In Yellowstone National Park the animals are everywhere. Visitors are advised that these are wild animals so keep your distance: 25 yards for grazers, 100 yards for bears and wolves. Some visitors don’t listen; we saw one tourist get her picture taken six feet in front of a bison. And she didn’t like the picture and made her friend take another one. Is it wrong to hope some tourists get gored?
Anyway, here are some of the animals we saw this trip. (Compare to last year here and here.)
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- First sighting: an elk in someone’s yard in Gardiner, Montana, across the street from the hotel.
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- Bald Eagle.
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- Proghorn antelope. Not related to African antelope. Pronghorn are more closely related to the giraffe.
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- We saw pronghorn here in Yellowstone and along the road throughout Wyoming and Colorado.
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- Herd of buffalo. Not related to Euopean or African buffalo, but Europeans called them buffalo and the name stuck.
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- Part of the buffalo herd. I always hear Roger MIller in my head singing “you can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd.”
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- Why did the buffalo cross the road? The grass was greener on the other side.
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- Frosty buffalo.
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- See the white dot?
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- The white dot is a moutain goat.
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- Black bear.
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- I had the telephoto lens on but still might have been closer than 100 yards. Forgot the bear spray in the car but felt sure I was not the slowest runner in the gathered crowd.
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- How can you tell there may be elk nearby?
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- Elk herd was gathered in Mammoth, the park headqarters.
Next up: grizzly bear and wolves.