This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This is one of only three wolves that remain in the Lamar Valley. At one time there were over 30 wolves in the Lamar. Wolf numbers are down throughout the park due to various factors such as wolves killing other wolves and humans shooting wolves when they move outside park boundaries.
I have hardly seen any coyotes or wolves this spring. Today was a good start in correcting that. The first thing I saw to photograph was a pair of coyotes moving down from the Mammoth area toward the Gardner River below.
Not long after that I saw two wolves crossing the Blacktail Ponds area and headed my way. Both wore collars. Unfortunately, they changed direction and this photo is as close as I got to either of them. As of December 2012, there were only 79 wolves in the park. The highest count was 171 in 2007. Ten wolves which lived in Yellowstone most of the time were shot in the first hunting seasons outside the park. Most were shot within a mile or two of the park. Eight of the ten were wearing radio collars. Anyone with radio telemetry can now find wolves with the radio telemetry and shoot them when they leave the park which it seems people are doing.
While I haven’t seen many coyotes or wolves, I have seen quite a few red foxes which I used to hardly ever see.
I arrived in Yellowstone on Sunday afternoon, May 26. The red fox den near the Yellowstone Picnic Area was the talk of the park. Hundreds of people came to see the foxes. The den was only 60 yards from the nearest picnic table. The Park Service put up signs and cones to keep people 50 yards from the den. Seeing the parents all day long was great, but the best times were when they let the kits out to play.
I had gotten some good fox kit photos last year so I wasn’t as inclined as some to watch and photograph the foxes all day long as many people were. I would stop by once or twice a day to see what was happening. As it turned out, I learned that on Thursday that just before I arrived a badger and the vixen started fighting some distance up the road and the fight continued to the den. Many people photographed the fight at the den entrance. At this time the kits were in the den. I learned that when the badger got in the hole one kit ran out of the den entrance and the other got out an escape hole. The foxes had another den about 50 yards away and the the parents rounded up the kits and put them there. The badger never came out that day. It is likely that the vixen had stored food in the den and the badger presumably ate it. One of the parents was usually at the den entrance waiting for the badger to come out.
Everyone came back at the crack of dawn Friday morning. On Friday afternoon at about 5:00 p.m. the badger emerged from the den. Neither fox was around, which was very unusual. The badger went immediately to the other den and entered. I don’t know if it had been to the other den before or it followed a scent trail. When the mother returned she went to the new den site. The badger had back-filled it and the vixen dug and dug, but the badger was able to fill it much faster than the vixen could dig. The vixen bided her time outside the new den site. I learned that the badger came out for a short time Saturday and there was another fight, but it was much shorter than the first fight and the badger went back into the new den.
There doesn’t seem to be any doubt but that the badger killed and ate the kits.
Another photographer told me that he talked to the NPS Ranger that had been there the day before and the Ranger told him that this pair of foxes has yet to successfully raise its kits. I do remember hearing reports of foxes on the other side of the picnic area last year, but I never saw them. I think the photographer said that he was told the badger got the kits last year as well.
As I mentioned, I wasn’t there for the first fight. (I missed the later one as well.) Some people were there for the first fight though and they got good photos of it. To see one person’s photos click here.
Another sad note is that the vixen that I photographed with her kits last May just outside the northeast entrance was hit by a car and killed. Click here for my blog about her last year. She left four kits. One of them died, but someone is feeding the other kits. But they have no one to teach them the secrets to living a long life as a fox. Hopefully, it’s mostly in the genes.
Here is another view of the Petaluma River and some of the City of Petaluma’s historic buildings that it passes as it winds its way through the City. Not many cities have a river passing through it. These buildings, and others just outside the photo, house some of the best restaurants in the North Bay.
Petaluma is one of those few American cities that has a major river running through it that provides access to and from the ocean. It enabled Petaluma to become an important city in the early days of California. The main section of town is comprised of numerous historic buildings. Many of them are visible in this photograph. The bridge you see in the photo is for foot traffic only. The Riverfront Art Gallery, of which I am a member, is the cream-colored two-story building visible just above the right end of the bridge.
I drive by this entry road every time I go to Point Reyes National Seashore. I often think to myself that I should photograph it. I finally did. I don’t know exactly what goes on there, but I see Rangers go in and out so I assume the Park Service Rangers have an office there. There’s no sign saying “Public Welcome,” but then there’s no sign saying “Stay Out” either. Some day I’ll have to go in there and find out more.
This pronghorn mom and her two babies made a lot of visitors happy by staying between the Roosevelt Arch and the entrance station in late May. I spent a lot of time observing her and her two fawns.
During the time I observed her, she kept the fawns well-separated except on one occasion. I wonder if this is to minimize a predator getting them both. She would visit each one every couple of hours and let them feed for a few minutes and then they would lie down again in a new spot until she returned. They usually stayed perfectly still, but I saw one of them move once. Movement like that can get a young ungulate killed I would think. Each morning I would check to see if they were both there. They were still there when I left the Park on June 1.
I wondered if the mother made a good choice in keeping them where she did. I think so. It’s a rectangular area bordered by roads on all four sides and by buildings on two sides. There is a lot of human activity around there all day. Maybe not as safe at night, but “safe” is a relative term in the pronghorn world.
