Thursday, November 08, 2007

The Buffalo Roamed, but Where Were the Antelope?

A pronghorn antelope at Yellowstone: I didn't take this photo because these clowns were hiding from me.

Bighorn sheep frolicking on a steep, rocky slope. Mentally unstable creatures, no doubt.

The battle of the Little Bighorn: Mama bighorn sheep and kids had stopped traffic on a Yellowstone road when I snapped this photo. A fun sight.

This might have been the largest buffalo I saw at Yellowstone, and I saw hundreds. This big guy was in a roadside ditch in the Lamar Valley voraciously downing watery roadside "salad." Judging by the size of his gut, the dude might have mowed the entire valley.

I don't know if anyone heard, but I had discouraging words to say about the antelope at Yellowstone. Geez, I see all kinds of wildlife, but one of the star attractions avoided me - the pronghorn antelopes. I asked a park ranger, "Where are they? I've been looking everywhere." Ranger says, "At this time of year they're at the northern boundary of the park, and some may be in the hills beyond the park." So, I drive to the northern area of the park, see no antelope, then drive out of the park and into no-man's land, but the little pronghorn piss ants are nowhere to be seen. I give up the search and head back down south when I see people stopped on the side of the road, a sure sign that some good wildlife is around. They are looking up at steep rocky slopes at those crazed mountain climbers, the bighorn sheep. These critters are climbing all over rocky ledges, defying death, at least to me, and staring down at us, daring us to come up and try it too. They were much fun to watch.

STILL TO COME: Frustration in The Grand Tetons: Taken hostage by wild buffalo while hunting all over creation for Bullwinkle

1 comment:

Jim Macdonald said...

Tom, interesting quagmire you've walked into on pronghorn. I've posted this to the Yellowstone Newspaper. I also posted a short comment under it suggesting a good source for more information (albeit any source on this issue on any side is controversial).