Bears and Wolves and Elk, Oh, My!

 When the bears and wolves won’t come to you, you must go to them.  It’s still so warm here in Yellowstone that most of the bears and wolves are still up in the high country.  There is a center near the west entrance to the park that houses grizzlies and wolves.  

It’s called the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.  They take orphaned, abandoned or problem animals that would not survive in the wild.  

As we were making our way to the center, all of a sudden traffic was stopped on both sides of the road by a coyote that stopped right in the middle of the road to POOP!  Not something you might have on your “bucket list” but certainly a once in a lifetime occurrence for sure!  Sorry we were not able to get a picture for you. So much for coyotes, we’re looking for bears.  

The center is very clean and nicely laid out.  We headed right for the grizzly area and met Spirit.  

Wow!  Finally a real bear.  Spirit was a nuisance bear that kept coming into Whitefish, Montana and raiding homes for food.  

The game rangers finally packed her up and shipped her to the center.

There are 5 bears that “take turns” being in the public area of the habitat.  It’s an extremely large enclosure with a waterfall that flows into a pool that has trout in it.  

We watched Spirit until her time was up.  They rang a bell, a door came up and Spirit disappeared behind it.  

Next to make an appearance was Nakina.  

Her mother and sibling were shot by a chicken farmer in Alaska because they were raiding the coop.  

It was so amazing to see these bears and to know now they are well taken care of and have a good life.  

We saw some lazy wolves.  It was warm so they weren’t very active.  

The aviary was next.  There was a Red Tailed  Hawk,

an owl

but the best were 3 bald eagles— beautiful birds. 

 

On to the river otter house.  These little creatures were fun to watch.  

One was having his lunch, a fish.  

We were very happy to be able to see all these beautiful animals and maybe it was a lot safer this way. 

 This evening we decided to explore a new area of the park and see if could see any more wild animals. We went to an area where sometimes bears and wolves are seen at dusk.  

We saw more elk

and a different herd of bison numbering at least in the hundreds.

I really liked the one Tom took a photo of, that had decorated himself!  

We came upon a huge group of cars and then people! 

Being courteous, I got out of the car and inquired as to what they were watching for.  Wolves!  There were so many people and some had been waiting for hours.  More power to them, we moved on.  

We enjoyed seeing the amazing vistas and we were beginning to see a little rain. 

Good time to return back home.