But just as the first of Yellowstone's new generation are preparing to leave, its last visitors are arriving. Night after night, army cutworm moths have been escaping the heat of a distant prairie. They have been flying in on favorable winds, hiding...
They are vast smoke plumes. Yellowstone is burning. Throughout the summer, the dry lodgepole pines have become like a tinderbox, and lightening has struck the match. The worst wild fires will burn for weeks. In 1988, a third of Yellowstone burnt in a...
Bison calves are more independent of their mothers. The adults' focus is now set on a ruthless competition to mate. A male bids to enter a herd with females in season. He uses dust to accentuate all his size and power. Another male already establishe...
As the thaw reaches up into the mountains, a part of Yellowstone that few ever see is briefly revealed. From its first day above the snow, this pika is obsessed by food. It's in a frantic race to restock its winter larder before the snow closes in ag...
Bison lose the last of their winter coats. In the heat, tempers fray. To escape soaring ground temperatures, cowbirds choose a bison's back as a cool place to feed and catch the breeze. Biting insects now become a draining nuisance. A grizzly bear es...
She chews its tail first, to make sure the fish can't get away. While the pups are still demanding milk, the mother otter will often keep the whole fish for herself. Her pups are happy enough with caviar. As the flow becomes slow enough for the trout...
This female grew up on the lake, so she knows where to take the cubs for a very special trip. Yellowstone cutthroat trout are massing in the mouth of the stream that feeds the lake. They are preparing for their annual spawning. But the trout must wai...
The living is easy. But it won't last long. At this altitude, the air is so dry that rain evaporates before it even hits the ground. The water that flows off the plateau is no longer being replaced. Already there is drought in forests beyond the mead...
As soon as she feels it is safe, she settles to suckle and reassure them. Bison can shrug off this sudden change in the weather; they are after all built to survive the Yellowstone winter. But this tiny hummingbird is more vulnerable. Flowers damaged...
This pack seem prepared to allow their young a brief foray to experience the world beyond their den. But his high-octane lifestyle critically depends on the summer sun. And in Yellowstone, that's never a guarantee. In the mountains surrounding the pl...
This pack seem prepared to allow their young a brief foray to experience the world beyond their den. Even in Yellow Stone it is extremely rare to see wolf pups like this. Before long they are summoned back into the forest by the pack. It will be wint...
Hot water scorches and drowns the roots of trees encroaching on the valleys. It can keep the forests in check and the rich pastures / open. Those pastures now produce the new grass needed to make rich milk and feed a bison baby boom. The few calves b...
As the migrating herds arrive in the plateaus river valleys, the spring is here. This is why they have made the journey after the famine of winter. Food is everywhere. Birds have flown in from as far away as the Arctic and subtropics. Canada geese jo...
As 6 months of snow and ice begins to melt, Yellowstone starts to come back to life. Cascading snowmelt swells the streams and rivers. It's a hazard that the migrating herds must cross. Young are barely up to the task. The Yellowstone river has incre...
Clues to why the herds are drawn to the Yellowstone plateau lie in its deep and unique history. This plateau is the created bowl of a huge sleeping volcano. And melting rock below the surface still pushes the land up to the cold of high altitude. But...
