We drove to the first place (Blacktail Plateau) we had seen wolves – and they were there again. A little closer this time.
They slowly went down behind a bluff.
Matt heard over the radio that there wasn’t any wolf activity in the east of the park, so he suggested we look for non-wolf animals – we all agreed. So we drove to an area with good moose habitat.
We parked in a pull out and not only saw a moose in the distance, but also saw a fox far away in the meadow trotting along. We watched as it crisscrossed the area, clearly hunting.
He crossed the road and disappeared, so we watched the moose for a while.
The fox came back, and kept hunting. He got closer and closer to us, and actually popped up over the snow ledge and started at us. Matt scared it off – it’s important that the park animals didn’t get used to people.
The fox jumped back and we didn’t see it again. Matt said he suspected someone had been feeding the fox.
Watched the moose a little longer, then drove up the road.
We pulled up with a view of the mountains. Matt pulled out a scope and scanned the mountain cliffs and found a mountain goat.
A golden eagle flew by.
We turned back and drove west towards Gardiner.
Matt noticed a bunch of birds – ravens, magpies, a golden eagle – flying in and out of a creek bed behind a small hill. People had radioed there had been a coyote sighting nearby also.
We got out of the van and hiked in a little. There was a carcass in the river that we could barely see – maybe an elk? It was nice to get out of the van and move around a little. We heard coyote yip as we approached.
We had lunch at another pull-out. We got a talk at lunch from Emil, who runs the Yellowstone Wild tour company. He had set up some scopes on a (probable) bear den, and talked about the interaction between the reintroduction of wolves to the park with cougars and bears. (Beneficial to both animals.)
We stopped at the bear den again – someone said they had seen her poke her nose out, but she was curled up again, and nothing to see.