As a child growing up amid a plethora of 1950s TV and movie Westerns, I longed to be a cowboy – regardless of my female gender. After all, I loved horses, and cowboys in the movies led a glamorous life, free to ride the range all day and bring bad guys to justice. It wasn’t …
Stumbling upon elk carcasses in the Tetons is not difficult, as hunters harvest the meat of their kills and leave behind bones. Harsh winters take a few lives, as well, leaving carrion for scavengers and bones for rodents to gnaw. Hunters remove skulls with antlers for display, while shed antlers are collected in Spring to …
“I want to do that,” Gabe Brown told his mother after reading our blog article last summer about a high school student who accompanied us on our biology day at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming. Meeting Gabe We had met Gabe and his family a few years before while working as naturalists on …
This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. We’ve seen increased visitation to National Parks, as well as much excitement and publicity for the Park Service. But 13 years ago, the National Wildlife Refuge System celebrated its 100th anniversary with very little notoriety except at individual refuges, despite the fact …
This article originally appeared in the 2016 March/April issue of Escapees Magazine. After spending a few months in an overcrowded section of the country, Chuck and I were relieved to once again drive the open roads of the West recently, admiring the vistas and grandeur along the way. With no other vehicles in sight and …
Before leaving Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge a few weeks ago, I encountered a Great Horned Owl that appeared to fly toward me intending harm, as I wrote in the last blog entry. But was the owl swooping in my direction for an attack, or did it have another objective in mind? Was it looking …
Throughout our years of volunteering with U.S. Fish & Wildlife, we have been in many areas frequented by a number of potentially dangerous animals such as moose, bears, mountain lions, and venomous snakes. However, the only animal that has ever tried to attack me was a dog in a residential neighborhood. That is, until now. …