Now may be good time to look for osprey, bison, golden eagles, moose
Curator offers tips for park visitors hoping to spot, understand wildlife
RUFFIN PREVOST Gazette Wyoming Bureau | Posted: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 11:10 pm
CODY - The chances of finding wildlife on a visit to Yellowstone National Park are good. But knowing the best times and places to look - and how the animals feed, mate and interact - will improve the odds for any wildlife spotter.
"There is a full complement of wildlife species here that were all here 200 years ago," said Charles Preston, curator of the Draper Museum of Natural History at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
Preston spoke Wednesday to a group of Yellowstone visitors, offering tips on spotting wildlife as well as insight on how connections between the animals, land and people create a sense of drama in the wild that he said is virtually unmatched anywhere else on earth.
Knowing the habits of different animals offers hints on where and when to look for them, he said.
"You might ask, for instance, what a moth found in Nebraska has to do with finding grizzly bears in Yellowstone," Preston said.
As the moths move from the Great Plains into the higher elevations during July, they feed at night on the nectar of alpine wildflowers. They rest during the day in the cool, dark spaces under rocks.
"They sometimes gather in huge balls of as many as 10,000 moths under one rock," he said, creating an attractive and important food source for grizzly bears prowling the rocky slopes of Yellowstone.
During July, grizzly bears that are normally highly territorial will tolerate one another as they gather on rocky hillsides to overturn boulders in search of moths. An adult grizzly will gorge on as many as 40,000 moths a day, Preston said.
"This is also a heck of a time to be in the Yellowstone area for bison, because the rut is beginning. At night, you can hear them, and it's very eerie, as the big bulls are warning other bulls to stay away, and they assert their territory and try to attract a female," he said.
Yellowstone's Hayden Valley is the best place now to spot bison, where their behavior during the mating season often causes traffic jams and long travel delays.
"In Yellowstone's waterways and around lakes, and especially in canyons, look for osprey nests. The fledglings have just left this week, so it's a good opportunity to see those," Preston said.
Osprey eat only fish, and are most often spotted near water, where they snatch their prey at speeds of up to 80 mph. Other animals that can be seen at key times and places around Yellowstone include:
- Golden eagles now in open spaces around the Bighorn Basin.
- Moose now along the North Fork of the Shoshone River and around Jackson Lake.
- Grizzly bears during the spring along the North Fork of the Shoshone River.
- Bighorn sheep during the winter along the North Fork of the Shoshone River.
- Wolves at many times in Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley.
- Osprey and peregrine falcons now near Dunraven Pass.
- Mountain goats now in the rocky peaks around Yellowstone's northeast entrance.
|
