YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

A day with the Wapiti Lake pack and a grizzly is about as good as it gets for me.

When I arrived in Hayden Valley early this morning, the alpha female and the gray yearling were on the carcass.  Very cool to see them together and to compare size and color.  The yearling has more white and some times I think it is a female and others I might detect a little under carriage equipment.  Time will tell.  The light was bad and so the images of the two were not great.  The yearling left soon after I arrived and the alpha stayed.

We saw 755 on the ridge behind up, up above the river, and so knew he was on his way to the carcass.

He had it to himself for awhile and then the female returned wanting a free meal.

Since 755 had been eating and had a full belly, his mate thought that maybe he would share with her so she wouldn’t have to work to get some food off of the carcass.  She licked his lips at least 5 times while they were there and 755 was not buying it and was keeping the food to himself.  Typically, when wolves lick another wolf’s mouth, it looks like kissing but is a request for them to regurgitate.  755 has been around the block a few times and he knew that his mate could pull her own meat off of the carcass, like he had done.  The two were quite relaxed and did not appear stressed to return to the den, though we think that the yearling was probably there watching pups.  YES, the Wapiti alpha female does appear to be nursing and so there are pups, which is great news.

She was relentless!  He just clamped his jaws shut and tolerated her.

At one point 755 decided to chase some ravens.

Every minute of watching the alphas on the carcass together was a joy.

And then they left and somehow snuck across the river without being seen.  We heard a while later that the leg 755 was carrying back to the den was stolen by a grizzly.  Sure enough, there was a cute grizzly way out there, batting at ravens, bouncing in the sage and standing up some.  He seemed quite playful and entertaining.  And then he headed towards the river and we thought he might cross to get to the carcass and so waited.  But, the crowds arrived right about then – they always do get there right on time, and became a little much and so I drove down to Lake and out to Sedge Bay.  Did not see much but the ice on Yellowstone Lake is already breaking up and partly melted.  A few bison here and there but that was all I saw along the way.

When I returned the grizzly was at the river and trying to get across but there was a huge crowd.  HUGE!  LOL  And, I missed the action of the wolf chasing the bear. Darn.

The bear attempted several crossing before giving up.  The rangers were trying real hard to open up some space and were able to do so but the bear gave up too early.  We did see him come back out and had bits and pieces of wolf on the ridge above the river, which looks very cool, but by the time I left the bear had given up and was headed elsewhere.  Not much left on the carcass anyway but it would have been fun to watch this cute, playful guy with those bones.

There was no sign of the Beryl Springs bear – I went and looked but did not see her at all.

And, reports were that nothing but coyotes were on the bison carcass in Lamar.  Maybe something found it tonight, or will tomorrow.  Rick said that they didn’t have anything when I called him early this morning but I am sure that changed.

It was a good day in Yellowstone.