Winter Survival in Yellowstone National Park

toward the end of summer the northern hemisphere tilts away from the Sun the Sun returns to fall on the way to winter the animals can sense a hard winter is coming and they eat what they can while the grass is still exposed it's not even winter yet but it's gotten cold it was down to minus 11 this morning it's up to zero now the elk are out like it was summer time but there's this coming off the river and you can see frost along the edge it is cold and I'm freezing right now and I've got a warm jacket on the cold air from Canada makes Yellowstone National Park one of the coldest places in the lower 48 the temperature can drop dramatically and bring with it lots of snow which covers everything in a blanket of white the snow transforms the summer landscape into breathtaking scenes behind the beauty a challenge for survival this is going to be a long hard winter Yellowstone in the winter can be a truly magnificent place with a deep white snow and the steam coming from the thermals the temperatures here can get down to minus 40 degrees along with a heavy accumulation this can really change the dynamics of the ecosystem as the Sun rises over the winter landscape the magical world of light fog and new textures appears part of the transformation is in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Yellowstone River flows down into the canyon creating the upper and lower Falls the Falls can actually get covered over with a solid sheet of ice during especially cold spots the ice would roll all the way to the bottom the cold and the snow make Yellowstone geysers and other thermals even more dramatic massive amounts of steam because of the cold air bold Faithful geyser may not draw the crowds like in the summer but it is still the number one winter stock the steam freezes on whatever in contacts because of the cold in this case this team is frozen on to so many layers that has turned these trees into a forest of ghosts steam builds up on these crystalline structures on the trees and grasses that is called hoarfrost the smallest form of life in the park are the extremophiles which are the heat and acid loving micro organisms they survive the extreme cold only by living in the hot thermal waters cyanobacteria forms these colorful mats here is another form of colourful long string bacteria called filamentous bacteria the runoff from the geysers and hot springs creates warm spots that help other animals survive the war exposes the grasses which many of the animals need for food this draws many of the animals to the thermal areas because less work is required to get at the food the geysers produce large quantities of hot water to flow into the firehole river this keeps the river warm enough that it seldom freezes which provides a refuge in food for some of the animals these trumpeter swans breed in Canada and have flown down to Yellowstone for the winter along with their cygnets the ice-free River gives them safety as well as food they feed on underwater plants the warm river's edge exposes grasses which the elk and the Bison feed Oh away from the warm rivers all this beautiful snow can turn Yellowstone into a desert covering the plants that was the food for the animals this is Lamar Valley there's a lot of grass in the valley but now in winter it's dead and covered with several feet of snow that food source is important for the survival through the winter time for herbivores like the Bison this is a field that the Bison have dug up trying to get under the snow in order to survive the way the Bison does that is to plow through the snow using its big hand and head muscles to push the snow aside and then dig down with its feet that takes a lot of energy but that's the way it gets to the grass in order to be able to survive bison are extremely adapted to survive in this environment they have heavy coats and thick hides their big size allows them to carry a lot of fat all of which it gives them excellent insulation against extreme cold in general the Wolves will not bother a healthy bison it is just too dangerous they look big and slow but in fact they can be fast agile and me when the snow becomes too deep or refrozen and it takes a lot of precious energy for the Bison to even walk in the summer the park is a large enough ecosystem to support most of the animals but in the winter many of the animals need a lower elevation to find food this year the snow in places became so hard to walk through that some of the bison took to the road to find a lower altitude so bison James became commonplace and sometimes lengthy the Bison generally leave the park in three places the west entrance near West Yellowstone the south entrance and on to the Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole and the north entrance by Gardner Montana when the Bison leave the boundaries of the National Park they enter a very different world they become involved with the ranchers and the state and federal governments the world of politics some bison carry a disease called brucellosis cattle ranchers don't let them bison infecting their cattle nuts about these ranchers don't want the Bison anywhere near the land their cattle use the elk have very different challenges than the Bison both originally had the same annual range that included a lot of territory outside the park both are hunted outside the park but the elk are not as well equipped to survive in extreme winter as the Bison the elk are the largest mammal population the park numbering about 6,000 in the summer and less than 500 in the winter the elk have small hoofs which sink deep into the snow and make it virtually impossible to run the else cheap predator is the wolf the wolves are much lighter and have big paws that keep them from sinking into the snow snowshoes if you will the wolves are very wary of humans so they are usually seen at long distances of a mile or more the oak population used to be twenty to thirty thousand before the wolves were reintroduced the wolves were originally killed because of the ranchers concern over killing cattle they were reintroduced about 15 years ago to provide a natural balance to the surging elk populations the open can often be found feeding along the edge of a river the water gives them some protection from the wolves they are less likely also to go to thermal areas where there is less snow for fear of predators the boy Elks are large enough and with those big antlers are very dangerous prey for the wars but the wolves can take one down is a big meal woody shrubs such as what these elk are eating don't provide as much nourishment as the dead grasses under the snow but it can be easier to get to in a harsh winter like this year between the deep snow making it dangerous in the limited food most of the elk will migrate to lower elevations and out of the protection of the park pronghorns are very fast animals and quite a bit smaller than elk they are often referred to as antelope but in fact they are not a member of the Antelope family their chief defense against the wolves is wariness and speed in the summer it can outrun a wolf but in deep snow they are defenseless these pronghorns have long since migrated to lower elevations and outside the park the bighorn sheep can go where the Wolves can't and in the bargain find grasses sticking out of the steep slopes where the snow can't stick their concave hubs make them very effective at navigating the steep rocks the snow is not as deep on the steep slopes so digging through the snow is not as bad as in the valleys coyotes look similar to wolves but the coyote is about one-third the size of a wolf at a long distance it is difficult to judge sighs so coyotes are often mistaken for wolves a unique feature of a coyote is that it has much bigger ears their acute hearing allows them to find small animals underground or even under several feet of snow coyotes primarily prey on smaller animals like rodents birds carrion and in the spring very small newborn elk it will feed on larger carcasses if given a chance by the bears and wolves coyotes live in packs like the wolves but usually hunt alone prior to 1995 the Coyotes had few predators humans tried to kill off both the wolves and the coyotes but the Coyotes adapted and survived after the reintroduction of the wolves in 1995 the Coyotes were no longer on the top of the food chain and the Wolves started killing off some of the coyote pups the red fox is the next smaller member of the canid family in Yellowstone and is related to both the wolf and the coyote an even smaller animal is the pine marten the pine marten can be found in conifer forests around fallen logs hollow trees or underground burrows these cute animals primarily eat small mammals varies nuts and carrion our winter exploration is coming to a close with the approaches pre the snow is starting to melt at the lower elevations the snow is disappearing and the elk are returning to the park for the nutrient richer green grass the Bison along with her newborn calves are also going back into Yellowstone and bringing with of the returning tourists the green grasses of the upper petals are the objective of attorney with a spring a new beginning and the cycle of adaptation and survival starts all over you we're in Yellowstone the snow you

Channel: rick4ls

Views: 59,677

Rating: 4.7619047 out of 5

Keywords: Winter, survival, wolves, bison, snow, magic, landscape, Yellowstone

Id: 6PLJgq27PYg

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 18 2012