Notes from Yellowstone Park: A teacher shares her journey

Caroline Cordell is a Kindergarten teacher at South Topsail Elementary School in Hampstead. She graduated in 2004 from Western Carolina University and is beginning her fourth year in public education. Cordell will be starting a first- through third-grade science club at South Topsail this year to increase students’ understanding of and appreciation for nature and wildlife.

This summer, Cordell explored Yellowstone National Park with a group of other teachers as part of a North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences program and is sharing what she learned with readers.

Date: June 10, 2007

Location: Lamar Valley,

Yellowstone National Park

Topic: Bison (AKA Buffalo)

After waking up at 4:15 a.m. to a temperature just above freezing, our group of 12 North Carolina teachers and two N.C. Museum staff members headed out for Lamar Valley. The first bison we saw were in a group of approximately 25, huddled together, nursing their calves. They looked calm and peaceful, basking in the glowing sunrise.

Our first lesson in bison behavior was that a raised tail can mean one of two things: charge or discharge. Although bison appear to be gentle animals, their 1,500-pound average weight is enough to keep most park visitors away.

Later, we saw a herd of about 500 bison and spent time observing these magnificent mammals. They spend their days grazing, feeding their young, sparring with each other and wallowing in dirt pits. Watching the largest animal in the park, at 12.5 feet long and up to 6 feet tall, on its back rolling around in dirt to keep the bugs off is quite amusing!

Over the course of the week, we had a bison try to attack our van, a different bison walk 2-3 feet from the van without seeming bothered and watched one saunter around Old Faithful and through the observation deck.

At Trout Lake, a bison got agitated and trampled an empty baby carrier, left by visitors who got too close.

We must remember that we are in their natural habitat, and we must move for them – not the other way around.

For more information on bison in Yellowstone, click www.nps.gov/yell"> here and search for ‘bison.’

Date: June 10, 2007

Location: Yellowstone River Area Trail, Yellowstone National Park

Topic: Bears

After living in western North Carolina for five years and never seeing a black bear, I had high hopes of a bear encounter at Yellowstone. Greater Yellowstone is home to about 600 black bears and 550 grizzlies. Our second day in the park, we came across a “bear jam” – when someone spots a bear and everyone else stops to look, too. The bear was nothing more than a speck of black moving near a tree, but we were still ecstatic. Little did we know what was in store for us.

On Sunday, our group met with a park ranger who taught us about the bears in the park. He told us that 50 percent of all black bears aren’t black. They can be brown, much like grizzly bears. However, grizzlies are larger, have longer claws and have a shoulder hump. To Native Americans, black bears were considered bears, but grizzlies were regarded as “the real bears.” The diet of bears in Yellowstone is 60 percent meat whereas bears in Glacier National Park eat only 4 percent meat because there is not as much for them to hunt. Grizzlies can have up to 8 inches of fat but do not suffer from heart disease. They use the fat during hibernation, during which time they do not eat, sleep, or defecate.

On Tuesday, we visited Trout Lake and watched a black bear walk between two buffalo having a rest near the lake. The bear went over the mountain and was gone. After we left the lake, who was walking down the white line on the road? The bear! We followed behind for a while and finally came to a pull-off. We did stay inside the vans, but got a much closer look as the bear walked in front of the vans and went through the woods in front of us. At the end of the week, we came across another bear jam. This time it was a cub climbing a tree about 10 feet from the road. I got my wish of seeing bears up close and personal.

To learn more about the bears of Yellowstone, click http://www.nps.gov/yell"> here and search for “bears”.