Yellowstone-wildlife

Michael has not been able to call much in the past few days because there is little cell phone service outside a few centers within Yellowstone. He's camping at Madison, on the western side of the park, with the three he's riding with. He told me that he has been unable to see the Artist's Paint Pots because there is some kind of road work going on in that area, but I think he's been able to see some paint pots.

But he has been around the Upper geyser basin, the location of old faithful and other famous springs like Morning Glory Pool, Beehive geyser, etc. And of course the beautiful Old Faithful Inn built around 1900. The lodge used to give bear viewings from the roof when park staff used to feed bears for the tourist interest. The viewing platform was disturbed by earthquakes and is now no longer open to the public for safety reasons. When I was young my favorite thing to do when I got to the inn was in the main entrance hall to look up in the highest rafters for a stuffed bear that was placed there during construction and was somewhat of a mystery. It was very small and hard to see and a fun game to see if I could find it before my brother. But during an earthquake in the last 10 (or so) years it feel from the rafters and is now kept in a museum in Mammoth.

Anyway, back to the wildlife. Perhaps things have changed since last I spoke to him, but he told me that all the wildlife he'd seen was a bison (known as buffalo, but this is a misnomer, they are American Bison) or two. I was in shock. There are usually animal jams galore in Yellowtone, especially in the summer when all sorts of people who have never seen bison or elk or moose. I hope that they will see a bear or coyote before going, but alas I cannot direct the animals. Shrug.

Michael said they did come across a bison skeleton that had been eaten, and he said perhaps by a pack of wolves. I have no idea how he decided this since it could easily have been scavenging bears, coyotes, etc. But the reintroduction of the grey wolf into Yellowstone is something very interesting as a human attempt to help restore the ecosystem. The grey wolf is the top predator in the ecosystem and after they were all killed earlier in the century the ungulate population grew alarmingly. Now having hoards of moose, elk, deer, bison, etc might sound like a good thing, but in fact it is very damaging. When there are too many herbivores the vegetation gets overeaten and they also move outside park boundaries to get enough food. In addition, after the large fires in 1988 and the loss of old growth trees it is important to have new growth plants because without plants' roots there can be problems with erosion.

Anyway, the grey wolf reintroduction has gone well. Even though there have been some problems with huge legal battles and later poaching (Local ranchers have been particularly opposed to the reintroduction because they are afraid that the wolves will kill their stock). However, the population has grown from the original 66 wolves in 1995 to somewhere around 325 in 2006. In addition the packs have spread and now populate areas (see map below) and wolves have even been spotted as far south as Colorado and these have been traced to the Yellowstone packs. The park has definitely had benefits such as increased growth of forest and recovery of some species, like red fox, and I believe that there have been fewer problems with preying on farm animals than expected. So, at least in my opinion, this reintroduction has been a success. I doubt Michael will see the wolves on this trip, but if he did that would be a treat indeed!