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Mountain Journal
Premiere of the Queen
She’s beautiful. She’s prolific. But most of all, she’s highly intelligent. It’s not surprising to hear a celebrity described in those terms. Unless that celebrity is a grizzly bear. However, almost everyone who’s seen her agrees that 399, the matriarch of Grand Teton National Park, is far from an ordinary bear.
Of Wolves and Wildness
In the wilds of Yellowstone, a photographer captured a mighty standoff, an illustration in imagery of the beauty and unforgiving reality of a cyclical ecosystem. An injured bison stood on the far side of the Firehole River. It was hulking and still, showing flesh wounds on the hind quarters. He appeared to be an older bull, according to our guide, Julie, who said it had likely been injured or sick before it was stalked by the wolves.
Why are bighorn and domestic sheep hanging out? Here's why we should care.
A respiratory illness common in domestic sheep can devastate wild bighorn sheep herds. Now a pair of MSU researchers is studying how wild and domestic sheep interact. The bighorn sheep is a muscular and athletic denizen of mountainous and arid terrain across the western U.S. This hardy ungulate is also remarkably susceptible to diseases spread by their wooly, domestic counterparts. In an effort to mitigate the spread of disease, a new research project in Montana aims to better understand where and how often wild and domestic sheep interact.
The Heartbeat of Wild Places
EDITOR'S NOTE: Populations of big cats are declining globally because of habitat loss and poaching, but mountain lion numbers are increasing. They are the most successful large cats in the Americas and live from the Tierra del Fuego archipelago in South America, north to Canada’s Northwest Territories. Jim Williams,...
Pair of wildlife diseases detected in Montana birds
Recent avian flu and pigeon paramyxovirus detections prompt FWP to issue statement. Multiple groups of up to 70 wild doves were found dead near Belgrade, Montana, in the final two months of 2023. The culprit: pigeon paramyxovirus, often referred to as PPMV. It’s one of two avian diseases recently recorded in the state, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Wolves: Love Them or Hate Them?
Results from recent survey finds growing wolf tolerance among Montana residents. Conversations about wolves and their management yields varying opinions among Montanans. While some folks believe the keystone species to be rightful tenants of the land, others see wolves as a danger and a nuisance, and seek to eradicate them.
Call of the Mild
With regional snowpack at record lows and average temperatures well above normal, how are local wildlife coping with the unusual winter?. Skiing along the sage-flecked hillsides of the upper Gallatin River drainage, it’s impossible not to notice the striking lack of snow. Like most of Montana, the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park looks more like October than January, and the river here runs gin clear with little ice and only modest accumulation along its banks. Stepping out of my skis to adjust my at-the-moment-obsolete gaiters, I easily punch through to dormant grasses just a few inches below the snowpack’s surface.
In Cadence: ‘Mni Wiconi’ and the Great Observers
Recalling the 2016 Standing Rock demonstrations protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, a Lakota woman reflects on the power of water. I packed up the camping gear and headed home to the protest at Standing Rock so I could be present to witness history in the making. Part of that history included the words Mni Wiconi (“water is life”), words that became the mantra in 2016 during the demonstrations protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. We call it the "Black Snake."
The Future of Drought in Montana
It doesn’t take an expert to notice the difference in snowpack between this year and last in Greater Yellowstone—the contrast is night and day. In January 2023, Montana’s Madison, Gallatin and Upper Yellowstone basins each reported a snow water equivalent at least 10 percent above average, while in December, the same areas held just 52-60 percent of their typical SWE, per data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
50 Years: How the Endangered Species Act Influenced Greater Yellowstone
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ESA, MoJo looks at the landmark legislation’s impact on Greater Yellowstone’s keystone species. Imagine Yellowstone National Park without iconic wildlife like grizzly bears, gray wolves, bald eagles or bison. Fifty years ago, that was the trajectory of the park—and the rest of the Lower 48.
A Remarkable Year
In line at the post office yesterday with a yellow slip in my hand, I was tickled by a man grumbling as he stalked out, apparently fed up with the length of the line. Then he started chuckling, and said to his companion, “God damn it, it’s Christmas! I have to quit doing that.” I wasn’t sure what he’d done, but for some reason his comment turned my frown into a smile.
Two Wyoming Elk Feedgrounds in Limbo Amid CWD Concerns
Wyoming elk are in trouble. Land managers predict that chronic wasting disease will cause elk populations in the Afton and Upper Green River herd units to drop by 35 and 57 percent respectively over the next two decades if two northwestern Wyoming feedgrounds continue operating. CWD is a fatal neurological...
Guardrails on Growth in Paradise
From Wall Street to Hollywood, the Treasure State is on everybody’s mind. Nowhere is that more apparent than the southwestern portion of Montana, where, in an effort to better manage the change, Park County commissioners recently voted to update the Park County Growth Policy in hopes of retaining the characteristics that have defined this landscape for generations.
The 'Unprecedented' Decline of a Wyoming Pronghorn Herd
When Mark Gocke drives down U.S. Highway 191 in southwestern Wyoming, the landscape is usually teeming with pronghorn antelope; speedy blurs of tawny brown and white dotted among the sagebrush between the towns of Jackson, Pinedale and Rock Springs. But this spring was different. The route was littered with carcasses. Today, the ungulates are almost impossible to spot.
New Research Suggests Montana FWP Wolf Count High
As the comment period on Montana’s new wolf management plan nears its end, new research adds to questions about Montana’s wolf population estimates. But the timing of the research paper—released before peer-review—raises its own questions. Last week, the Bozeman-based Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, an independent organization,...
BLM Bans Lethal ‘Cyanide Bombs’ Used to Kill Predators
Ban in place on 245 million acres for minimum five years. In 2017, a child and family dog were on public lands just 400 feet from their Idaho home when they inadvertently triggered an M-44 cyanide device placed by a wildlife management agency. The incident injured the child and killed the dog, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
Ecocentrism and Anthropocentrism: Where do we Stand in Greater Yellowstone?
What is man’s connection to nature? Throughout history, it’s been a long, complex and convoluted story characterized by those who revere all living things to those who have hastened the extinction of a species and given no thought about it. For many of us, our relationship with the...
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