The solidity of nature, even of creatures competing to eat the raw meat of the dead bison, is edifying. It brings a feeling of hopefulness at a time when humans claw at each other over political abstractions in a confused, but hostile, unnatural way, to detriment of all of us.
There is currently a debate on the web as to which kind of carnivore Americans would rather see eat the hostage taking members of Congress. Grim humor, I guess.
Enjoy the happy photos in the link below.
Bison carcass draws feeding frenzy of grizzlies, wolves in Yellowstone Park.
By Brett French. Billings Gazette.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Truly awesome pictures. But the fun is somewhat spoiled by the comment one of America´s brightest brains has attached to this article: “The bears are awesome! Hopefully the illegally introduced CANADIAN subspecies of wolves leave the park soon and are shot or trapped”
Yep, totally agree Peter.
Those comment sections, particularly at the Gazette, should come with a toxicity warning. I never read them anymore — too infuriating and depressing. Do yourselves a favor and just skip it.
One of the wolves is clearly wearing a collar, so whoever thought it was a member of a “subspecies” could probably find out for sure without much trouble 🙂
Here is a video I shot of this odd wildlife behavior
A good picture is worth a thousand words Daryl but this footage is worth so much more! Loved the music too. Thanks for sharing:)
I love it – I love the king of the forest bull elk and the lobos coming to call, and the little bears chasing them off, you can read the wolves’ mood by their tails. The music is wonderful. They know how to share the bounty. Thank you!
How can this possibly be. Based upon impeccably flawless sources, I’ve been lead to believe that Yellowstone was Dead.
Great footage, timeless. Thanks for sharing!
The wolves probably killed the bison and the Big Bore took it away from them, which is a fairly common occurrence in YNP. But they were not so willing to let the female have their kill. I suspect She and her cub’s place in the feeding hierarchy is after the wolves. Overall bears really benefit from having wolves around. In fact all wildlife and plants in the park benefit from having wolves back in their natural place.
Yes, the wolves don’t seem very aggressive (at least to me), I always see them as like dogs.
I only meant that the Elk was king of the forest in the ecological sense – they give the impression of great strength and power, especially when you see them in the wild guarding that huge herd, and they would be very hard to take down it would seem unless they are old, sick, weak or very young.
I’m not opposed to hunting elk and deer – it seems the natural way of things as other animals do too. I’m just opposed to killing.
very interesting video of natural world 🙂