Elias serenading the ladies...

Fwd: Big news at the NBR...

All,

Thought you'd get a kick out of this... we have some motion-activated cameras out on the National Bison Range, and set up one over the carcass of a bison that died late winter.   We downloaded the images last week, and caught a couple great sightings... First, a grey wolf that came in late one night (see the wolf in the upper left, compared to a coyote in the upper right).  We also caught the first-ever confirmation of a grizzly, with 2 yearlings, on the NBR.   Pretty cool stuff.   We've known for some time that there are plenty of griz in the Mission Valley, and several wolf packs not too far away, but it's really great to get the photographic proof of them.

Take care,

Brendan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Moynahan, Brendan <brendan_moynahan@fws.gov>
Date: Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 11:21 AM
Subject: Big news at the NBR...
To: Brendan Moynahan <moynahanb@gmail.com>

============================

Brendan J. Moynahan, Ph.D.

Lead Wildlife Biologist

National Bison Range Complex

National Wildlife Refuge System

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

58355 Bison Range Road

Moiese, MT 59824

406.644.2211 ext. 212

406.214.6361 (cell)

brendan_moynahan@fws.gov

Visit the National Bison Range on Facebook

============================

The kids came to the office late today...

We had time for a quick dinner before Finn's opening baseball game,
and a few minutes to try to find some bison. Great quote from Maille
as we found about 40 very close to the road: "There are some real
advantages to having a dad who is a wildlife biologist!"

Finn having fun with a stick-on moustache

Not a bad backdrop for Finn's baseball practice

Bison marking yesterday

We got a report of an injured yearling bull bison yesterday morning...
I went out with Amy, one of our biologists, to find and observe him.
I marked him with a paintball gun so we can keep a better eye on him -
all sorts of wildlife health issues come up here, and with the marker
we'll be better able to track whether this particular animal improves
or deteriorates. The bison here are managed as wildlife, so we
generally try to avoid intervening with situations that are normal in
the wild. This guy's broken foot falls in that category, but we'll
keep an eye on him...