Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

10:45- We are on our way to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. This is exactly the parking lot we stayed on one night last week when the sheriff said we were disturbing the wolves. I guess they are the most vicious of the Yellowstone animals. All of a sudden 2 grizzly bears are trying to cross the road. The National Park Ranger is there in his car being sure the bears get across safely and that the people don't try to get friendly with them. They are the most vicious of all the bears. A Grizzly Bear has smaller ears, a hump on his back and a wider nose. His feet are larger and his claws are much longer. A Black Bear has larger ears, no hump on his back and a narrow pointed nose. His feet are much smaller and he has shorter claws. A local lady told us last year during Senior Week 2 girls ventured out into the mountains and got trapped by a Grizzly. The students here are taught to lay down and play dead. DO NOT RUN AWAY! They laid down and the Grizzly wasn't hungry so he covered them up with lots of dirt to hide them for when he is hungry. Once he was gone they left and ran to their cars. They won't be doing any more hikes again!
The bears mate in the summer, but the sperm stays in the female body until she finds a place for a den. Once she starts digging her den the embryo starts growing. The cubs are born when the mother bear is in her cave. She wakes up to nurse them and she curls herself around the cubs to keep them warm. The cubs nurse for 5 minutes and then fall back asleep. She could nurse 6 cubs, but usually only has 2 to 4 at a time. Bears don't really hibernate; they just go into a deep sleep. When she comes out of the den she must protect the cubs from the male bear because he will eat them.
Wolves in a den have a highly socialized caste system that changes all of the time. There is 1 wolf in charge of the rest- that is the alpha wolf. The second in charge is the beta wolf. The last wolf on the totem pole and in danger of being kicked out of the den is the omega wolf. The worst thing that can happen to a wolf is to be kicked out of a den. They need to be in a den or they won't survive. They need help to kill food to eat. It's very hard to be accepted into another den.
In 1996 the Park procured 14 gray wolves from Canada and introduced them into the Park gradually to be sure they adjusted. It was very successful. There are 2 dens of wolves- the Druids and the Rose Valley den. All of these wolves were tagged and followed to learn their lifestyles. They follow the wolves daily with a sort of GPS system. This system will tell them if they have left the Park or if they haven't moved in a while. The Alpha Wolf from this first den, the Druids, had stopped moving for 5 hours. They found him shot dead from a rancher. There are now several pups born in captivity. The Alpha female that is 2 years old has 4 other male wolves in her den. We saw this alpha female pick on the omega male. She bit at him so often that now he limps.
The geese we have seen are always in twos. There was 1 white swan- maybe a trumpeter swan. We were on our way to Lamar Valley to see where the wolves live in the wild and we stopped for lunch at a picnic site. There are picnic tables and special trash containers that are bear proof. If the bears can get food from people, they will always go up to them for food and not understand why some people won't feed them. That's when people get killed or hurt. The Park learned this in the 1970's and have stopped this pratice. While we were eating a lone buffalo came walking up the road right by us. He looked over at us and just kept right on going. Five minutes later 3 more buffalo came strolling by. These all must be the Scouts and they seemed to be all males. Five more minutes and a whole herd came strolling by- males. but mostly females. We found out from a ranger that in a buffalo herd there is a male buffalo in charge of the rest. Check out the pictures on the blog. I was so close to them.
3:45 PM on our way to Lamar Valley a mountain lion ran right across the road in front of us. In the Lamar Valley there are many more buffalo. It seems to be warmer here and we've been told the buffalo follow the melting snows. They need the grass under the snow and are on their way from their winter grounds to their summer grazing grounds. We went over a really high bridge and there were 3 buffalo standing in the middle of the bridge not letting any cars pass. The buffalo wanted to get to the other side where there was more grass. They finally moved over the bridge in their own time and we were able to drive over it. On the other side was an antelope herd, also called pronghorns. One more mile and there were people lined up in their cars with telescopes and binoculars waiting for dusk to see the wolves come out of the forest. We didn't see any, but it wasn't dusk yet.
Icebox Canyon is on the way to Cooke City, which is the northeast entrance to Yellowstone. The city before Cooke City is called Silver Gate and it was here that they mined gold, platinum and silver. This is the only town in the US where the building code restriction states the building must be a log building. At elevation 7365 at 5:39 one lone buffalo was walking the road just at the northeast entrance. I don't know if he will walk out the gate or not. They do not move fast,but just keep on moving.