Today we began our adventure at 6:00 am to go watch wolves. When we arrived in the Lamar Valley in hopes of seeing wolves again, we actually saw bison instead. While we were looking through the scopes, we spotted a grizzly bear walking down the hill side. The grizzly made his way down the hill side and walked the tree line behind the bison. After a while of the grizzly walking near the bison, they became uncomfortable with the distance between them and the herd started running away.
Later in the day we drove out to the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch to hike to the Rose Creek acclimation pen that the wolves were held in during the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone. The hike was pretty steep and slightly challenging after having hiked so much the past few days. During our hike we stopped periodically to catch our breaths and for our tour guide, Virginia, to continue to tell us the story of wolves 7, 8, and 10 acclimation to the park. About a little over half way to the acclimation pen, we crossed a bridge that was put in for Hillary Clinton when her and past president Bill Clinton hiked to the pens once they were built. It was really awesome to see the actual pen that some of the wolves were held in during 1995 and 1996
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I bet seeing the bison react to the grizzly bear was a very unique experience. Did the bison seem to feel threatened by the grizzly’s presence? Was the grizzly showing any predatory behaviors towards the bison?
Yes it was a very cool and rare experience to see a grizzly bear. The bison kept a close eye on the grizzly as he walked closer to them. Once to grizzly got within a few yards of the bison, they all began to run away because the grizzly was getting too close for comfort with the herd having calves which would be considered easy prey for the grizzly. The grizzly wasn’t actually showing any signs of attack or interest in the bison, he was mostly just walking past them, possibly in search of a different food source that would be easier than trying to kill a bison calf in the Junction Butte wolf packs territory.