American Prairie Wildlife

When I first came to the prairie, my impression was that the land was a vast, flat, somewhat boring place with very little wildlife. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Except for the vastness – this place is SO VAST. Montana is named Big Sky country for a reason… Out on our hikes, I have learned that this landscape may look flat, but it is rather hilly (which great for interval training). We are constantly coming across wildlife while we’re hiking and it is a part of our job to document what we see. However, there have been times when the wildlife have come to us. For example, when we came back from Glacier, we woke up to the bison herd about a quarter of a mile away from our camp. Throughout the day, the herd made their way to our camp, surrounding us and stranding us on our picnic table. That night, the new August crew arrived and were welcomed by the bison herd at Buffalo Camp as their welcoming party.

In mid-July, we were headed out for an early hike one morning and saw three badgers looking for their breakfast in a prairie dog town. Badgers are carnivores and primarily eat prairie dogs and small mammals. They often hunt alongside coyotes. Badgers are also incredibly skilled diggers – they can dig through cement! They’re about the size of a large, fat cat and are pretty cute looking, although they could gouge your eyes out with their claws.

We also stumbled across four bull elks one evening on our way to Fourchette Bay for a sunset swim. They surprisingly did not run away from us, but instead stood there, staring at us curiously. After a 4-minute stare down, they decided to scamper off into the sunset. It’s pretty fun hanging out with all these animals!

Bison oftentimes hold up traffic in the prairie

Crew member Jonah Gula (J$) taking a photo of a huge male bison. NOTE: Our large canvas tent broke while we were in Glacier in a huge wind storm. Two poles broke and almost all of them bent. As you can see, the canvas also ripped. In case you were wondering - my tent survived. 

Our badger friends (Photo: Shannon Rebinski)

Our elk friends

Wildfires and Windstorms

Wildfires in Oregon and Washington have completely changed the vibe here on the prairie. With winds blowing east, the sky is a constant hazy-grey color with a small smokey scent. Wildfires are a natural process in many places, including the prairie, so the habitat and animals are used to the environment during this fire season. However, it was awfully surprising to wake up one morning to see the grey haze covering the landscape.

For the environmentally curious folks, here's an article on the ecological importance of wildfires:
http://www.nps.gov/tapr/naturescience/fire-and-grazing-in-the-prairie.htm 

Speaking of wind, two nights ago we had the wind storm of the century. It lasted from ~1-4am (it was hard to gauge how long it lasted because survival instincts can fog timescales).  I was convinced my tent and I were going to get lifted off to Oz.  My tent survived, but some of the other tents were seriously injured. During the beginning of the storm, I braved the weather and tied down my tent in two more spots, and the wind was wildly impressive while I was out there.  I spent maybe 2 hours pushing against the western side of the tent, trying to brace my tent poles from the crazy wind forces. 
Sleeping through this storm? Impossible. The sound of tent fabric flapping in my ears was not exactly a soothing lullaby. And then the tent would cave in on my body every 8 minutes, startling me awake from any soft slumber I may have fallen into. When we all arose at 5am for our hike, we were not exactly the happiest campers (haha). We all expressed how badly we wanted it to rain TO JUST GET THE STORM OVER WITH. But no, not one drop fell from the sky. Just wind speeds that rival Katrina. 

I have a new appreciation for walls and a roof. 


On that note, here is a nice photo of the bison herd:

Fun Fact: Bison are not Buffalo

Bison are not buffalo. Contrary to what basically EVERYONE believes, they are a different species. Bison are solely located in North America (their scientific name is Bison bison.. very original). Buffalo, however, are native in Africa and parts of Asia. They both belong to the Bovidae family, commonly known as the ungulates. Hoofed mammals, including buffalo, bison, antelopes, gazelles, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. are all ungulates.

On that educational note, here are photos of some of my many Bison bison encounters.
(ps - I don't understand which idiot named Buffalo Camp, but they need to read this and reevaluate their understanding of bison vs. buffalo).

Crew members Caleb and Alex observing the bison herd from the top of our trusty Toyota Sequoia. 13 July 2014

Bison Crossing! 13 July 2014

Blurry photo from my tent on the morning of 14 July 2014. We woke up and were all stranded in our tents because the bison had taken over Buffalo Camp. Hikes were about an hour delayed that day.. 

A male trio about a mile from Buffalo Camp.

I wish I could take credit for this adorable photo. It was taken from one of our crew members in June. The calves are now larger and starting to get darker in color. 

Oh to be clean

Public service announcement:
I SHOWERED YESTERDAY!

But really, showering after 10 days of sweating for 22\24 hours of the day felt better than I expected. Granted, I ran the water for all of 1 minute to conserve it (perks of short hair!!). We only have access to solar-heated showers at Grouse Camp when there aren't folks staying there. My typical shower is a swim in Fourchette Bay after a hike.

I was on dinner duty last night and cooked some baller burgers: Avocado, bacon, pesto, caramelized onions, tomato, and lettuce. I wish I had taken a photo, they were very beautiful burgers (if that is even possible..). Stretching our mouths large enough was a challenge, but it was well worth it. Afterwards we all sat in the cook tent in a food\heat coma and had to dunk our heads under the water spicket to cool off, which has become a very common thing a Buffalo Camp this month.

Below are some photos of Buffalo Camp, where we're staying. We have a trailer and a cook tent, but all the cooking happens in the trailer. The cook tent is where we eat and is home to a nice fridge and microwave as well as a family of mice. Pretty fancy living!

My little green tent is on a platform and has kept me safe from the swarming mosquitoes and scary spiders at night (thank you Sarah and Jevon!). I have discovered that a field mouse has taken residence underneath my tent vestibule, and we have maintained a nice relationship (as long as he stays OUT of my tent). My tent platform is also a favorite scratching post to our neighborhood bison whom I've named William.

A Little Shower on the Prairie, at Grouse Camp 9 July 2014

Our trailer and cook tent. And our trusty vehicle that goes through hell everyday. How we haven't gotten stuck or broken the car yet, shocks me.

180 degrees from previous photo, looking at our tents

Inside our trailer

Sunset from my tent. 9 July 2014

My comfy tent