Jackson Hole Wildlife Eco-Tour Adventures

       The bighorn sheep are starting to move towards their winter range.   We have seen some of the ewes  or females within the Jackson Hole valley.  It’s typical for sheep to have multiple seasonal ranges within their home range.  Males may have up to six seasonal ranges while females have up to four ranges…  Male’s ranges include the rutting range, a pre-rut range, a spring range, a salt lick range, a summer range, and a winter range.  Female’s ranges may include the spring range, the lambing range, the summer range, and the winter range.   If I had to make an assumption, the rams or males are on their pre rut range.  This range is off of the high country where there is less snow, as there is up to two feet of snow in the high country at this point.   The females are moving towards their winter range, which brings them into view here in Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole.   The older individuals lead the migration to the different ranges.   These different migrations happen quickly over the course of a few days and have been happening on the same paths for centuries.            

          As we near the holidays, the rams will start fighting for ewes in estrus.  To find out who is the dominant ram, the two competing individuals will run at each other and clash heads in combat.   The collision may be heard from a mile away and sound as a gun has fired..          

      Bighorn sheep migrated to North America during the early Pleistocene era, about two million years ago.    Our ancestral sheep reached North America about 1 million years ago where they evolved into nine sill existing sub species.   Beringia was the location where these sheep crossed from Asia to North America.    

           As the rut comes closer we will be taking tours to find the combating sheep…    We will keep you posted on the happenings..   Call for a park wildlife tour to remember.  We are permitted in Grand Teton National park and offer wildlife tours in the Jackson Hole Valley.    We are also offering  winter wildlife snowshoeing tours this winter season as well.

  Gildart, Bert. 1999. Mountain Monarchs Bighorn Sheep. Northword Press, Minnetonka, Minnesota

           Red Fox    Vulpes vulpes

  What an amazing place Jackson Hole is.  It’s not everywhere that you can drive through town and see 50 or so people on a sidewalk with cameras photographing foxes.    Right in the town of Jackson, “Wildlife Happens” as my good friend Reed states.    Jackson being in the center of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a mecca for wildlife and hiking enthusiasts.    Professional photographers and novices alike line the fence watching the kits or (baby foxes) play in the field.  Even though the den is 15 yards from the sidewalk the young aren’t phased.   Normally foxes are shy of people but this is not the case here.   We were speculating why the mother is raising her kits so close to civilization, when there is 18 million acres of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to live in.    One theory that we came up with is the absence of predators..  In such an urban setting animals like coyotes, eagles, and ravens would be less likely to prey on the kits.   The vixen or female mother isn’t phased at all with all the commotion on the road.  These are truly urban animals.     Typically the dad or also called the dog fox will stay with the litter and help the vixen feed the kits.   This is not the case here, the dog fox has not been seen around the den site.   Foxes have been known to be polygamous, polyandrous, or monogamous.    These kits are about one month and we speculate that they will be concentrated around the den site for another few weeks until they start venturing out on their own.   We are expecting that the vixen will start bringing around living prey to teach the kits how to kill and hunt.  At this point we have seen her bring back birds, ground squirrels, mice, and a snake.           Fox, D. 2007. “Vulpes vulpes” (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed May 20, 2008 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Vulpes_vulpes.html.Join us in Jackson Hole, Grand Teton or Yellowstone National Park, for a wildlife park  guided tour to remember.

A park and hiking tour in Yellowstone.  When one thinks of Yellowstone, thoughts might wander to geysers like Old Faithful, hot springs, fumaroles, bubbling mud pots and wildlife.  For the past three days my time was devoted to viewing wildlife and hiking in Yellowstone National Park.   The south entrance just opened on the 10^th  of May, and I took the opportunity to go on a scouting mission for my wildlife eco tours.   I loaded up my binoculars and spotting scopes and north I went.  With one mission, spending time and touring through the Lamar Valley.  This in one place in the lower 48 where wolves and grizzly bears are quite visible and common,  if you know where to look that is. From years past I had a good idea, but knowledge in the field in priceless.   As I dried myself off from swimming in the Boiling River Hot Springs I wondered just what I would see and learn in the world’s first national park.         It was approaching sunset and I knew the time was right.   I headed straight for a wolf den site that I remembered from last year.    I got sidetracked by a huge grizzly grazing 200 yards off the road.    In this area the snow has just recently melted leaving patches of grass here and there.   Food is not all that abundant for the large bears this time of year.    When bears come out of hibernation they have burnt off their fat reserves and are hungry.    The problem is that sometimes food can be hard to come by..   There is a rough progression of food items that grizzlies consume through the year.     After waking, the available food happens to be winter killed ungulates ie. hoofed mammals.  The snow and winter temperatures preserves these carcasses, and the bears and other scavengers get a 5 star dinner as the carcasses thaw.   As spring and summer progresses, vegetation grows and bears turn to these grasses, wildflowers, and roots for food.  In some places a bears diet might consist of over 80% vegetation.   For the most part bears are opportunist feeders and will munch on what’s available.   Starting with the bison, as we are seeing now, the young of the season are being born and are a relativity easy meal for the large carnivores.    Elk and moose will give birth in the next few weeks.  In the Lamar Valley the grizzly bears take advantage of the wolves and will push the wolves off a kill they had made.             On a short hike I found a carcass which appeared to be an unlucky elk that didn’t make it through the winter.    Most of the large bones were broken in half.. A sure sign of wolves.. With a biting jaw that can exert up to 1500 pounds of pressure per square inch it takes no time to snap large bones to reach the rich protein and fatty marrow inside.        Summer for the grizzlies means eating small mammals that they can dig up,  tearing through rotten logs to find insects,  and feeding on any other food that might be available.    So this means as you go hiking through the park don’t leave any food unattended.               Something as small as a moth is also an important food source for the bears.   The army cutworm moth being up to two inches wide, migrates from the great plains in the summer to the   mountainous Rockies  in search of cooler temps and the nectar that is produce by our array of wildflowers.   They feed at night and then retire to the cool shade under the small rocks.  This is where the bears will uncover them and eat 10,000-40,000 in a day, all this happening at elevations greater than 10,000 feet.   WoW,  Who would of known.      

       The fall is the all important time for the grizzled beasts.    80% of all the calories that these bears burn through the year come from the whitebark pine tree, more specifically the nut that the tree produces.   What so scary here is that this tree is declining fast..   The whitebark pine blister rust, the pine beetle,  and the warming temperatures are all to blame.  With only 500-600 grizzly bears in the 18 million acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem we can’t spare to lose any.

Turner, Jack. Travels In The Greater Yellowstone. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008

 One beautiful bird. It’s not every day that one spots a White Faced Ibis in Jackson Hole. Definitely a highlight of the trip today. Even though I can’t pronounce the family name Threskiornithidae, this bird is worth talking about.
This Ibis is a wading bird that eats aquatic invertebrates, insects, worms, small fish, and some aquatic vegetation. This bird’s bill measuring up to 7’’, is a scary sight for the unsuspecting fish. Stab goes the bill, as this elegant bird wades through the marsh. Weighing 1.3 pounds and having a wingspan of over 36’’ this is no small bird. Breeding White Faced Ibis sport an iridescent dark reddish and greenish plumage of feathers, making this one classy bird.
The pair bond is monogamous for one breeding season. The little ones are born with little hair, not able to leave the nest, and with eyes open. After incubating the eggs for 21-22 days the eggs will hatch and the furry balls will then fly in another 28+ days. This nest is never left alone while the female tends during the night and the male tends some of the day.
Waa waa waa waa and wehp-ehp wehp-ehp goes the Ibis. For some reason that isn’t in the dictionary?