Yellowstone - Part Two - Grizzly Bears continued

Later on day two of the tour, we had followed a lead to a potential wolf sighting.  A wolf was supposed to heading towards our area and a couple of people had already started gathering in preparation.  We set up our scopes, binoculars, and cameras and were scanning the treeline for the wolf. In the meantime, we had spotted a nearby badger and he became our focus of attention and paparazzi pack.  I am not content to just look in one area (especially after the bison incident which will be discussed in a later chapter) and had noticed a dark speck on the far slope in a treeline. It was a bear! I was sure of it, but I come just with my camera so I asked others with binoculars to get a better look at it. I'm busy directing others to it and they tell me it's a grizzly! A park ranger pulls up (it's now a crowd and the ranger wants to make sure we aren't doing anything stupid).  The grizzly has a radio collar and he tells us that its Scarface. (I just hope the people shooting the video on this link were in their car!) The ranger tells us that he's 23 years old (possibly the oldest known grizzly in the park) and that's he radio collared to keep track of him.  He's surpassed his lifespan and they are worried that he's going to start picking easy targets (i.e. people....gawking stupid people in crowds).  In all the hubbub, I never got a good look at him through my camera nor a photo. By the time Scarface was sighted, our group had doubled in size.  Iif you see people stopped in Yellowstone, you automatically assume it's something cool and stop as well. Like a plague! If it's a zillion people and people parked in the middle of the road, it's a bear or wolf.  If it's one or two people, it could be nothing.  At one point, we had stopped to ask a large group what they were looking at.  Turns out they were Asian landscape photographers and they could barely speak English.  I believe she said "pretty and changing light on mountains" and "snow that looks like a face."  So Yellowstone attracts all types and I like to hear the birders talk all excited about "flickers" and other common east coast birds.

On day three of the tour, we were in Lamar Valley and noticed a large group of bison running on the far side of the Lamar River.  Anytime you see something running, it is of interest because you never know what predator may be the cause.  Well behind them was a grizzly bear walking with purpose.  It was darker than the previous day's grizzly at the carcass, so it was likely a different bear.  So this continued onward, but there were two straggler bison behind the bear.  Did either of them know?  We were anxious to see what would happen with the bison caught up to the bear. 

Grizzly bear on the move.

Slowly catching up. Do the bison know what's there?

Don't mind us!  We are in the passing lane.

Well it turns out that nothing happened.  The bison continued to run in their "passing lane" and the bear paid no attention.  And that was the last grizzly bear sighting of the trip.  Although there are a couple super far shots of bears on carcasses, but I think they were all black bears. 

Yellowstone - Part Two - Grizzly Bears

The first day of the tour I had my first grizzly bear sighting ever in the wild.  It was over a mile away on the top of a hill, so it wasn't the best view.  Even with a spotting scope, you could barely discern that they were bears nevermind grizzlies. They were moving away from us and out of sight.  We spotted the trio again on the next day in the same general area and just as far away.

Sow grizzly with her two cubs. Just a set of small dots in the middle of photo.

Day two also yielded those courting pair of grizzlies.  They were also at an impossible distance, but cool to see.

Courting pair of grizzlies. Another set of dots.

Later in the day yielded a better view of a grizzly, even if it was probably at least a quarter mile away.  This was in Lamar Valley where there was a carcass in a small and hidden valley.  The carcass had several ravens, coyotes, and a lone wolf.  We got word as we were watching the activity at the carcass that a grizzly had crossed the road and was likely heading towards that carcass.  It was so exciting to see that grizzly come in with a purpose.  It was hot on the trail through the sagebrush.

Incoming grizzly

Then it met its welcome wagon of a trio of coyotes.  They have a den nearby so they were very anxious with the imposing visitor.  I had my own internal soundtrack for their interactions complete with grizzly huffing and chewbacca noises.  The grizzly swirled around in annoyance but pressed onward. 

Grizzly and its three coyote harassers/escorts

The grizzly first lost two of three coyote escorts. They must have went back to their den to mind their pups.  I was a bit worried for the last coyote escort since it was so close to the grizzly and it would take just one swat to take it out. But eventually this coyote lost interest and left the grizzly.  The grizzly sauntered onward towards the Lamar River and away from the carcass.  The nearby bison herd decided to cross the Lamar River away from the grizzly. I don't know if this was coincidence or fear of the grizzly.

Where are you going, buddy?

Bison crossing the Lamar River.

Meanwhile at the carcass, the wolf had long gotten word of the grizzly and had taken off down the valley.  We decided to follow the wolf in hopes of catching it and perhaps getting a better look at it.  That will be discussed in the wolf chapter. After our wolf hiatus, we came back and saw that the grizzly made it to the carcass.

I shot this in full auto mode since I hadn't been happy with my photos and boy are the colors horrible. 

To be continued since adding photos to this post is progressively becoming more difficult.......