Tag: yellowstone national park

Bobcat

Bobcats; Comparing Point Reyes National Seashore and Yellowstone National Park

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
A bobcat moves through grass hunting for gophers at Point Reyes National Seashore.

I go to Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) often.  It’s rare that I go and not see at least one bobcat.  I also spend a month or so almost every year in Yellowstone National Park (YNP).   Yet, I’ve never seen a bobcat there in spite of the fact that they do exist.  I’ve often wondered why.

According to my most recent copy (2013) of the annual “Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook,”  bobcat numbers in Yellowstone are “unknown, but generally widespread.”  It says their habitat is in rocky areas and conifer forests.  It goes on to say that they are rarely seen, with most reported sightings being in rocky areas and near rivers.  I’ve seen a few online photos of them along the Madison River in winter.  Given the lack of stated population numbers, I assume they haven’t been studied much in Yellowstone, if at all.  I’m not aware of any bobcat study in PRNS either.  I assume PRNS doesn’t know how many bobcats there are in PRNS, let alone what their habitat preferences are.

In any event, why do I see bobcats regularly in PRNS and never in YNP?  I can only speculate.  My best guess is that it has to do with where the bobcat finds itself in the predator pecking order in each place.  In YNP the bobcat has to worry about grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes and mountain lions.  In PRNS it’s just coyotes and a very, very few mountain lions.  This may cause them to stick to the forests and other good cover in YNP without the same pressure to do so in PRNS.  If so, this reminds me of what I found last spring photographing pumas (aka mountain lions) in Patagonia’s Torres del Paine National Park (TDPNP) and adjacent private land. There are no bears or wolves in TDPNP.  There is a coyote-like predator there called the culpeo, but coyote-sized animals are no threat to a mountain lion.  While mountain lions in YNP stay in good cover, in TDPNP they feel no need to hide.  I saw 18 pumas in a week in TDPNP and all of them were in open areas – like the bobcats in PRNS.

Other Mammal

Mountain Goat, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of mountain goat.
Billy Goat, Golden Gate Area

I haven’t been blogging much in the past year.  There have been two reasons.  The first reason was the constant theft of my images. The second reason was that I was growing a bit tired of feeling pressured to post something on a regular basis.  So, I let things slide.  I did go back and put a big copyright symbol on the photos that I had previously posted, but that didn’t leave me feeling all that satisfied about the theft problem because the big copyright symbol made the photos look pretty bad.  I’ve changed that to what you see here.  Maybe I’ll be more happy with this copyright style as time goes by.  I say “as time goes by” because I’m feeling a little more enthused about getting back to blogging.

One reason I’m enthused is that I just spent a month in Yellowstone.  Spring is my favorite time there because of all the baby animals.  I think this was the most successful spring trip I’ve had there.  One of the high points was seeing mountain goats in an area where I had never seen them before, and, more important, at distances that made photographing them feasible.  The area I’m speaking of is the Golden Gate.  It’s called the Golden Gate because of the color of the rocks.  If you aren’t familiar with where the Golden Gate is, it’s the canyon area you drive through just before you reach Swan Lake Flat (when driving from Mammoth).

I saw and photographed a nice looking (full winter coat) nanny and her kid on two different days and then this billy at a later time.  Telling mountain goat males from females is not all that easy.  The horns are a way to identify male from females, but with goats it’s not real easy because there’s not a big difference in size between the horns of a billy and a nanny.  The horns of billy goats are much thicker at the base and more curved than are the horns of nannies and, in frontal views, the horns look like they are spaced very close together with the males.

Photo of a billy (male) mountain goat.
Billy or Nanny?

The males also have a shoulder hump.  Based on the thickness of the horns at the base, the curve of the horns and the shoulder hump, I think this is a billy.  He is also in the early stages of molting.  He will soon have a much shorter summer coat.  One of the things I like about mountain goats is that they often assume stances as though they’ve been posed by the photographer.

The Park Service says mountain goats are not native to Yellowstone, but the result of the introduction of mountain goats by the State of Montana in the 1940s and 1950s which became established in the northern portions of the park in the 1990s.  The Park Service also says they may be having a negative effect on bighorn sheep.  The Park Service is doing research now with other agencies on mountain goat ecology and to determine the effect of the goats on bighorn sheep.

Coyote

Season’s Greetings!

Photo of a coyote in snow.
Yellowstone Coyote; Not that “Doggie in the Window” Canine

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I’ve decided to put a large copyright watermark on my blog images due to theft problems.  Some people are not deterred by the copyright symbol and my name in the corner of my images.  Hopefully, this will cut down on the theft.

Other Mammal

Who Am I?

This is a close-up photo of female red fox.
Take a Guess

I started to do a portrait of this animal and started cropping it.  After every crop I decided to crop more.  Before I knew it I was here.  Then I realized it wasn’t clear what it was any more.   It’s probably not hard to guess what it is. One more crop, showing just the eyes,  would have made it tougher.  What is it, or, as the title says, who am I?

That didn’t take long to solve.  I’ll have to do one that is a little tougher.  Time to add some relevant tags to this post.

Grizzly Bear

Young Grizzly Bear, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a young grizzly bear.
Play Time Is Over

This is a two-and-a-half year old female.  She was just just given her walking papers by her mom.  This is normal for grizzly bears.  This happens to black bear cubs at age one-and-a-half.

She was very nervous, constantly looking over her shoulder.  Mom was no longer there to protect her and she had killed an elk calf which lay nearby and which other predators, including bigger bears, could smell.

Finding the calf shows she has learned an important skill.  I think she’ll do okay surviving on her own.

Badger

American Badger, Yellowstone National Park

A mother badger at her den.
Badger Mom

This is a mother badger tending to her den entrance.  She had one baby which was underground at this time.  It was about half her size.  Interestingly, the young one was much a much lighter color than her.  It reminded me of the blonde colored badger at the Yellowstone Picnic Area that killed and ate the red fox kits.  I wrote about that here.  This den wasn’t far from the picnic area.  I’m guessing that guy fathered her little one.

Wolf

Wolf, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of one of two females of what is left of the Lamar Canyon Pack.
Black Female Wolf, Lamar Valley

This is one of only three wolves that remain in the Lamar Valley.  At one time there were over 30 wolves in the Lamar.  Wolf numbers are down throughout the park due to various factors such as wolves killing other wolves and humans shooting wolves when they move outside park boundaries.