Stumbling Upon A Grizzly Bear Banquet

There is one thing you never want to stumble upon while hiking in Yellowstone’s backcountry: the fresh remains of a bull bison. We were out for a cross-country ramble with friends Brian and Claire on the northern range when we found ourselves mere yards from a giant, steaming, smelly, pile of bison flesh. Yikes! We had been hiking slowly and chatting, scanning the ground and air for animal sign. A couple of us noticed a single raven in a nearby tree, but nothing much else unusual. With the recent fatal bear mauling of a guide in the Tetons fresh in our minds, we were keenly aware of not wanting to be the next statistic. George spotted what he thought might be a wolf track in a dusty, bison wallow and went in closer to investigate, as Jenny and Claire found grizzly bear tracks in another wallow a few feet away.

That’s when Jenny said “does anyone smell that?” and Brian, looking at the nearby bushes with his binoculars, said “is that a carcass or a rock?” Sure enough, hidden in a small gully just yards away was a bison carcass, complete with a grizzly’s signature paw print laying claim to its prize.

There wasn’t anything on the carcass (thank goodness), so we took just a few moments to snap a couple of quick photos before hightailing it out of there. It looked as if the bison had died in the wallow George first spotted the track in (it turned out to be coyote track), and that the carcass had rolled down the slope, perhaps as a bear was feeding on it. Knowing that there was a bear nearby, and that the smell of the carcass would travel far and wide, we quickly left, and climbed up to a bluff a half-mile away to scan for activity.

Interestingly, you couldn’t see the carcass, or anything feeding on it, unless you were literally right on top of it. Only a handful of ravens were in the area, and they were not grouped together or making any noise. George suspected they were probably resident birds keeping their newfound bounty under wraps (nonresident ravens will make a huge racket, in order to invite friends to the feast, overwhelming the residents with sheer numbers and reducing the chances of any one bird getting attacked by the locals.) Having approached from upwind, and without a large group of birds in the area, there was no way to know it was there.

While we never did see a bear, we knew (at least) one was out there, and probably more to arrive in the coming days. A feast like that–with over a ton of flesh– is worth its weight in gold for a bear trying to put on weight before hibernation. We did see a coyote come in warily, cautious of feasting where it couldn’t see approaching threats.

Despite doing everything right – hiking in a group of four, chatting and making noise, carrying bear spray, and watching our surroundings closely for signs of wildlife – we still accidentally walked up on a hidden bison carcass. It serves as a powerful reminder of how wild Yellowstone truly is, and why it’s so important to go prepared.

Read more about bear encounters with First Grizzly Bear, and Bear-Ly Aware: Deciphering Grizzly Sign.

 

Photos: Jenny Golding