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Posted by katjh (24.11.4.22) on 08:08:10 01/10/13
On Saturday morning, we picked Rob up in the parking lot at Canyon at 5:00 a.m. and headed to Mammoth, where we met Carolyn. We drove both cars to Tower, where we dropped Carolyn's car and all got in the van for some critter watching in the Lamar Valley. We didn't get far before we came up a group folks with scopes. We got our scopes out to see what we could see. There were two grizzlies tussling over a bison carcass....with a third grizzly grazing a little way up the hill. Three wolves were bedded down in the sage near the carcass, waiting for the bears to finish their "discussion". This was the day after the big rumble between the Mollies and Lamars in which two of the Mollie's were killed.
Using Carolyn's wolf chart, we were able to determine that the three we were seeing were members of the Lamar pack - two blacks and a gray. The collared black alpha male, favoring his left front leg, another collard black and an uncollared gray.
We watched for quite awhile, having a nice chat with three folks from Canada. When they left, a family of 4 joined us - Mom, Dad, son and daughter. The boy was maybe 9 or 10. I know I've said this before, but it's so cool to share the scope with youngsters who've never had a close up look at wolves, bears, bison.
Eventually, the grizzlies moved up into the forest. The wolves moved in for their turn. We watched until they moved down to the riverbank for a drink and then bedded down for a snooze.
Of course, all the critter action was too far away for photos...did I say Mort needs bigger glass? But, I did get this snapshot of the critter watchers!
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