Take an Epic Journey With the Elk of Yellowstone | Short Film Showcase

[Music] the tools of my trade are satellite collars [Music] here she goes start getting locations and find out where she migrates [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's like sending yourself a christmas present in the mail i put this collar on and we do it in march by july it'll be fun to open up the box and see where that thing went ever since yellowstone was created people have known about the elk migration but it's been difficult to see it in its entirety in the case of the cody herd they spend half their year out on this patchwork of private ranches and state lands in the spring they all start migrating towards the forest boundary pretty soon they're getting to the yellowstone national park boundary once they cross into the park they're arriving at their summer ranges where they spend the other half of their year the gps collars i put on elk let me see incredible detail but that's still a far cry from going there myself and seeing the migration first hand so that's what i'm going to do this summer joe's bringing his camera traps to set along the trails james is bringing his paintbrush and an artist's eye in the end we also want to be able to share this with other people i've been photographing migrations for a long time and this is the first time i've focused on elk the only way to see and show migration is with camera traps [Music] perfect bear nap place if i was a bear i would nap in there we are on the east side of yellowstone national park [Music] we're in the winter range now [Music] the first elk i saw were while trout fishing in the west [Music] we need beautiful things the planet would be a pale and uninspiring place without things like trout for me anyway [Music] it's fun working at james i mean i find myself bringing you know hey james paint this you know why don't you add this what about this ladybug wildflowers rocks fish he notices things that we don't notice and you know pulls us back out into the broader view [Music] you know if i'm painting a trout i'm also kind of painting an elk because they've walked through this territory as we come to learn more about the movements of animals you realize that everything is connected with everything else around the planet so if yellowstone's come to mean a box with stuff in it then maybe we have to work to make that word mean something else [Music] all right how you doing good morning jesus that's a nice cow there [Music] actually all ranchers will tell you we don't raise cattle we raise trash the herds are on these ranches for half their lives this is where they get food and shelter during the harsh winter total amount of land that you guys are managing 255 000 acres in wyoming actually i think it broadens an appreciation to know that okay this is a part of something a lot bigger than just our activities on the ranch we're on the edge of the yellowstone ecosystem you know we're really part of it that's the wild wild place just living around the wilderness areas just right above us all around us we're surrounded by public land too and it borders and the elk moved through it and this fall we had you know over a hundred animals grazing you kind of have to try to plan for that you know the fencing we had to redo all of our fencing so that they don't get caught up in it make it easy for them to move through being out there seeing all this being you know kind of sharing their habitat listening to bull elk bugling out your backyard it's good [Music] now we're leaving the ranch lands and we're going to start making our way up into the mountains [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're pretty far away from yellowstone right here we gotta migrate [Music] [Music] the absorker mountains are rugged they're steep they're dry they're scrabbly and so the only way we can do it with our gear and efficiently is on mules and horses [Music] looking for joe's cameras he had five cameras up here the last one has gone missing seems like some elk or a bear came through and knocked a lot of these cameras around and we found the other ones can't find this one [Music] is that a lens sticking up down there in the mud yeah that's not good way to go joe i didn't think i was gonna find this one it's probably the first bump it eliminates the front lens element but i mean it's either we put it on the cliff and take the risk of getting amazing elk migration footage or we don't do it yeah and we decided to do it we'll clean them up and see if we can get them back out we might have to just do without the that just do without that this yeah that front all right we better get moving so we can get over the needle which is not even in sight at this point look at that pile out coming over the top may 30th wow coming over the top yeah that's definitely our best footage yet it's beautiful [Music] we're gonna get as far as we can get with the horses and pack mule and then scott's gonna drop us with our bags and we're gonna keep going on foot over the mountain top [Music] now arthur i have to admit i would like to see it with all these outfails that i've run so far this spring that was going to be a fun one to see too all right good luck guys [Music] yeah there's one place where we have to cross an open steep face that still has some snow on it a lot of elk cross there we really don't want to cross there [Music] a lot of people think elk are just elk and then they all could do that so maybe a wildlife battle just can't do it those hoof prints this out tracks all pounded through here this is a hell of a trail hunter [Music] elk has taken all these roots and it's just amazing to me that they just go without knowing what's around the corner [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] just make sure to take your time on each foot [Music] i mean i'm just totally amazed when you're standing on top of a needle mountain looking at those other points along their trail all you can feel is all at the physical capabilities of these animals [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] she'll be coming round needle mountain when she comes how does it go exactly right she'll be coming around him and when she comes coming around needle mountain when she comes coming around the mountain i feel like i have a much greater appreciation for the energy it takes for these animals to do what they're doing and the risks that they expose themselves to you know we're totally spent i think i i knew it was tough but now i feel it in my bones and my muscles it's humbling to feel what these animals experience [Music] other than my camera traps this spot is as close as i'll get to the migration we need to show them traversing rivers and their only time they're going to be swimming rivers is when they're migrating you gotta wait a long time for the elk show up at this spot but it's good because i like hanging out and waiting that's one of my favorite things to do is just sit around and look around not do much that's when the pictures get made is when you stay in one place for a while or you work the same spot for a while i do not want to affect the migration in any way i just want to be an observer and document it [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] be able to capture that vulnerable moment right when they cross the river feel lucky super lucky like in the migration i'm like you know living the dream i guess [Music] they go over this mountain and then drop 6000 foot to the river in less than 20 hours and then climb up the next mountain which is another 6 000 foot vertical gain i mean that's hard work [Music] you mention yellowstone to a lot of people and they think of wolves and they're around but mainly we see grizzly bears almost every day traveling the trail picking over an alcarcus grazing up on the plateaus just a whole lot of grizzly bears and the grizzly bears have figured out that if they roll these rocks they can eat thousands of months these moths make a migration in and out of yellowstone park it's just interesting for arthur and myself and joe to think about how things outside of the park sustain the life that's in the park as clear evidence that yellowstone isn't contained by a box is the fact that it's in me right now i really love that landscape and it traveled with me back to my studio and it informs what i do here [Music] not only do the animals move from inside the box out to other places but the wonder that we feel when we're there spreads far and wide including this studio in connecticut you know over a thousand miles away [Music] we were with scotland fevers and now we're meeting up with lee and wes livingston two local outfitters brothers i could think of nothing better than go spend a month up here by yourself you don't have a satellite facebook satellite facebook link yeah i forgot it downstreamer wes i thought you had it all i do the only reason i do this is so you believe that i know where i'm going our callers there's a couple of them and they hang over here yeah there ought to be some hiding up there somewhere for the next 10 miles or so all those elk are on one trail heading towards the southeast corner of yellowstone national park that's why we're going to climb up there wes and i would be the first ones over the mountain into the thoroughfare it was a big adventure i love to go see the elk you know in the spring and then we follow it through the summer when we take our pack trips we show people these beautiful herds of elk up on the high alpine meadows grazing then on into the fall through the hunting season we rely on the elk and then in the winter time i go capture elk and net gun out of helicopter put collars on them for this research project here so it's pretty much a year-round thing that we're interacting with these elk elk probably make up 85 percent of my fall income yeah they're they're a driving factor in my life yeah you think about it they're you're messing with them damn near you're around i hope we find him but if we don't doesn't mean it's a failure it just means that the elk aren't hanging out up on top of the plateau when there's storm happening like we are imagine how jack feels [Music] that's a good one jack good boy he says that's what it's all about [Music] so [Music] it's about to be august um and it's snowing sideways on oak summer range july snow showers make august flowers probably be 75 degrees tomorrow just another day in paradise [Music] we're gonna find some milk today there are scientists who work in labs and study things that you can manipulate in petri dishes my petri dish is the greater yellowstone ecosystem so closest i'm ever gonna get to seeing through a microscope into it is getting on a horse and coming up to a place like this and just trying to get these glimpses there's some out right there there they are that's a good group relaxing in the grass it's nice to see seeing this with my own eyes up here it's like i'm getting to see where the whole thing begins this is where the sun and the snow and the rain make the grass that feeds these migratory herds every year it feels like i'm in the heart of yellowstone this is just one of nine different elk migrations in the greater yellowstone making up a total of over 20 000 elk these migrations sprawl over an area five times bigger than yellowstone national park what that means is that yellowstone depends on that entire area and all the land and all the people [Music] i've learned from joe's footage and photographs that migration is a big part of what makes animals wild [Music] and through james's work that we can't think of yellowstone as a box defined by its boundary and personally i've started to believe that these elk migrations are the heartbeat the pulse of the greater yellowstone ecosystem and i want to spend the rest of my life being a part of it [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 789,206

Keywords: elk, migration, yellowstone, national parks, greater yellowstone, ecosystem, animal migrations, journeys, jenny nichols, arthur middleton, james prosek, spring, winter, annual, joe riis, short film showcase, helicopters, national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, Showcase, short films, filmmakers, wildlife films, films, PLivjPDlt6ApT5VT7oiz7riKmPzkl2sAe0, PLivjPDlt6ApTDlm7OufY6HAzNmFAqxWSo, PLivjPDlt6ApRiBHpsyXWG22G8RPNZ6jlb

Id: rS3P9gI7CUU

Length: 28min 5sec (1685 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 18 2017