Rangel Wild Animal Kingdom

We are in Yellowstone!

For the past 2 days, we've heard smatterings of conversations about bear sightings. Alex got the whole story yesterday. Apparently, about 5 miles south of Mammoth Springs, in Swan Lake Flat, a grizzly bear has been coming out of the hills to feed on a carcass. According to a grizzly bear postcard I'm sending to my dad, "Despite its awesome size, up to 1000 lbs. and 8 feet tall, and fierce reputation, it is primarily a vegetarian. Much of the year its diet is made up of grasses, dandelions, clover, and whitebark pine nuts. In spring it will occasionally prey on elk calves as well as winter-killed carrion and it seems to enjoy feasting on cutthroat trout during their spawning season."

Last night, after our dinner of turkey, turnips, and mashed potatoes, we decided to go look for the bear.

We drove from our 6000' elevation location at Mammoth Hot Springs uphill past The Hoodoos, then down to Swan Lake Flat. The cars pulled over on the side of the road with its occupants out next to them holding cameras with giant zoom lenses and binoculars were the first indication that we had arrived at the right spot. I got the truck turned around and parked completely off the road, and sure enough, there was a gray-brown grizzly, differentiated by the black and brown bears by the hump above their shoulder blades, feeding on a carcass, surrounded by crows. From our distance (about 300 yards), "he" didn't seem too large. (As I don't know how to differentiate between males and females of the animal species, unless it's really obvious, I will randomly designate animals "he" or "she". It has no bearing on the sex they actually are.) Through the binoculars, he looked much larger - definitely something I didn't want to meet up close and personal. The park rules state to stay at least 100 yards away (football field length, or 100 yard dash), but, even though some ambitious photographers walked into the field away from their cars, I wasn't willing to leave the safety of the side of our truck, especially since the bear was feeding.

We watched the bear feeding for a while. He dragged a bit of the carcass away, closer to a stream running through the field, gnawed on that for a while, pulling the meat off of the bones while sitting or lying alongside, and sometimes on top, of them. When he returned to the main carcass, the crows graciously gave up their section of the feast to move to safer meat scraps the bear had spread out on the ground while tearing the carcass apart over the past few days.

But wait! What was that young couple pointing at? A black spot moving down the hill from the south, out of the woods, walking, then advancing at a loping gate. Through the binoculars, it was a huge, giant, enormous black bear - another grizzly, judging from the hump on its back. Once it was within sprinting distance, the smaller gray bear took off, recognizing a beast twice its size. He didn't go far, though, keeping an eye on his opportunity to return to finish his dinner. The black bear took charge of the site, scattering crows and deciding what piece to chew on. He seemed to always be keeping an eye on the cars, waiting to see if anyone would challenge him on his meal. He ate for a while, then left as abruptly as he arrived, dragging a portion of ribs with him, stumbling over the awkward section of carcass he'd chosen to bring along, then eventually abandoning it at the base of the slope. This time heading north, he loped up the hill to the snow line, disappearing into the trees, giving the gray bear another chance at the feast.

While we were watching this display of wilderness dining, 4 bison crossed the road 400 yards to the north of us, then started heading south along the row of cars lined up along the road, reminding us that, while we were focused on the bear spectacle, a land of wilderness loomed behind our backs. Turning around, we spotted a herd of bison with calves in the hills. Since bison don't seem to mind roaming between cars, I was reminded that perhaps it would be a good idea to check our backs every once in a while before we end up in the midst of a herd of bison and outside the safety of the truck, just like the photographers in the field who suddenly realized that the 4 bison were nearly upon them and perhaps it would be a good idea to get out of the way. As the bison moved along the line of cars, heading south, we were careful to make sure we were on the opposite side of the truck, preparing to hop in the driver's seat should they decide they would rather stroll down the road.

With the bison gone and the black bear back in the woods, we watched the gray bear finish eating, then he also headed to the north, staying closer to the road. We'd heard rumors that 2 wolves had also come in evenings previous to take their share of the corpse, but we finally gave up as darkness fell and the cold evening set in and drove back to our cosy room in Aspen dorm (did I mention that we have our own bathroom?).

Sorry, no pictures. Our digital camera with no zoom lens would have just shown the field. Perhaps there would have been a speck of a slightly different color. Google "grizzly pictures" if you want to see what they look like!