It has been a crazy time in Yellowstone! Ton of visitors and sparse action with wildlife so everyone is congregating in the same places. We need snow but, luckily, much has melted recently and so there has been parking on the side of the road – without that it would be total mayhem.
The warming temperatures, melting snow, ugly brown landscape and invisible wildlife make photography slow. But, the wolf action totally began heating up on Feb 15 and should be good for a few more days. But, who knows!
One thing I do know is the bobcat seems to have left the Madison because of the warming conditions. The park shut down snowmobiles and anything with sleds on Tuesday and there were wheeled vehicles driving in from West. We were disappointed to not see the bobcat but it was still a pleasant day along the Madison and nice to get away from the Northern range for a day. Change of scenery is good and going into the interior in the winter is like getting a look at a secret world.
We do have a lot of moose visible but the bulls have lost their antlers to not so pretty. And, the snow has been frozen, which brings the foxes out during the day more often, making them more visible.
But, since it is all about the wolves these days, thought I would just share some of the mating activity with the star of mating season – Twin! We don’t know where Twin came from – he just showed up last fall and has been quite the force.
These images were from yesterday when Twin was mating with 970. 970 was a founding member of the Junction Butte pack. She dispersed last year, originally with 755 until 911 swooped in and took her away. 970 and 911 have been hanging together for a year now. But, when the pair took over the Junction Butte pack after 870 was injured, 890 – the alpha male of the JBs – joined the pair and he has been seen mating with 970 many times. 911 has been seen trying to mate with 970 but we have not seen them finish the deed. So, yesterday she left those two guys to be with Twin and was injured in the process. Speculation is that the other boys with Twin, specifically, 965, attacked 970 but stopped when they realized that she was a breeding female.
Pretty tough to keep track of, don’t you think? I have to keep repeating it all just to kept straight myself.
Awesome pics.