Yellowstone in Winter - Part 15 - Wildlife

Monday, 29 January 2018

Today we went out with noted guide, MacNeil Lyons. The experts know both where the animals are and how to see them. We definitely saw more than we would have on our own. We had a "Three Dog Day" (coyote, wolf, and fox - the three winter canids in Yellowstone).

Our first animal of the day was a fox working on an elk carcass courtesy of a cougar (mountain lion). This photo was taken through a spotting scope with an iPhone.

Fox and carcass.

Looking around. The fox is a beautiful animal.

After a while the fox left the carcass, and was not shy as he crossed the road between our two vehicles.

We saw wolves from a very far distance - probably about 3 miles. In binoculars, they were merely black commas and dashes in the snow, but distinguishable as wolves in the spotting scopes. The closest we got to wolves were these very fresh tracks on the side of the road.

This bison kill (by wolves) was very close to the road, but when we went by, it was only ravens feasting on it. By the next morning only the ribs were visible.

One of two golden eagles sitting in a tree near the road. We saw them in this area every time we drove by (4 times in all over two days).

We'd been wanting to see moose, but hadn't spent enough time in the right habitat. We finally saw them near where Soda Butte Creek enters the Lamar River. They were enjoying eating the large stand of willows. The white ring with dark center is not this bull moose's eye, but the scar where his recently-shed antlers were.

This view shows the eye and the antler scar. The moose were dropping their antlers about a month earlier than usual.

We saw other moose, but they were usually well-hidden in the forest and difficult to photograph.

Mountain goats -- really! How anyone could see them from this distance astounds me, but they are about half-way up on the left side of the mountains.

Even with this magnification, they are nearly impossible to see. They are in the middle of the photo, between the trees and the cave.

Finally you can see the yellowish-white goats against the white snow. Mountain goats are not native to Yellowstone, they have been introduced from elsewhere in Montana.

Photography expeditions are a staple of Yellowstone tours. I've never seen so many mega-lenses (in camouflage, no less) in one place. When you see a scrum of tripods and lenses, you know some wildlife is nearby.

In this case, it was a family of three otters. In our guide's opinion, these photographers were getting too close to the otters. The park rule is at least 25 yards away from small animals (ones for which you are not prey) and 75 yards for large carnivores (ones which could eat you if they wanted to). At any distance, if you are influencing the wildlife's behavior, you're too close.

An otter leaving the water.

All three otters. They were fun to watch in the spotting scopes.

Three otters and a photographer.