Tag: yellowstone national park

African Lion, Lion

Lion Cub, Serengeti National Park

A lion cub rests near its mother, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. (Jim Coda)

A lion cub rests near its mother, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

We saw a lot of lions in Serengeti National park. This cub was in Northern Serengeti.  Speaking of Serengeti, it’s a very big park.  It’s larger than Yellowstone National Park.  In fact, I looked up the acreage of both parks before the trip and saw that if I added two Yosemite National Parks to Yellowstone I’d get one Serengeti National Park.

This cub was with several other cubs and their mothers near a small creek.  It has a few flies on it which look like tsetse flies to me.  Two are on the lower lid of its left eye.  When tsetse flies bite,  you know it.  Unlike a mosquito, a tsetse fly’s mouth has tiny serrations that saw their way to your blood.  They also have hard bodies.  Most of the ones I smacked just flew away.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Elk Calf, Yellowstone National Park

Elk Calf Yellowstone National Park

An elk calf looks at the camera.

My favorite time of year to be in Yellowstone is now.  To be more specific, I like to be there from mid May to mid June.  The main reason, of course, is all the baby animals.  But that’s not all.  The colors are fantastic then also.  Yes, the crowds can be frustrating.  I remember going there in the early 1970’s to photograph wildlife and I never saw another serious photographer.  Really.

I didn’t go this year and I really miss it.

Mountain Goat

Mountain Goats, Yellowstone

Photo Mountain Goats Yellowstone

A nanny goat and her kid rest in the Hoodoos Area of Yellowstone.

It’s not easy to see mountain goats in Yellowstone.  There is a viewing location in the northeast part of the park on the road to Cooke City.  Look for the sign that says Barronette Peak.  But the goats are quite a distance away for viewing, even if you have a spotting scope.   Occasionally they show up in the Golden Gate Area which is the Gardner River Canyon you drive through before topping out at Swan Lake Flat.  The area is also called the Hoodoo Area.  Both names refer to the color of the rocks.  I saw these mountain goats in the canyon early one morning.  I posted an earlier article about a billy goat in the same area.

The Park Service says mountain goats are not native to Yellowstone, but the result of the introduction of mountain goats for hunting by the State of Montana in the 1940s and 1950s.  Apparently, they were released not that far from the northern portion of Yellowstone and they became established in the northern portions of the park in the 1990s.  The Park Service also says they may be having a negative effect on bighorn sheep by competing for food.  The Park Service is doing research now with other agencies on mountain goat ecology and to determine the effect of the goats on bighorn sheep.  Here’s a video about the harm caused by Yellowstone mountain goats.

The Park Service uses the time period of when European man arrived in North America as a goal, time-wise, for protecting, preserving and restoring our national parks.  The Park Service is saying the goats weren’t there then.  I don’t have any problem with the Park Service’s idea of striving for conditions like those that existed when European man arrived in this country.  In fact, I totally support that policy.  But the goats are native to parts of the western United States.  What if the goats were in the Yellowstone area 10,000 or 100,000 years ago?  Would the policy still say they aren’t native?  I don’t know, but I would support treating the goats as native in that case.