towards Lamar where a number of things are going on with a bison calf carcass (hit by a car), the Junction Buttes and will the Lamars be home today.  Day 4 and still no words from the valley family.

As I was driving along a grey wolf popped out into the road, right in front of me and luckily I was able to brake and get into a pullout.  The wolf crossed the road and stood and stared at me.  Of course, I had been out the night before, shooting the Northern Lights and thermal features under the stars and so wrong lens and wrong settings.

I fumbled for the camera and the correct lens and turned to find that the wolf was still standing there, looking at me from only a few feet away.  I call her “Ghost Wolf,” because two other cars had been behind me, both with occupants anxious to get out to see the wolves, and the first one stopped for a second but did not see anything and so continued on.  The second one looked to see why I had stopped but did not see anything and continued on.  Both times this wolf had been right beside them, right at the side of the road and I had been so frightened that she would be hit.

I changed the lens but could not get the settings straight.  The wolf started down the road but kept stopping to look back at me.  And then she finally got off of the road and went up on the hill so I turned the car around and went down to the next pullout to see if I could get a photo of her going up the hill.  I had never seen this wolf before and was anxious to get a photo of her to document her existence.

Once again she stunned to look at me and decided to come back down the hill and onto the road.  She trotted a ways down the road and then turned to look at me for a moment before disappearing over the side.  The sun was coming up and it was difficult to see and so I was going back to my car when I turned and saw two animals in the street.  What I assumed to be two wolves turned out to be the wolf and the coyote standing there together.  Now that is just plain bizarre.  I was too late to document them together, but they were and there was no aggression.  Here is the coyote.

The coyote turned and left and that is the end of my Ghost Wolf tale.

I went up on Dave’s Hill at Slough, where Rick, Laurie, Dan, Sandy and many others were, and was able to see 7 or 8 of the Junction Buttes.  Saw daddy and mom, along with the two black pups, which are huge, and a gaggle of greys.  Did see Swoosh but I guess that 907 and the male yearling were missing from the group.  870 had just brought some food but no one knew from where.

We watched and I made to leave several times but was having fun visiting with others so never quite made the move.  And, then I heard a coyote barking behind us and eventually decided to try and find out what was going on because it had been barking for awhile.  Usually a coyote barks when a wolf or bear comes in to take its food.  I could not track down the coyote but Barb immediately found a tree covered in ravens.  We had 4 eagles, 3 bald and one golden, some magpies and a lot of ravens but could not see the carcass.  Oh, and two coyotes not far off.

One of the guides went further up on the hill and could see a grey wolf on a bison carcass. The bison are still killing each other off!  So, that means that there is probably an old carcass down by the rendezvous site and then this one across the way.

I did finally leave and was driving through Lamar when I saw some bison bulls fighting hard.  This is something I had been waiting to see!  Pulled in and immediately began filming, which was hard because people kept standing in front of the lens and the bison were a long ways off with heat waves.

I eventually went out into the valley a ways and stood out there watching for a long time.  A bull had been badly injured, probably fatally, and several other bulls were fighting.  They seemed to be upset about their fallen friend.  Later I saw a collared cow trying to get the guy up and she was quite upset.  She kept licking his wound, on his hip and trying to push him to his feet.  He would get up but his front leg was also injured and he would collapse.  Some bulls hovered over him all afternoon, and then, apparently, the cow was ready to breed and so the bull that probably fought with the other one would not leave her alone but she wanted nothing to do with him.   She wanted her guy to get up and be okay.

Bison are such a mystery and so heartbreaking to watch.  I will eventually have some video of the fighting but the still shots did not work because of the heat waves.  Meanwhile I photographed some other bison that were out there.

And so the bison rut continues and many of the bulls have lost quite a lot of weight and are no longer in tip top shape.  Thus, more bulls are being killed and the rut seems to be increasing in violence.

Meanwhile, the elk rut is in full swing.  I stopped and watched Touchdown in Mammoth and he was trying for some cars but the rangers were doing a good job of keeping everyone moving.

I went on home and found a new boy on the block – he seems rather inexperienced and his girls don’t see to like him much.

I am a little concerned about Broken Nose because he is hanging in the Gardiner area where he will likely be killed in the hunt.  Well, just outside of Gardiner.  Several of the cows refuse to return to the park and so the bulls are going out to get them, which is not good.  Tonight a herd had three spikes with them and no big guys.  Broken Nose had his girls right on the edge first thing this morning.

And, just as things are getting exciting and wonderful again, the hunt begins.