We’ve been home at The Holler for a couple of weeks now. The highlight of the trip was spending time with Mamma Griz and her Mini-me!
Thought you might like to see some more photos of them.
Here they are surveying their vast domain.
It’s mini see, mini do, with these two!
I have never seen such perfectly executed mimicry. Mini is learning how to be a bear.
They live in an awful pretty place,
and they are a awfully handsome pair!
Cheers to you from Mama Griz and Mini-me in their mountain lair~
Note: If you didn’t see the other photos of Mama Griz & Mini-me check out:
Everyone knows the fastest land animal in the world is the cheetah, but not everyone knows the second fastest animal in the world is the North American Pronghorn Antelope. Pronghorns can run up to 55 mph for .5 miles. They can run 35 mph for up to 4 miles. In fact, they can run at high speeds for more sustained periods than African Cheetahs.
This is a puzzling ability because no predator in North America can run fast enough to catch a pronghorn, so why is it necessary for pronghorns to run this fast?
Biologists believe that pronghorns evolved to run these speeds in order to evade the now extinct American Cheetah.
During the Pleistocene era, there were twelve species of pronghorns in North America. By the time humans settled on the continent there were five.
We are now left with one remaining species. Pronghorns are in fact not antelopes at all but a unique species named Antilocapra Americana. Handsome creatures aren’t they?
Pronghorns range all over the American west, into Canada and northern Mexico.
They have the longest land migration of any species in the continental US.
They migrate 300 miles roundtrip, between Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin,
and Grand Teton National Park.
Cheers to you from the fascinating Antilocapra Americana~
and he will go to great lengths to get them!
If he gets jam on his head,
he just takes a nap in the berry patch!
There are lots of nice places to snooze,
in Glacier National Park,
and no one wakes you up!
Humans like it too!
Cheers to you from Glacier’s little brown bears~
Note: I miss you & your blogs! We have no wifi now in Yellowstone, so I will touch base when I can.
Glacier National Park is Blackfoot ancestral land. The Blackfoot people believe that grizzly bears can see into a human heart and read a person’s intentions. This is mama grizzly and her cub when we first encountered her on the trail and she went into high alert.
Here is mama after she looked into our hearts, approved our intentions, and took one of several naps. We spent several hours watching mama and cub, and have encountered bears every day since, both in Glacier and Waterton National Parks.
Here mama and cub are both relaxed enough to nurse in our presence!
She knew we were here, and looked at us regularly. We respected her space and never moved close enough to provoke any anxiety.
We watched her forage,
turn over rocks, hunt for rodents,
and fish.
We watched baby bear scratch his back on a little pine tree,
and we saw mama yell at him! .
This is mama bear’s home. She is as magnificent as her surroundings. Grizzly populations have been decimated in the wild. I have a lot more bear and other wildlife photos to share with you, but wifi out here is far less present than bears! This my first connectivity in days and it won’t last!
I miss you and your blogs, and send you cheers from the wonderful wild grizzlies who see into our human hearts and look to us for protection~
with amber waves of grain.
Fall is coming to West Glacier National Park.
The leaves are turning,
and although the days are still warm, the nights are quite crisp.
Tomorrow we head over the ‘Going to the Sun Road,’ across the continental divide, to East Glacier.
There is no internet in East Glacier so I will be out of touch for awhile, until we cross the border into Canada and Waterton Lakes National Park~
Until then, cheers to you from West Glacier
