The bison carcass had been there for three days. The bears feasted, the wolves waited and other carrion gathered. Several hundred people gathered every day to watch the bears and each morning I went out to photograph them. These photos are from the day the fog drifted in.
The large white wolf was easy to see. Much harder to see is the grey wolf laying right next to it. What I didn’t realize, until I did some research on the bears of Yellowstone, was these bears are doing something new and maybe even unique to the bears of Yellowstone. Grizzly bears will usually get territorial over a food source and not let other bears or animals near.
A group of grizzlies gathering to feast at the same food source as in the picture above is believed to be caused by the wolves. The wolves are so good at bringing down bison that there is plenty of food for all the big predators in Yellowstone to share.
Wolves are a recent and controversial reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park, because unlike humans, wolves do not understand man-made boundaries. The wolves wander outside the park and threaten farm animals and livestock, not to mention the fear they invoke in people.
The Trail 
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