A grizzly anomaly

Interesting email . . . . thanks Salle!

A Grizzly Anomaly.
These photos were taken this past Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007, on the north slope of Dunraven Pass. According to the ranger that was interviewed about this speculated that the sow had an altercation with another sow who had three cubs. This sow with two, left the scene with all four of these cubs. Nothing more is known of the fifth cub that was allegedly present at that time or the other sow.

This particular sow has been seen with these four cubs over the past month. The cubs appear to be of two different ages as they are clearly two different sizes.
I would offer that they may be from the same sow over two successive breeding rounds that were a little close together time-wise with her ending up raising two litters rather than one this year. Hard to tell.

Salle Engelhardt, Vice-President
Wolf Recovery Foundation

Sow with the 4 cubs. Copyright Mike Burdic

Sow with four cubs. Copyright Mike Burdic

Road to Yellowstone East Entrance closed by mudslide

Although almost an inch of rain dropped on the Columbine Fire in Yellowstone Park, a fire which has twice caused the entrance to close, the rain itself closed the road again by causing a mudslide across the highway 7 miles outside (east) of the Park. The mud and boulders flowed accross the highway and into the North Fork of the Shoshone River.

Story by Gazette News Services.

Aug. 20. The debris have been cleared from the highway and the East Entrance is now open once again. Rain has rendered fire activity at the Columbine burn minimal.

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Some conservation groups become ranchers — baaad idea!

The WWP blog has a good take on a fairly recent, and continuing development. Conservation groups are buying ranches and assuming the grazing permits on adjacent public land, and in their words showing how running livestock can be done right.

Wrong. The lands of the Western United States did not evolve with cattle grazing them, and cattle do not take the place of bison, elk, deer, etc.

1. Consider that cattle are today completely artificial animals. There are no wild cows. The ancestors of cows no longer exist. They are extinct.

2. While the Texas longhorn cattle used in the early days of the West were much more capable animals at survival, they have long been replaced by tender cows like Angus.

3. Grasses and forbs did evolve under the pressure of grazing, but not grazing by cows. They were grazed variously by elk, deer, bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, all large ungulates to be sure, but they graze differently than cows. They were, and still are also grazed by rodents and insects.