During our first day out in the field, we saw a lot of wildlife and beautiful scenery. We were told many stories from intelligent people who basically spend every day of their lives thinking or being in Yellowstone. We woke up and got prepared for our first day out. 5:15am came pretty early in the morning, but none the less, we were ready to go. We began our march through the Black Tail Valley, we didn’t see any wolves but we did get to see a red fox and 1 coyote following behind 2 white tail deer. Along the way to our 2nd destination we saw many bison, mule deer, and elk. When we got to our second stop there were many cars park along the road. We began to look and sure enough their was the Prospect Peak Pack, hanging in the Lamar Valley’s Land. We stayed for about an hour as we listened to them howling and scouting for their parents. We left and took off to our next stop.
After that we stopped at the bathrooms and scouted for the Druid Packs den, that was now taken over by the Lamar Canyon Pack. We stayed for awhile while Shawna told us a short story about the pack and then we proceeded to our next area. We went back to were we started and went up to find one of the wolves dens, that has been open for viewing. It was interesting to hear how much work it is just to find an area to put a den, one that is about a 45 degree angle, shrub blocking the entrance, and vital sun areas. We then hiked down to a couple glacier rocks while Shawna told us another story on how we watched a women came close to a set of wolves, and almost got hurt by a pack of elk. After that we proceeded to Mammoth and listen to our guest speaker.
Travis, who talked to us about elk and bear told so us many interesting things about these to very different animals. Bears feed on so many random things that are in the park. Berries, and plants, to elk and the small moths found under the rocks at high elevation. We then left the park and came back to Gardiner to eat and go to our 2nd speaker. MacNeil was the Yellowstone photographer. He told many stories of being close to wildlife and having to find ways out to be in a safe distance. He showed us different perspectives when taking photos that were very interesting.
Overall the first day was a success and many things came out of today. I learned so much by just being out there and seeing all these things happen with my own eyes. I also got a lot of mammal signs for my class in Mammalogy. I’m looking forward to see what tomorrow has in store.
Tabby Miller