Yellowstone's Emotional Flesh

Of all the things people go to Yellowstone most hoping to see, it's wildlife-- wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, moose, elk, antelope, mountain sheep, cougars, buffalo herds, eagles, and all in a natural habitat. Its appeal is that it's no zoo.

These are the flesh of Yellowstone Country and as much out of control as whatever is under the surface. Yellowstone is a place mankind, from all around the world, can come and see what it was like so long ago before we closed ourselves off from nature.

Those who take Yellowstone's wildlife too casually pay a price and sometimes it's with their lives. There is the story of the photographer who kept photographing a grizzly, closer, closer, closer... The camera's film was recovered along with what was left of his body.

Whenever I go, my first destination is the Lamar Valley. I could miss everything else about Yellowstone if I could spend several days in the Lamar.

When the first vast herd of buffalo appears in the distance, a pale imitation of what they must have looked like to the first explorers, I feel a stirring of excitement. They represent power in its basic element.

This time the buffalo herds were in the midst of breeding, and it led to a lot more interesting photos. This spring's calf was determined to nurse while the bull wanted to push him away. Perseverance won out, but it took some maneuvering.

While fishing on the Lamar River, I watched an antelope as it watched me. It had left the herd maybe for the same reason the bulls leave the buffalo herds-- pushed out. I saw his lip curl up a time or two though as particularly fragrant smells came on the wind-- nothing I could appreciate.

There was a pretty sizable antelope herd that we watched cavort and I don't know what they were doing. They stuck close to one of the large buffalo herds, who totally ignored their activities. From what I can tell, not much excites a buffalo, except another buffalo.

In this photo you can see antelope running with a few looking on as though what is that all about. This went on for the whole time we watched. Male chasing female? Male chasing male? Playing? Threatening? I have no idea, but they were certainly getting exercise. I hoped they weren't wearing themselves out in case a wolf did come along.

On Slough Creek, I knew there were two buffalo taking naps not far from where I was fishing. Everyone is warned to not take them lightly as they can run 30 mph and have gored more than a few tourists, but they didn't seem to mind fishermen as long as the fishermen persons kept to their business.

Although I didn't catch a fish, I did get to practice my casting. I also saw some gorgeous dragonflies and photographed one, but the biggest, like the fish, got away. There were a few other fishermen where I was casting, but I stayed out of the most likely pools as my goal was learning to work the line.

'Further down the Lamar Valley, there were, as there often are, a lot of cars parked alongside the road with people on bluffs watching through scopes and binoculars as the wolves moved around on the far side of the the valley. We climbed the bluff even though we knew from experience we would only see moving specks in the distance and that only through binoculars or the telephoto lens. It is still stirring to see them over there and know they are living free. Hearing them howl, which I have heard only a few times in nature, is even more exciting.

Someone told us that there were 17 pups and that most of the pack was off hunting. I took their word for it as we saw only a couple of wolves. Several buffalo grazed near them, not concerned that the wolves might be a danger because unless a buffalo is very young, separated from the herd, old and ill, the wolf is no threat.

Although I saw a mountain sheep herd, something I haven't seen there before, I was disappointed to not see any moose. I really love watching them especially if I see them in a stream where they are grazing with those big impressive antlers. I kept an eye out, when in their kind of habitat, but no luck.

Still, the time of watching the buffalo herds interact was compensation. I love listening to buffalo as they grunt and make those threatening sounds to each other. We saw even cows and calves butting heads. The herd was excited by the hormonal changes in the cows. It permeated the whole valley.

Although I have seen and photographed grizzly, black bear, and wolves close enough to recognize what they are, this time, I only saw wolves and nothing worth posting here.

This coyote was running and scared enough to run right past a bunch of tourists watching and photographing. Someone said they had seen two wolves down by the Lamar River and that would explain the coyote's fear of what was behind being greater than what was ahead.

This coyote had already been marked by the park service for research or checking its range. They did have a warning sign, down by Slough Creek, that a coyote had been aggressive and if anyone saw that behavior, to report it. This coyote, if it was the same one, was only in a hurry. The wolves do kill the coyotes; so it had good reason to not dally.

Although we saw three, separate, large, buffalo herds in the vicinity of the Lamar, this herd was in the Hayden Valley and seemed to feel roads were for them, not autos. Nobody was about to argue with them.

Everywhere in Yellowstone, there are lone buffalo grazing, taking a dust bath, or sleeping. It appears that some find the herd not worth the trouble or have been pushed out. Maybe they just like being alone.

One thought that occurred to me while watching all these beautiful animals. Very very few of them die naturally. Life in a wilderness is violent. Something will kill them all and many will survive from their flesh. It is the law of their land.

We humans are the ones who try to make ourselves exempt from that law-- sometimes by giving up things that may matter more than a violent end. Safety may not always be worth what it costs and dying by withering up as a very old person might not be superior to the antelope or coyote that finally cannot run fast enough.