YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

One thing is for sure, bear sightings have not been a dime a dozen in Yellowstone recently.  Many momentary glimpses, or longer, at great distances, and hit and miss.  But, today, it was like the bear floodgates opened and they began appearing all over Lamar and Soda Butte Valley.  We had one grizzly south of the Buffalo Ranch, one north of Coyote pullout, one down low and visible to the name eye (yippee) east of Soda Butte Cone, and one up high on Norris.  And three were visible at the same time, only not from the same location.  The bears are finally up and about!

As you can see, this bear was still not all that close but much closer than they have been for me since VanGogh on the Blacktail.

And, the black bears are showing themselves more and more.  Of course we have had Picnic and her two cubs and Phantom and her one cub, which I think that she might have lost recently.  But, then there was another small bear behind Floating Island lake, and a large boar at the Yellowstone Bridge.  I did go hiking yesterday, up to Tower, but no bears.  Just charging bison!  I had to dive down a hill to escape.

Yes, I finally made it all of the way to Tower Falls, about 2.5 miles in – a goal that has been on the list for years!  And, it was so beautiful and peaceful there, to have it all to myself for a short time.  Long hike though, especially with a sore knee that was twisted during the hill dive to escape the bison.

Speaking of bison – right now the activity in the park is all about bison babies being born and the Mollies wolves hunting them.  There are so many little red dogs everywhere.  I have recently heard people refer to the bison as, “things,” and complain that there are too many of them and it makes me cringe because they are only concerned for themselves and not the animals.  Yes, the bison clog the roads, or more to the point, tourists photographing them from their cars clog the roads, and are a pain, but they are also wonderful animals that have no other place to go.  I think a little patience and understanding, maybe compassion for wildlife, would go a long ways.

Yesterday morning we had quite the drama.  The Mollies were busy hunting on Jasper Bench and then came down to the valley floor.  Meanwhile, an orphaned bison calf was trying to find its mom, while being followed by a coyote.

At first glance it appeared that the calf was with its mom but that she had no concern when her calf ran off with or towards the coyote.  She was not attempting to defend the calf in any way, which seemed bizarre, since the young one appeared healthy.  But, as I watched it was clear that the cow was trying to give birth to her own calf and was not the other one’s mom.

Several times the calf would run right towards the coyote, even looked as if it thought that the predator was its friend, and then return to the cow.  But, finally, the calf took off with the coyote right behind.

The two followed each other all over the place as the calf went from cow to cow, looking for its mom.  At one point a bull did charge the coyote but, ultimately, the calf was left to fend for itself.  The last I saw, the calf was headed to the valley floor, continuing its search, and the coyote was following.  I will never know the outcome but do know that none of the cows will adopt a calf and it was too young to survive alone.

Meanwhile, a bison calf had drowned in the Lamar River several days ago and a coyote found the carcass today, which provided one of the very few photo ops so photographers were stacked up at the Confluence.

I did find several cows and calves at Soda Butte Cone – most had just been born in the past 24 hours and were running around kicking up their heels.  The light was low and so made it difficult to get good shots but thought you would enjoy seeing them jump Soda Butte Creek.  I sure had fun watching.

We also had a moose cow and yearling at Floating Island.  There have been more sightings of a black wolf in that same area.  Some believe it is Starlight.

It rained and snowed in Yellowstone today and there was a thin layer of white covering most surfaces.  Very cold, hovering around 33 degrees.  But, as you can see by photos, everything is getting green.

Until tomorrow.