Big Horn Ram

Big Horned Ram

Big Horned Ram

Big Horn Ram

 

It is believed that the sheep of North America originated in Asia and crossed the Bering Straight approximately 750,000 years ago. After about 150,000 years these Snow Sheep from Siberia evolved into two separate North American species, Dall sheep in Alaska and western Canada and big horned sheep in the western half of the United States. The big horned sheep is further divided into three subspecies, the desert bighorn which is found in Mexico and the southwestern United States, the Sierra Nevada which are found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the Rocky Mountain bighorn which is found in the Rockies. This ram is a Rocky Mountain big horn and was photographed at Yellowstone National Park.

Cute Calendar Pics

No calendar is complete with out a picture of something cute. The 2012 Ecobirder calendar had two cute pictures. April featured a big horned sheep lamb that we photographed in Yellowstone. We first saw the lamb with its mother on a ledge high up on the face of a cliff hours just after it was born. The next day we stopped back to try for some more pics and mother and child were no longer on the ledge. We went down the road a little ways were we found them near the road. After only a day the lamb had managed to climb down the shear cliff.

The second cute photo is in the month of June. This little porcupine was orphaned after its mother was hit by a car. With out any family to care for it the baby was sent to a rehabilitator. I got my chance to snap a few pics of this little cutie, as my wife would call it, when the education director at The Raptor Center, who is also a rehabilitator, was asked to porcupine sit. How would you like to be asked to care for a baby porcupine. Good thing that there was no changing diapers.

Happy Earth Day

Today is a very special day. Not only is it Earth Day, a day when people celebrate and pay a little more attention to the natural world around them, but it is also the five year birthday of this blog. To celebrate the birthday I will be featuring photos from the 2012 calendar during the next week. Each year I do a calendar for family and friends featuring some of the best photos that I took from the previous year. This first picture represents November and it was taken out at Yellowstone. The rest of the calendar pictures will follow so sit back and enjoy the show.

Ungulate

The term ungulate means being hoofed and refers to any hoofed animal. The hoof is a modified toenail that evolved over time in many prey species that needed to be able to run from fast-running predators. Because the hoof can support the entire weight of the undulate it is the only part of the foot that touches the ground. The rest of the foot has evolved and become a part of the leg allowing the undulates to have a longer stride.
Ungulates were at one time a part of the order Ungulata, however since many ungulates are not very closely related Ungulata was broken down into six separate orders. Since the order Ungulata no longer exists the term ungulate usually now just refers to the hoofed mammals, most of which are members of the Perissodactyla, odd-toed, order or the Artiodactyla, even-toed, order. Members of these orders include horses, cows, bison, rhinos, camels, giraffe, moose, elk, deer, sheep and more.

Bighorn Sheep

Yellowstone Part 3

We started out Wednesday by heading back over to the Yellowstone Lake area by the Fishing Bridge. As we got to the lake, much of which was still frozen, we saw two small dark shapes out on the ice. We stopped to take a closer look and found that they were a pair of river otters. One otter, pictured above, seemed to be resting near the edge of the ice while the other was running around.
After the otters finally disappeared under the ice we headed out towards the east entrance. The road was still closed off due to danger of avalanche but we did find a couple of grizzly to photograph, one at Mary's Bay and another at Sedge Bay. Unfortunately we still were not able to find the grizzly sow and cub.
Since the sky was beginning to clear up we decided to head back around the southern end of the park so that we could get some pictures of Old Faithful erupting. We had tried a couple of days earlier but the weather that day made it difficult to get good shots. With nice blue skies the pics turned out much better.
After Old Faithful we headed up to Mammoth and the north entrance to the park. We had hoped to get some more shots of the new born big horn lamb that we had seen a couple of days earlier but as we came around the corner we could not see the sheep on the cliff face where we had seen them earlier. We did see some cars pulled off a little way down the road so we headed that way to check it out. There on the hill not far from the road was the big horn ewe and lamb. Since they were much closer we were able to get a lot of good pics. It was amazing to see this little lamb scurry around on the rocks and cliffs at the ripe old age of two days.
It was getting late so we decided to head back to our hotel in West Yellowstone. On the way we spotted two black bears in different areas. The first black bear was indeed black, above, but the second was a cinnamon black bear. Black bear is a species and can come in a variety of colors, although black is the most common.

Thursday was our last day in the park. We were already quite happy with all of the great wildlife that we had seen and the photo opportunities that we had. So we decided for the finally day we would go all the way around the park, except the road between Tower and Canyon which was still closed due to snow, and just see whatever we would find. On the south loop near the Lake Area turn off a large bird flew across the road and perched in a tree close by. It turned out to be a Swanson's hawk that was cooperative and let us stop to take some pictures.

Then we headed up top the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to take some scenery shots. This shot was taken from Artist Point and the falls in the distance are the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. We do not spend much time in this area because I am afraid of heights. Since places like this bother me we just took the shot and got going as quick as possible.
Next stop was Mammoth where we were surprised and pleased to find that one of the local elk females had calved the day before. A small heard of elk live in Mammoth and the surrounding area. Since the main predators of elk are wolves and grizzly it is smart to stay in a place that has a lot of people to keep the predators away. However the elk themselves can be dangerous to people in Mammoth that get too close. The ranger, who was keeping spectators from getting to close to the elk and calf, told us that she had chased a park employee who unknowingly had gotten too close to the calf.
Bull elk usually are found alone or in small groups at this time of the year. A healthy buck like this does not have too much to fear from the predators so they usually wonder about more in the highland areas on the north side of the park. During the fall each bull will be surrounded by a harem of females in hopes that he will find one that is receptive to mating. Shortly after we took this picture it began to snow again. It was not bad on the north end but as we passed Mammoth and headed towards Norris the snow on the roads began to get deeper and driving more treacherous. I am used to driving in the snow but roads here in Minnesota get plowed and sanded. They are also wider and do not have steep drop offs or rivers on the side. We were worried that we might have to park and sleep in the car. Fortunately things got better after Norris and we were able to make it out to West Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Part 1

Since Yellowstone is such a big place, and since we ended up taking many pictures over vacation I have decided to post pics from the vacation primarily in three posts. This first post will cover the first couple of days. We did most of our driving to the park on Friday. Thirteen hours of driving got us to Billing, MT where we stayed the night. Saturday we got up and drove the last three hours to the park. We were not in too much of a hurry because of the gray rainy skies. The weather forecast had rain every day for the entire week and my mood was as gloomy as the skies. I had a bad feeling that this vacation was going to end up as a train wreck. Looking back I was kind of right but not in the way in which I was thinking
We arrived at the north entrance of the park around 10:00am and headed right out towards the Lamar Valley. As we came to the bridge into the Little America area there were many cars parked on the side of the road so we stopped to see what everyone was looking at. Down the slope near the river a black bear was munching on the grass. I took a few pictures and then heard someone mention that there were male big horn sheep a bit further down the road.
Since we think that big horned sheep rams are more interesting then a black bear trimming the lawn, that is probably because we have a good population of black bear in Minnesota and absolutely no wild big horned sheep, I ran back to the car and we moved down the road. We found about a dozen or so rams with a few female and young ones mixed in. We have seen big horn rams in the park before but never so many in one group. We watched and photographed their behavior, including some head butting, for a while and then decided to continue on, since we still had not been to our motel yet.
On our way back around the park, the road between Canyon and Tower does not open up until Memorial Day weekend or later because of all the snow in the mount Washburn pass, we spotted a wolf running parallel to the road between Mammoth and Norris. I pulled over grabbed the camera jumped out of the car and began to follow and photograph the wolf. About two miles later the wolf met up with another wolf, I found out that the other wolf had been a couple of hundred feet ahead of the one that I was following, and the two shortly disappeared into the trees. Fortunately for me Michelle picked me up with the car because I was not looking forward to running another couple of miles to get back. With all of that running after the wolves I slept pretty soundly that night.
We started out back into the park early the next morning. The skies had cleared as the day progressed on Saturday and the nice weather continued on Sunday morning. I had talked with several photographers on Saturday and found that many people had been seeing grizzly over by Yellowstone Lake so we headed over through Canyon on our way to Fishing Bridge. On our way we found another jam up of cars so we decided to stop and find out what was going on. It was another bear, but this time it was a grizzly and it was eating at a carcass. I made my way through the trees and snow to where I could photograph the bear from across the river. I found out later that the bear had been eating on the carcass for days, though I am not sure that the bear killed the bison or whether it had just found a convenient meal. We continued to check the carcass for the rest of the trip but I guess that there was not enough meat left to entice another bear.
At Yellowstone Lake we did find another grizzly but it was kind of far away and sleeping so after waiting a bit we decided to continue south on the loop and hook around to Old faithful. We usually do not see that much on the south end of the park, this could be because it is a bit higher elevation, but as we turned the corner and began going north again we were treated to an osprey perched on a tree over looking the Firehole River.
After the osprey took off in the opposite direction in search of a fish we continued north. When we got to Mammoth I decided to check out the North Entrance before heading back out towards Tower and Lamar Valley. I was primarily looking for golden eagle, since we did see them nest in the area a few years back, but the only thing that we found was a female big horned sheep hugging the cliff wall far above the road. I thought that it would be cool to get a picture of the sheep in its natural habitat so we stopped to take a pic and that's when I noticed a small lamb clinging to mom's side. We found out later that the lamb was only hours old when we took this pic.After a few minutes the ewe and her lamb laid down to get some rest and it was very difficult to so the lamb so we decided to move on back into the park. On our way into Mammoth we spotted this mule deer on a hill overlooking the road. Normally I do not spend much time photographing deer but since the sun was on its way down the light was very good. With no place to pull over I jumped out of the car and snapped a couple of quick pics before any cars came up behind us.
With night approaching we decide to start heading back towards West Yellowstone. As we drove between Mammoth and Norris I saw something moving in water near the road and so I stopped. We had seen beaver here in the past, including the day before, but usually they were much further away. This one was munching on a twig pretty close to the road. The only problem was that the setting sun made the lighting tricky.
A little further down the road from the beaver we ran into the same wolf that we had photographed the day before. This time it was heading south towards Norris. Again I grabbed the camera and jumped out of the car. This time the wolf kept to the road, which was unfortunate because people were chasing it down the road in their car. On several occasions people came close to hitting another car or the wolf as they tried to race ahead to catch up to or get a head of the wolf. I kept following on foot for several miles until it was getting dark. Finally Michelle was able to catch up to me with the car and we decided to leave the wolf in peace and head back to our hotel. Even though it had rained on both days we also had periods of blue sky and after only two days I know that my fears about this vacation had been proven wrong, at least as far as the shooting opportunities were concerned.

Bighorn Sheep

One of the larger mammals that live in Yellowstone National Park that are sometimes hard to find are the big horn sheep. Big horned sheep are named for the large horns that adorn the heads of the males, rams, that can weigh as much as 30 pounds. Females, like the one below, also have horns but they are much smaller.
The original bighorn sheep probably came from Siberia and crossed into North America over the Bering Strait. Until the late 1800s their population numbered in the millions and they could be found through out much of Alaska, Canada, the western United States and down into Mexico.

By the early 1900s hunting and diseases that spread from domesticated sheep decimated the bighorn population until there were only a few hundred left in the lower United States. Some subspecies, like the Audubon's Bighorn which were found in the Black Hills Region of North and South Dakota, went extinct while the populations of other subspecies increased. Today there are three subspecies of big horned sheep that can still be found in North America, Rocky Mountain Bighorn, which are the type found in Yellowstone, Desert Bighorn and Sierra Nevada Bighorn, which are an endangered subspecies found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Bighorn sheep live in social groups. Throughout most of the year the ewes stay together in one herd while the rams form small bachelor herds. The few lambs that are born each year, typically in May or June, stay with the ewe herd. The females protect the lambs from predators like wolves, eagles and coyotes. Most of the summer is spent in the high country grazing on grasses and shrubs. In Yellowstone the bighorns occasionally come down to drink from the rivers this is the best time to get to see them up close and personal. In the fall the males begin to spar, butting their heads together to prove their dominance prior to the breeding season. The broken, or broomed tips, of their horns are evidence of these epic battles. Males and females gather together in the fall for the rut with dominant males guarding their harem of females. During the winter the herds move to lower pastures where the snow is not as deep, making it easier to find food.

Not all bighorn sheep are social though this one became very antisocial when I tried to take his picture.

Yellowstone Big Horned Sheep

Another type of large mammal that we typically see in Yellowstone is the big horned sheep. One of the highlights of last year Yellowstone trip was that we got some nice pics of a big horned ram, over all last years trip was not nearly as productive as this year. This year we did see the big horned sheep but no rams.
The first sheep that we came across was on our first day in the park. It was in an area where we have seen big horn sheep in past years between Roosevelt Junction and the Lamar Valley. There were 4 or 5 ewes laying in the grass not far from a picnic area.

Later in the week we were on our way up to Tower when we spotted a lot of people along the road near Calcite Springs. Since this is where Rosie was usually located with her cubs I decided that I wanted to stop and take a look. Unfortunately there were no parking spots. So I grabbed my equipment and asked Michelle to drive up to Tower and turn around and then come back and see if she could find a spot. It turned out that Rosie and cubs had gone out of sight over a hill so I decided to start walking up to Tower to find Michelle and the car. On the way there I looked over the side of the cliff and spotted three big horned sheep.
While I was photographing the sheep Michelle came driving up. I pointed out the sheep but she told me that they had crossed the road in front of her when she was driving to Tower and she snapped the picture above as one of the sheep scrambled over the railing.
When we were leaving the park on Saturday we scanned the cliff near the north entrance on our way out because there had been a golden eagles nest in that location a couple of years ago. We did not see a golden eagle but we did find another big horn sheep up on the cliff face.
Although we had already taken big horn pics earlier on the trip I was fascinated by how this good sized animal could be scrambling around on tiny ledges that looked to be only a few inches deep.
As it walked across the cliff face I could see dirt poor down from where it was stepping. I could swear that any minute the ground below the animal was going to give way plunging the animal 50 feet down the cliff. But it never happened. The animal was sure footed and never seemed bothered by the loose rock beneath its hooves or the dizzying height of the path that it was walking. I think that it bothered me a lot more then it did her, probably due mostly to my own fear of heights.

Day 1: We arrive in Yellowstone.

While this is a mostly birding website I enjoy all nature and wildlife and you can not go to Yellowstone and only take pictures of birds. So here are some of the mammals that we were able to photograph on our trip.

We left for Yellowstone on Saturday morning. That day we drove across Minnesota and North Dakota and stopped for the night in Glendive, MT. Sunday morning we continued on and arrived at Yellowstone around 2pm. We immediately set out across the upper loop to the Tower and Lamar Valley area. We decided to check out the Tower area first and as we passed the Roosevelt Junction we came across a red fox in a small meadow. We had seen a fox in the same area last year and we guessed that this was the same one. After a pit stop at the tower visitor center we headed out to Lamar Valley. As we crossed the Yellowstone River we saw a lot of cars stopped at the side of the road. Since we had seen big horn sheep in this area in past years we stopped to see what everyone was looking at. We were not disappointed. In the field next to the road was a large ram and his harem.

We got some good shots as they came close and then crossed the road. Lamar was pretty quiet so we headed back to Tower and got our first bear sighting of the trip.
By this time it was getting pretty late, my blood sugar was getting low and the hotel was still a couple hours away so we headed back across the park to West Yellowstone. On the way back we came across a large elk grazing and stopped for a couple of pictures. It is cool to see them when the antlers are covered in velvet. He still even had some of his winter coat.

Even though it was a good first day we were still a little disappointed. The past 2 times that we had come in the spring we had been fortunate and had spotted grizzly bears on the first day. This year we did not and unfortunately it was a portent that this year we would not be as extremely lucky as we had been in the past.