Tag: yellowstone national park

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Killing Black Bears and Selling Their Gall Bladders

Photo of mother black bear.
Black Bear, Yellowstone National Park

Recently I wrote that the elk are dropping their antlers in Point Reyes National Seashore and the Park Service is busy picking up the antlers before the antler traders find them and remove them (which is illegal).  I mentioned that while bad enough, at least the antler thieves don’t kill the elk for the body parts as happens with animals such as bears, tigers and elephants.  The next day I opened my local paper to learn that someone in my city, which is located not more than 30 miles from San Francisco, was arrested while poaching a black bear in the Mendocino National Forest.  More black bear parts, namely a head, five paws, a penis and gall bladder, were in his freezer at home.  According to the article, black bear gall bladders sell for $5,000 on the black market.  A bad as these killings are, the real problem is the demand by some in the Asian community for bear and tiger parts for their supposed value as aphrodisiacs.  Tigers are nearing extinction due to this demand.  I wonder if there has ever been any study to support or refute this belief.

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Posters of Yellowstone Wildlife

I was remiss in my postings last month and one of the reasons was that I was working on a series of posters of Yellowstone wildlife for the The Paradise Gallery in Gardiner, Montana.  Here’s one of the posters.

A wolf stops momentarily near Obsidian Cliff.
This poster features the alpha female of the Canyon Pack.

It’s the first poster series I’ve done. I think it came out OK, but only time will tell.  Here’s a collage poster showing all the photos in the series.

A colage poster showing all 16 Yellowstone animals in the series.
Collage Poster depicting all 16 subjects in the series.

It was difficult to decide which 16 images to use.  The only criterion I had was that it had to include all the major species one could hope to see in a trip to Yellowstone.  It was fun.  I’m looking for another poster project.

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A Week at Blacktail Pond (Continued from Yesterday)

Yesterday’s post ended with mama bear attacking her cub.  While I said that I thought it was probably because she was agitated over the wolf having been at the carcass, there is more to it than that.  The cub is 2 years old (actually 21/2 years old) and from mom’s point of view it’s about time for the cub to hit the road.  Biologically, she’s ready to mate again.  This fact is not lost on nearby male grizzlies.  Here is one suitor who has come calling.  The cub moved off when he came on the scene.

A grizzly sow and boar stand near a bison carcass in Blacktail Pond.
Grizzly Sow and Boar, Yellowstone National Park

The next time I saw the sow and boar they were in the act of mating a bit beyond the pond.  The cub was in the vicinity of the pond, but making sure it kept a good distance between itself and the boar.

As I mentioned before, there were other scavengers who benefited from the misfortune of the two bison.  One was a coyote who got some meat from the carcass on the east side of the pond and promptly left.  It probably felt that with grizzlies and wolves around it could find a better place to enjoy a meal than at Blacktail.

A coyote leaves Blacktail Pond with some meat from one of the bison that died in Blacktail Pond.
Coyote, Yellowstone National Park

I mentioned earlier that bald eagles and ravens also benefited from the misfortune of the bison.  I wasn’t sure I had any photos of them, but I looked and found one.

A raven harasses a bald eagle as it leaves Blacktail Pond.
Raven and Bald Eagle, Yellowstone National Park

This photo was quite underexposed probably due to the surface of the pond.  It also has some noise.  Note the blood on the beak of the eagle.

In addition to the wildlife, Yellowstone visitors benefited from the demise of the bison.  The Blacktail Pond area was crowded with visitors, and photographers in particular, for more than a week.

For the most part, these photos were taken under less than ideal conditions due to poor lighting and excessive distance.   The bear and wolf photos were shot at about 175 yards.   In my experience you can’t get good quality images at that distance.  The equipment used was as follows:  Canon 500mm f/4 lens; Canon 1.4 TC; Canon 7D.  I should also mention a book I have found to be very valuable in understanding bears in general and Yellowstone’s in particular.  The book is “Yellowstone Bears In the Wild.”  The author is James C. Halfpenny.  You can find it at almost any book store.  If you’re in Gardiner, Montana, you can pick up a copy of Jim’s book at The Paradise Gallery.  If you go there, you should also check out the wildlife photos on display by several wildlife photographers, including yours truly.

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A Week at Yellowstone’s Blacktail Pond

As I mentioned in my last blog, there were two bison carcasses in Blacktail Pond in the spring of 2010.  The first scavenger I saw there was a coyote who was standing on the carcass which was in the water next to the east edge of the pond.  However, it was the carcass in a narrow channel on the west side of the pond that became the center of attention for scavengers as well as park visitors.  The first species I saw feeding on that carcass was a grizzly sow with a two-year-old cub.  Here the cub nuzzles its mother.  It’s May 20.

A grizzly cub nuzzles its mother at Blacktail Pond.
Grizzly Sow and Cub, Yellowstone National Park

The sow and cub stayed on a ridge above Blacktail when they weren’t feeding on the carcass.  Another animal that I saw feeding on the carcass more than once was a lone wolf.  Here he is the next day standing at the narrow channel.  The bison carcass has slipped back into the water and is just under the surface.

A gray wolf stands on the edge of Blacktail Pond.
Gray Wolf, Yellowstone National Park

This wolf worked as hard as the bears to pull the carcass out of the pond and I was surprised that he seemed to get the carcass about as far out of the pond as the much larger bears, although in fairness to the sow she might have done better without her cub’s help because he always pulled at right angles to mom.

One afternoon the wolf howled after feeding which brought the sow and cub running full speed from the ridge above the pond.  Here is a photo of mom and cub right after they arrive at the carcass.  She is really “amped up,” over the wolf’s howls.  When the cub approached the carcass as she was trying to pull it up on the bank she attacked it.  More to follow.

A mother grizzly attacks her cub near a bison carcass at Blacktail pond.
Grizzly Sow Attacks Cub, Yellowstone National Park.