Yellowstone's Coyotes

As you make the rounds on the roads of Yellowstone, coyotes are frequently seen as they work their way through the sage and grass covered meadows.  Our best encounter this year was just west of Canyon Village mid-afternoon.

We first saw him when he was south of the road working his way through the tall grass looking for mice.  He crossed the road and we managed to move ahead of the path I thought he would take.  It is MUCH easier to photograph an animal as it is working its way toward you naturally.  They often will get closer to you than you could ever get if you try to chase it. A parked car makes an excellent blind that coyotes will often ignore in their search for food.

While I did miss a few shots because I was trying for a good head shot when it pounced and caught the mouse, I was still pleased to get some good shots as he was mousing.

It was really special to be able to watch and photograph the actual capture of the mouse so near to the car.  Amazingly enough, the coyote swallowed the mouse pretty much whole, very little chewing!

I know that outside the park, coyotes are a costly nuisance to farmers and even dangerous for pets in the city.  But . . . one of the wonderful things about Yellowstone, it is possible to see wild animals in their home territory doing what they've done for thousands of years.  In Yellowstone I LOVE to see the coyotes go about their business!

The weasel vs the Prairie Dogs (and Ground Squirrels)

We've spent the last couple of days at Walden, Colorado to visit the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Today we got out close to dawn and started making our rounds. We had just done some bird photographs and had gone back where we had seen some baby prairie dogs. I had dug out the big lens and was trying to catch the babies. I think we've been seeing two species burrowing near each other - the white tailed prairie dog and the Wyoming ground squirrel.




I was keeping my eyes peeled, when I realized that the head I was seeing poking up was NOT a ground squirrel or prairie dog. Nope, it looked predator, moved like a predator, yep, it was a predator. I'm not always immediate with my ID on small predators . . . we don't have many black footed ferrets, weasels, mink, ermine, etc near Hutto. Another photographer drove up and asked if we had a weasel . . . my answer: I think so.








After the fact, I've looked it up, it is a long tailed weasel.







But for the next hour Henry and I and the other photographer and his wife watched that weasel go after the babies. He was fast - he darted here, darted there. We'd see him bring dead baby after dead baby back to his den. I think we counted at least 5 babies that he killed.







We watched the ground squirrels chase the weasel away from their den. I watched two ground squirrels almost run into and fight each other when they were both on the trail of the weasel. At one point I saw a prairie dog bounce up in the air - the weasel was there as were some adult ground squirrels.






We watched and heard the larger prairie dogs note the weasel and give the classic barking alarm. We heard the smaller ground squirrels also shout out a higher pitched alarm.

But that weasel could outrun and outthink the prairie dogs and ground squirrels. While they were giving chase, he was sneaking around and heading back to their dens. He was not worried about the humans that were trying to watch his every move - he would cross the road right in front of us.

Some of the mother ground squirrels would look for their lost babies or they would start calling.

It was an amazing sequence to watch, but sad at the same time. Yes, I did enjoy watching how efficiently the weasel provided food for her family, but I also grieved for the cute babies that will never grow up.