As she approaches to see him off again, she realizes she has been injured. A damaged jaw would be a disaster for her and her family. Clearly in pain, she leads the anxious cubs to high ground away from the male. She nurses to calm and / reassure them...
But just as the first of Yellowstone's new generation are preparing to leave, its last visitors are arriving. Night after night, army cutworm moths have been escaping the heat of a distant prairie. They have been flying in on favorable winds, hiding...
They are vast smoke plumes. Yellowstone is burning. Throughout the summer, the dry lodgepole pines have become like a tinderbox, and lightening has struck the match. The worst wild fires will burn for weeks. In 1988, a third of Yellowstone burnt in a...
Bison calves are more independent of their mothers. The adults' focus is now set on a ruthless competition to mate. A male bids to enter a herd with females in season. He uses dust to accentuate all his size and power. Another male already establishe...
As the thaw reaches up into the mountains, a part of Yellowstone that few ever see is briefly revealed. From its first day above the snow, this pika is obsessed by food. It's in a frantic race to restock its winter larder before the snow closes in ag...
Bison lose the last of their winter coats. In the heat, tempers fray. To escape soaring ground temperatures, cowbirds choose a bison's back as a cool place to feed and catch the breeze. Biting insects now become a draining nuisance. A grizzly bear es...
She chews its tail first, to make sure the fish can't get away. While the pups are still demanding milk, the mother otter will often keep the whole fish for herself. Her pups are happy enough with caviar. As the flow becomes slow enough for the trout...
This female grew up on the lake, so she knows where to take the cubs for a very special trip. Yellowstone cutthroat trout are massing in the mouth of the stream that feeds the lake. They are preparing for their annual spawning. But the trout must wai...
The living is easy. But it won't last long. At this altitude, the air is so dry that rain evaporates before it even hits the ground. The water that flows off the plateau is no longer being replaced. Already there is drought in forests beyond the mead...
As soon as she feels it is safe, she settles to suckle and reassure them. Bison can shrug off this sudden change in the weather; they are after all built to survive the Yellowstone winter. But this tiny hummingbird is more vulnerable. Flowers damaged...