Bear Search in the Centennials

Several weeks ago I joined a NRDC funded project in the Centennials under the leadership of Greg Treinish of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation looking for sign of Grizzly Bears there.  If we found sufficient evidence for the great bear, then more protections would be put in place. This was the 2nd of 3 ‘adventures’ Greg [...]

Grizzly videos from my driveway

A large (pregnant maybe?) grizzly has been visiting my chokecherry bushes nightly. Since I can’t post video, but I’ve got lots of 30 second clips from my trail camera, start here  at my Youtube site for a great shot of her shaking her butt on the way to the berry bush.  Then see my other [...]

More elk calves and a lesson in Life and Death

“…that feeling in your stomach of “I don’t want this to be happening.” You try to escape it in some way, but if somehow you could stay present and touch the rawness of the experience, you can really learn something.”  Pema Chodron Yesterday, this morning, and today were all one large event, the event that [...]

Grizzlies and elk calves

Its unusual to see  the Cody backcountry herd grazing every morning and night this time of year.  Usually, by now, they’re headed over the passes to calve in the Lamar. But the snows in the high country are still too deep and the melt hasn’t even begun. I’ve been watching this small herd from my [...]

The Bear Facts

When I took Jim Halfpenny’s tracking class last year, he gave me a small pamphlet entitled  Bear Ecology.  Yellowstone Ecosystem. The pamphlet consists of lots of charts, so I’ll try and digest a few for you, literally. Since I’ve been watching bear evidence and their scats a lot lately, here are a few facts:  About [...]

The Year of the Poor Pine Harvest

Well, what a drag.  After a week of frustration with my Bushnell Trophy Cam, I finally diagnosed that the camera is broken.  And the reason it’s a drag is because yesterday someone left a gut pile at the bottom of my driveway.  Here’s the story: Early yesterday morning some deer came out to graze in [...]

The magnificent and endangered grizzly

There’s been plenty of hubbub regarding bears this summer in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, mainly grizzlies.  If you haven’t followed it, we had two deaths just on the eastern side of the Absarokas from grizzlies this summer, one of them occurred just up the road from where I live.  In addition, there’s been 38 grizzly [...]

Mothers: Bears and Elk

Last week an elk calf was killed right in the little meadow by my house.  Koda discovered the leg, lying in the disturbed grass near a solitary aspen.  The mother elk had been hanging around all morning, calling and calling for her baby. Now, almost a week later, I heard her early this morning, still [...]

A Grizzly story

I set up my trail camera for the last two weeks, hoping to catch some bears or wolves.  Mostly I got a lot of elk.  But I did capture 3 bighorn rams and a coyote. The crazy part is that on the way up there I was following a grizzly’s perfect tracks in the snow.  [...]

The Golden Bear of California

Driving through Tioga Pass, I couldn’t help but think of California’s state flag…the great Golden  Bear, a sub-species of our Grizzly, now extinct. Black bears are ubiquitous in the Sierras.  I’ve heard from friends that back country hikers are now required to carry their food in bear containers when backpacking, adding lots of extra weight [...]