Yellowstone - Animal Viewing Guide

Where to Find Your Favorite Yellowstone Animal

In Yellowstone, you'll soon become familiar with a new kind of traffic hazard. It's called a Yellowstone animal sighting. If you find several cars pulled off the road, and people out of their cars with cameras and binoculars, they've seen something. Slow down, be careful of excited folks who may not be watching traffic as carefully as they should be, and stop only where it's safe.

The two areas with the richest Yellowstone animal life are Lamar Valley, a half hour northeast of Roosevelt, and Hayden Valley, between Canyon and Lake Villages.

If you want professional assistance for your wildlife-watching, try the packages offered by the Yellowstone Institute.

Yellowstone Animal-Watching Etiquette and Cautions

• Keep at least 25 yards from any Yellowstone animal, and further from large ones such as bison and elk.
• Don't feed a Yellowstone animal. Not even the cute little ground squirrel outside your cabin. It seems minor, but it makes them depend on handouts and unable to find their own food, eventually resulting in starvation. They also lose their fear of cars, and may get run over.
• Buffalo weigh up to 2,000 pounds, and sprint 30 miles per hour. They appear tame, but are unpredictable, and have injured many visitors. Stay at least 100 yards away.

Before you go looking for a favorite Yellowstone animal, ask a ranger where the most recent sightings have been.

Bison (buffalo)

• Bison are a Yellowstone animal that always creates a stir. They are most active in morning and evening in spring, summer or fall.
• Best Viewing: Hayden Valley, Firehole River, Lamar Valley, Mammoth Hot Springs.

Grizzly Bears

• Grizzlies grew dependent on humans over the years, and many had to be destroyed. The traditional Yellowstone animal is self-sustaining again, but they are still endangered. Do your part to keep them wild. Don't feed them or encourage them to interact with you. Report sightings to a visitor center or ranger station.
• Best Viewing: Between Mammoth and Norris, Fishing Bridge, Mt. Washburn, Lamar Valley. Hayden Valley in summer.

Wolf

• Yellowstone's wolves live in about two dozen packs. The 14 wolves released in 1995 were the first to roam through the park in more than 50 years.
• Best Viewing: Lamar and Hayden Valleys

Moose

Moose are reclusive, and most likely to be seen in streams or in willow thickets. Best Viewing is near Lewis Lake, Pelican Valley, and along Hwy. 191 near West Yellowstone.

Bighorn Sheep

Best places to see my favorite Yellowstone animal: On rocky slopes in the Gardiner River Canyon near the North Entrance, Lamar Valley and Tower.

Elk

• Elk live in herds and harems, and there are some 30,000 in the area.
• Fall is mating time for the elk, and the males can be heard "bugling" day and night.
• Best Viewing: Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper & Midway Geyser basins, Lewis River. Gibbon Meadows, Elk Park, Hayden and Lamar Valleys in summer.

Pronghorn Antelope

• Pronghorns can run up to 40 mph, sprint to 70 mph and leap 20 feet in one bound. The best place to see this speedy Yellowstone is animal in the grasslands, at dawn or dusk.

Coyote

Coyotes are sometimes mistaken for wolves. Their gray coast is streaked silver in winter. They are seen all over the park, but especially in Hayden Valley.

Osprey

The osprey is often mistaken for an eagle. They have the same white head and dark brown body as an eagle, but their distinguishing features identify them: a brown eye stripe and sharply crooked wings. About 50 to 60 pairs live here, using their talons to catch slippery fish. In 2001, I saw one near Midway Geyser Basin, flying with a fish in its grip.

Trumpeter Swan

A shy bird with a wingspan of seven feet, the trumpeter swan is easily disturbed while nesting. Please take great care not to upset them.