Yellowstone National Park is a nearly 3,500-sq.-mile, 2.2 million acre, wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too.
Yellowstone features dramatic canyons, alpine rivers, lush forests, hot springs and gushing geysers, including its most famous, Old Faithful. It's also home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk and antelope.
As development throughout the West increased the habitat that now composes Yellowstone National Park became an important sanctuary for the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states.
The Yellowstone NP bison herd is probably the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. In 2020 it was estimated to be 4,800 bison. Yellowstone National Park has large areas of alpine meadows and grass prairie and this provides a nearly optimum environment for American bison who live in river valleys, and on prairies and plains.
The abundance and distribution of these animal species depend on their interactions with each other and on the quality of their habitats, which in turn is the result of thousands of years of volcanic activity, forest fires, changes in climate, and more recent natural and human influences.
Most of the park is above 7,500 feet (2,286 m) in elevation and underlain by volcanic bedrock. The terrain is covered with snow for much of the year and supports forests dominated by lodgepole pine and interspersed with alpine meadows. Sagebrush steppe and grasslands on the park’s lower-elevation ranges provide essential winter forage for elk, bison, and bighorn sheep.
Most park roads are closed to automobiles until mid-April. The road from the North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana, through the park to Cooke City, Montana, is open year-round and provides a wealth of opportunity for wildlife photography.
There are nearly 300 species of birds, 16 species of fish, five species of amphibians, six species of reptiles, and 67 species of mammals—including seven native ungulate (hoofed mammal) species and two bear species.
At 28,000 square miles, the park is one of the largest, nearly intact temperate-zone ecosystems on Earth. It preserves a great variety of terrestrial, aquatic, and microbial life.
From 1995 to 1997, 41 wild wolves from Canada and northwest Montana were released in Yellowstone. Wolves are highly social animals and live in packs. In Yellowstone, average pack size is about 11 or 12 individuals. The pack is a complex social family, with older members (often the alpha male and alpha female) and subordinates, each having individual personality traits and roles within the pack. Many other animals benefit from wolf kills. For example, when wolves kill an elk, ravens and magpies arrive almost immediately. Coyotes arrive soon after, waiting nearby until the wolves are sated. Bears will attempt to chase the wolves away, and are usually successful. Many other animals—from eagles to invertebrates—consume the remains.
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) has been documented in Yellowstone since the 1880s. In relation to other canids (members of the dog family) in the park, red foxes are the smallest.
"Records of the Barrow's Goldeneye (Glaucionelta islandica) in Yellowstone are very similar to what they have been elsewhere — largely neglected. Since this bird was both resident at all times, and abundant at least in summer, I can explain the neglect only by saying a Goldeneye, as usually seen in summer when the majority of scientists visited the Park, had few distinctive marks. It then passed as a small, unimportant black, or very dark brown, duck." (Barrow's Golden-Eye in the Yellowstone National Park, The Wilson Bulletin, M.P. Skinner, March, 1937.)
Common Mergansers dive underwater to catch fish. After the chicks leave the nest in summer, the female stays with them as they grow up while males gather in flocks. In winter, mergansers form large flocks on inland reservoirs and rivers.
Yellowstone, like most of the national park's today, has its issues and problems to resolve but it remains the "Africa" of the United States as far as wildlife photography. Thanks for learning more about Yellowstone NP. — Connie Cassinetto
Credits:
All photographs, Connie Cassinetto. 2022