The Beast

Let me take you to the mountains, where a ghost lives...a beast, who clings to the steepest reaches of the mountain kingdoms....a beast the color of winter, as it has been called.  You may have seen one, high on a cliff side, peering down on you with a gaze of sheer confidence, and almost of pity, that you, a creature of the flats, is not capable of the high-cliff aerobatics and skill to scale to the same heights that it sits so comfortably upon.  It's black eyes set out by its pure white coat.  Daggers protrude from upon its head...rapiers that are not made for the lower class behavior of battling another for a mate...but more for letting another know that getting completely shredded is a real possibility.

Or you may have met a more gentler beast of the same species...groups of them, working the edges of high alpine back-country campsites, where the possibility of obtaining morsels of backpacker meals, or licking the urination spots of those same backpackers (yep, that's right!), keeps them quite happy.

Photo obtained from Nat Geo

They are a beast that is greatly admired by man for not only its mountaineering ability, but also by its appearance.  When you think of the times that you have seen them upon their lofty heights, what do you think about?  What feelings are evoked by these creatures?  Or if you have not seen one, what do they mean to you?  I would love to hear about it, and any stories or experiences you have had with them.

First, an introduction...

I'm getting stoked for the summer season!  Check out my first ever video production...discussing the why of our mountain ungulate research in the greater Yellowstone area:

*It is better viewed from YouTube than watching here.

http://gyamountainungulateproject.com/videos.html

I hope to produce more video shorts...but the demands on my time will soon be ever-increasing, probably to exponential when I start the summer field season!

And a few pictures of the study animals taken by various folks related to the project:

Photo by Hollie Miyasaki, Palisades Idaho

Goat on top of Montana's highest peak (Granite Peak 12,799ft)

Camera trap photo by Hollie Miyasaki, Palisades Idaho

In Memory of Gary Nelson

On the day the above photo was taken, a man who played an important role in Madison Junction as a law enforcement Park Ranger for Yellowstone National Park passed away.  He was a man who loved the park, spending a large part of his life not only working in it, but permanently living in it.  He loved the wildlife, and he loved the elk, and he loved our research, always going out of his way to help us out in any way he could. From the elk project's perspective, he was an essential part of our lives in Madison Junction.  We have so many stories about Gary, and appreciate him so much.  Thanks Gary.  Madison will never be the same, and the elk project will never forget you and your graciousness.  

Counting the Elk

Morning on the Madison

We're back to count the elk!  Each spring, the central Yellowstone (Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon River drainages) wintering elk herd is surveyed to obtain an estimate of the population size.  To do this, the project, run by Robert Garrott at Montana State University, performs what is called Mark-Resight surveys.  Basically, we "mark" (or instrument with a VHF collar) several elk (we try to maintain 10% of the population marked).  We then go back and count all the elk, comparing the number of marked individuals to unmarked individuals, allowing us to get a population estimate.  If we do this multiple times, we get an average population estimate.  This method has been used successfully on this project for many years.  Here is the count data from after the wolves were reintroduced until last year.  What will it be this year??

It is a very fascinating story, as you can see.  The elk herd declined significantly, to 10% of its original size.  Many of these elk migrated out, many were eaten by the wolves, as documented by the project.  Before we exterminated the wolves, was there ever supposed to be a wintering elk population here?  That's the question I ask.  I hope the answer is yes...that elk wintered there even with wolves, but it was at a very low herd size.  So maybe the herd is stabilizing?  But maybe the answer is no...before wolves were exterminated, there were no elk here.  It may be only a recent phenomenon that elk were ever allowed to survive in this system.   And so the counts go on...

Early morning fog in the Firehole

Collars on mortality signal (a quicker tempo signal that begins after 8 hours of non-movement) are sought after and retrieved.  Looks like the wolves had a good time with this one.

Lone and Black

The wolves are still present, but the population in the park has been on a wild path of stabilization, with low numbers of wolves now in the system.  Wolf activity in our study area has appeared to diminish as well.  Will this stabilization permit the elk herd to survive?

Claire in her element

 Our surveys are conducted by vehicle, driving the drainages when the snow melts in the meadows which attract the elk to the canyon bottoms.  Some might question our methods...not leaving the road or not checking the higher country.  However, Claire (FWP biologist) and I spend considerable time hiking into the backcountry, partly for fun, but primarily to confirm what we suspect:  that there are NO elk anywhere but in the canyon bottoms.

About 10% of the remaining elk herd...

And a fox for fun.

New Horizons

Capture of a bighorn sheep ram

It is a bittersweet moment for an aspiring ecologist.  Living life purely as a seasonal technician is a wonderful blend of challenge, excitement, and constant change.  The past few years of my life as a tech have been the best I have ever had.  At first, it was simply a desire to have adventure; but, as natural selection and forces outside of myself have taken action, this has given way to a striving for something more.  And here I now sit, on the edge of change, waiting for new forces to suck me in.  Graduate school looms!  (Maybe I speak too soon, as I have not been "officially" accepted, but I'll take that risk).  My advisor, Robert Garrott at Montana State University, and I are currently working out the details of what my program will look like, but it will definitely be related to the ecology of bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the greater Yellowstone area.  You can read more about the overall project here:  www.gyamountainungulateproject.com.

My advisor, Robert Garrott, spying for mountain goats and bighorn sheep

This is a terribly exciting prospect, and I can't wait to apply myself to the challenges of graduate school.  The step of graduate school is a big one (as for most professions) and is daunting for sure, but with one more summer backpacking in the mountains and one more winter wrestling seals in Antarctica before I actually start my program...its looking pretty good.

What have I been up to lately?  In February we captured several bighorn sheep for instrumentation with VHF and GPS collars.  This month has been planning and logistics for next month (back in central Yellowstone to perform spring population surveys on the elk that have been monitored by this project for 20+ years) and for this summer (back in the Tom Miner Basin/Yellowstone National Park area to do presence-absence surveys for bighorn sheep and mountain goats).  I was also honored to give a presentation  to the Snake River Audubon Society on my travels to Antarctica and the Weddell seal research going on there...it was a BLAST with a great turnout of some great people.

Just being a little nostalgic...

The following videos produced by Wild Lens for the Idaho Bird Observatory:

the Antarctic Sun: Sealed and Delivered

Check out a very well written article on the Weddell seal research:

http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=2588

For Deployment

This is what it looks like to be readying for deployment 15 bighorn sheep and 15 mountain goat GPS and VHF collars in your home.  We stand to gain a significant amount of ecological information from the deployment of these collars, treading ground in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem that has never been tread before.  The ultimate purpose being to benefit the conservation and management of both these regal species throughout the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.  To read more about the project, visit www.gyamountainungulateproject.com

To read more about the GPS and VHF collars, visit the Telemetry Studies section in the Science page.

A Photographic Ode to the Adelie

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the much adored Adelie penguin.  Over-enthusiastic.  Over-excentric.  And often very clumsy.  Everyone wishes they were one, or at least had one for themselves...

Sealin'

A typical mush pool of an atypical color.  I wonder why it is that color??!  Pup just came out of the water, mom always swimming nearby.

Mom peering through the mush



Our fearless french leader commanding the troops...



Darren and Thierry on our route out of North Base