If I Were Going...: Yellowstone Animal Adventures

Let’s face it, we go to Yellowstone to see Grizzly Bears and this trip did not disappoint.

YNP is famous for its Grizzly Bears

YNP is one of the few places in the United States where Black Bears can be seen coexisting with Grizzly Bears.

Yellowstone Black Bear, 2016

An estimated 700 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with about 150 living wholly or partially within YNP.

Photo: NPS

In the early days of the Park, visitors were allowed and even encouraged to feed the Bears. Visitors got their pictures taken with the Bears, who had learned to beg for food. This led to numerous injuries to humans each year. In 1970, Park officials started a vigorous program to educate the public on the dangers of close contact with Bears and to try to eliminate opportunities for Bears to find food in campgrounds and trash areas.

Although it has become more difficult to observe Bears in recent years, the number of human injuries and deaths has dropped significantly and visitors are in less danger.

Still, according to the NPS, there have been a little over 40 Bear attacks on Park visitors since 1979, and eight fatal attacks recorded since the Park was established in 1872 -- with the most recent having occurred in 2015, when a lone day hiker happened onto a mother Grizzly and two cubs.

I can't imagine feeding this Bear by hand

After the disappointment of not seeing 399 and her four cubs in Grand Teton, it was a treat to witness one of Yellowstone’s biggest Bear events in the recent decade.

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

A few days before we arrived, Bear #791 – AKA Hercules – had chased an Elk with a broken hind leg into the middle of the Yellowstone River near the entrance to Hayden Valley. Then, after a protracted battle, he killed the exhausted Elk and dragged the corpse to the far side of the river.

The bend of the river

Here is a video of the kill (not my video; the kill happened before I got there).

Hercules with his kill

We have seen Bears feeding on the opposite side of the river before, but this was unusually close because the river curved close to the road. It made for a (relatively) safe vantage point where you could easily see the Bear with the naked eye (although scopes and cameras made it better). It also meant that the strip of land you could view from was narrow with a steep and crumbling bank.

A great vantage point

Nine-year-old Hercules is a huge Bear, weighing in at well over 600 lbs. He had allegedly recently snacked on a Bison and so was not as voracious as usual, thus taking his time with the Elk kill, alternately eating and guarding it.

Hercules is huge

By the time we got there, there were huge crowds of photographers, so it was very difficult to maintain the six-foot distance required for pandemic safety.

Hercules

Wearing my mask was terrible in the below-freezing morning temperatures. I was often so fogged that I could see nothing, which was frightening when walking down the narrow road to the vantage point before sunrise.

Once, I even unconsciously pulled my mask down to look at my camera screen. If, during the last year, I was to catch COVID-19, it would have been here. Fortunately, I didn't.

We found that, by sitting on the ground, without tripods below the people behind us and our feet at the edge of the bank’s 12-foot drop-off, we were able to maintain a reasonably healthy distance.

It was a risk to take these pictures

Because the Bear was parked at the closest part of the river, the area for photographers on the roadside was narrow and Rangers had restricted the tightest spot.

This is not cropped

A one point, the danger of a lot of people in a tight spot became evident when a Bison decided to weave through the cars in the bottleneck area. This one-ton beast was probably 15 feet from me when he passed. The entire time we were there, Rangers kept traffic moving and prevented cars from parking illegally.

We lucked out both times we stopped to photograph the Bear by getting relatively close parking spaces. We could have had to walk a mile or so had we not been so fortunate.

Because Hercules wasn’t too hungry, he had partially buried the Elk, hiding some of the eaten areas.

Burying the corpse

The first time we were there, he ate little and lounged a lot.

Resting

He even walked up the hill to scratch his back.

OOOHHH, that feels so good

I was surprised that there weren’t a lot of other Bears approaching, but I guess he had chased many off. The most recent kill Caty and I had witnessed had had lots of Bears circling and, at one time, four feeding at once.

Four Bears on a kill, 2019

Because Scott and I were spending time in other parts of the part, we missed a couple of stand-offs, including a few with Wolves (I would have loved that!). So, we spent our first session with just Hercules. I suspect if Caty and I had been there together, we would have spent our whole time at the kill site.

See the Grizzly hump?

The second time we went, there were no Bears. Hercules had left and no Bears showed up for a whole day! I found that odd.

Only Ravens on the Elk

The third time we went – very early in the morning – a different Bear was feeding on the corpse ...

The Ravens were much more comfortable with this Bear than with Hercules

… and, as the sun rose, it was driven off by a third Bear ...

Breakfast!

When the second arrived, we thought there would be a scuffle, but the second Bear ended up running off to make way for Number 3.

The leg was one of the few parts left

I took lots of pictures and a video of this adventure. If you want to see more photos of Hercules and his kill, click here and here. And, the see the other Bears, click here.

What a Bear!

Tom Miner Basin

The road to Grizzlies?

Caty and I had read that Tom Miner Basin, which is about 45 minutes north of YNP is a great place to see Grizzlies without the crowds of Yellowstone. We’ve heard that 13 frequent the area on a regular basis. So, Scott and I decided to check it out. Our schedule didn’t work out to go in the late afternoon, which is allegedly the best time to see Bears there, so we were not surprised that we didn’t see any. It was beautiful ...

Fall in Montana

... and we did see a distant (very distant) Moose, some Mountain Bluebirds ...

The only place we saw Mountain Bluebirds on this trip

... and a close-up Red-tailed Hawk ...

This one was a real beauty

Maybe we'll see Bears next time.

Wolf

Of course, in addition to Bears, one is always looking for Wolves in Yellowstone, which is a great example of how restoring the natural balance of predator to prey improves all elements of the ecosystem.

Photo: PBS

Starting in 1914, in an effort to protect Elk populations, Congress appropriated funds to be used for "destroying Wolves, Prairie Dogs and other animals injurious to agriculture and animal husbandry" on public lands.

Park Service hunters carried out these orders, and, by 1926, had killed 136 wolves. Further exterminations continued until the National Park Service ended the practice in 1935.

As a result, Wolves were virtually eliminated and the Coyote then became the Park's top canine predator. But, because Coyotes can’t bring down large animals, this lack of an apex predator resulted in a marked increase in lame and sick Bison, Elk, Pronghorn and Deer.

Yellowstone Coyote, 2013

By the 1990s, the Federal Government reversed its views on Wolves. In a controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees threatened and endangered species, Northwestern Wolves imported from Canada were successfully reintroduced into the Park. A survey conducted in 2005 reported that there were 13 wolf packs, totaling 118 individuals in Yellowstone and 326 in the entire ecosystem, almost all descended from the 66 wolves reintroduced in 1995-96.

Wolf release, 1996; Photo: NPS

Normally, we can attribute Wolf spottings to “Wolf People” – spotters who stakeout known Wolf areas and are always willing to share their scopes and provide some good education on specific Wolves and Wolf packs.

This time, we didn’t do it that way.

This time, I saw a Wolf all on my own!

My first independent sighting

Yes, it was distant, but I saw it first with my bare eyes and was able to follow it as it crossed the Lamar Valley floor until it entered the woods.

I don't know what it was carrying

This was a first for me!

So Glad We Went

Despite the dangers of the pandemic, I am glad we went on this trip. We took as many precautions as possible and we were rewarded with beautiful scenery ...