28 Sep 2005

Lawn Boy


Now this visitor decided to stay, the lawns are fine, the scratching posts are all the right height; who could ask for more. Affectionately dubbed “Lawn Boy” by some.

⇑ by Rick Silletti in

Comments

  1. This is an amazing series of pictures, Rick! How large is the town where they are taken? Does this happen every year? It’s great to see these animals looking so relaxed and at ease. Are they almost as domesticated as cattle and horses? Or more like sheep? Or squirrels? I see grey ones in my local park most of the time and you can almost get within arms length of them, but not quite. They always have an escape route up a tree.
    :-)

    — Peter · 29 09 2005 - 03:52 · #

  2. Hi Peter,
    These animals are neither domestic or tame, what they have become is dismissive of the human presence here. They are protected from human predation and harassment, they pretty much have the right of way here and they have gotten used to it. The elk come here in the fall to breed because the lawns here are a nice place to gather. There is a regular influx of tourism to watch them, and they do put on quite a show.
    Here, by the way, is Mammoth Hot Springs just inside the north border of Yellowstone National Park; it’s the location of the Park Service Headquarters, and we have here also a hotel with dormitory housing for the employees. I guess the population would vary from 100 to 750 folks depending on the time of year.
    One of the prime difficulties faced by the rangers here is making people understand that the animals are, in fact, completely wild and very dangerous. The animals do look very tame and that can be deceptive. One of the more interesting behaviors I’ve noticed is with the elk, the very same elk that will let you walk within feet of it (though I wouldn’t recommend this) around the location, won’t let you within a hundred yards of it just out over the first hill; once you are out of any line of site to the buildings here – very strange.
    The buffalo pretty much go wherever they want. The one that has adopted us here at Mammoth just seems to like it here.
    The goats are pretty elusive (rumor had it for years that the stories about them being here were untrue), my luck at catching a picture of them took a five hour climb from Mammoth to the peak of Sepulcher, and I was lucky to see them even then. The smaller critters, on the other hand, are just everywhere; and most are under the impression that you are in there spot!

    — Rick Silletti · 29 09 2005 - 07:04 · #

Commenting is closed for this article.