The American Serengeti

Mr. Hancock

Wednesday our group had a very full day wildlife watching in the Northern Range of Yellowstone Park. Our seminar began at 7:00 AM and ended 5:30. We ate a brown bag lunch in the park. Our guide Brad Bullins, did a very professional job of enlightening us about Yellowstone wildlife. We drove through the massive park looking for interesting sights from the road. If someone saw an animal we were interested in studying Brad, our guide, pulled the 16 passenger bus to the side of the highway, and we all exited the bus equipped with binoculars, cameras and high powered spotting scopes. Brad taught us how to predict where we would be likely to see animals as well as using his experience and intimate knowledge of park's wildlife. Our group all agreed it was a day well spent, and we all have new ideas to bring back to Cushing Middle School to use in our classrooms.

Using spotting scopes

A red fox, an entire Osprey family, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, mountain goats, pronghorns, elk, bison, coyotes, bluebirds, magpies, red tailed hawk, Canadian  geese,  ground squirrels, weasels, trout, a stonefly hatch, least sand pipers were sighted.

Front paw of a grizzly bear (big claw marks)

Back paw of a grizzly in some sandy soil

We also learned how to discover and interpret animal tracks. We saw black bear and grizzly tracks as well as numerous smaller animal tracks. Our guide instructed us in field wildlife management techniques such as reading animal browse signs, discovering beaver activities looking for rub signs and using insect activity in the creeks and rivers to help determine the health of the streams.

Big Horn sheep

We each had a favorite sighting. Mine was watching a family of mountain goats clinging precariously to the side of a huge peak. Mrs. Nordquist has said hers was watching stone flies hatch on Soda Butte Creek, a rushing mountain stream, where we ate our lunch. Mrs. Sissom liked the goats on the Northern Range, too. But, she also said the Osprey family feeding their young was a very impressive sight. Mr. Hawkins liked tracking, discovering, and measuring grizzly bear tracks. He was good at it.

We start another day at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Our guide will use his experience and knowledge to lead us to different areas of this vast and beautiful place. We are still hoping for a bear and maybe even a wolf tomorrow.