Montana Bull Elk Jumping A Fence At Dawn

The elk near the Centennial Valley spend most of their time in the nearby mountains that border the valley on the south. They’re spooky of humans and our trappings for good reason as they’re hunted relentlessly in season and poachers are a risk year-round in that remote location.

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Birds Using Bison Hair As Nesting Material

For millennia a variety of North American bird species used bison hair during nest construction but when the “buffalo” was brought to the brink of extinction by hunters in the late 1800’s that resource was essentially gone. Today there are relatively few places where bison hair is available to birds and Antelope Island is one of them.

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A Badger And Weasel Confrontation On Antelope Island

Yesterday morning we were witness to a tense drama involving a badger and Long-tailed Weasels on Antelope Island. American badgers feed primarily on rodents (ground squirrels, pocket gophers, rats, mice and voles) which they often capture by digging out their burrows – the digging skills of badgers are legendary.

But on this day a close relative was on the menu.

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A Bison’s Life Isn’t Easy

Life is far from a bowl of cherries for the Bison of Antelope Island and recently I’ve seen more evidence of that fact. Some of it is caused by natural behavior, some by unfortunate circumstance and some by the thoughtlessness and ignorance of humans.

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A Curious Coyote, A Reflection And A Compositional Quandary

Two days ago we found this coyote exploring along the Antelope Island causeway. We watched it gnaw on a duck or shorebird carcass (possibly falcon leftovers, based on past experience) and then it continued to look for something, almost anything, to eat. When it reached the end of a rocky spit jutting out into the Great Salt Lake it entertained us with some interesting behavior.

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