YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

On Wednesday, there was a report of a dark black wolf with a collar being struck by a slow moving car.  Most assume that it was 755 and from what rangers have told me there were some anxious, upset hours until he appeared again.  If it was 755 that was struck, he was just fine because at around 11 a.m. he took down a full grown elk cow all by himself.  Apparently many visitors got to watch the action – they were quite lucky because that is not something that you see often.

From all of the excited reports, a 755 consumed a huge quantity of the elk on his first feeding, which he dutifully took to his family.  They said that he looked pregnant!  Later in the day, and all of this comes from rangers, the bear found the carcass and the two were chasing each other around.  755 is a gutsy guy, for being so small.  His daughter, 926 comes from greatness on both sides of the gene pool.

This morning there were varying reports of the alphas or coyotes on the carcass.  Whichever the case, I found a sleeping bear – well, you could tell it was a bear because it was his head at the end of a log.  One had to look through a scope or binoculars to tell it was a live animal.  Actually, he was milling around a bit and when I returned he was snoozing.

Well, it is always quite funny when people say that wolves kill for fun and that the food goes to waste.   Because, there are so many animals that feed on a carcass and nothing ever goes to waste, unless humans are too close for the animals.  Or some other thing happens.

The grizzly got up and drug the carcass out of the mound of dirt he had hidden it under and began to feed.  And then the coyote came up and it tried and tried to sneak around to that food but could not succeed.  The grizzly was not having any of it.

The coyote gave up and went to wait its turn, but the bear doesn’t look dumb enough to walk away from free food.

But, there are other critters who also want their share, such as the birds.

Eventually, the bear moved off a few feet and went back to sleep.  But, I hear that 755 returned and wanted his food back but did not succeed.  I am sure that the bear has not seen the last of him.  It is darned hard for a single wolf to take down a cow elk so it is unfortunate that the bears take the food away from the wolves.  But, it is all part of the game.

I hear that Raspberry has been seen again!  Perhaps we will get another chance to photograph her and the cubs real soon.

The Lamars had a carcass out to the east and 926 was seen hauling food back to the pups. No more sightings of the pups, that I know of.  She is keeping them well hidden and there are plenty of adults to look over them.  I told some friends to go out to Lamar last night because they would see the wolves, since I was not there.  They did!

Valley Girl was in the area of Alum Creek this morning, so the bear action has not completely died down.  Though, I do believe that the rangers have succeeded in hazing all of the black bears away.  Hope that they are okay, guess we don’t need to see them anyway!

Gotta love the rangers in Canyon/Hayden because they still believe in the visitor experience with the wildlife and they do everything they can to make that happen.

And, that is it for now.  Drive carefully!  Please.  There has been a widowed female fox up at Dunraven, working hard to feed her kits and so is often crossing the road.  And, the wolves and other animals are always crossing as well.  Too many dead animals on the roads.

Deby