Photos catch five wolves, five griz on one carcass

WILDLIFE WATCHING — A dead bison 400 yards from a main road in Yellowstone National Park in September provided the rare opportunity for visitors to see five grizzly bears — rare in itself — and five gray wolves vying for meals off the same carcass at the same time.

I was there , underarmed in dim light with a slow 300mm lens on my camera, but thoroughly enjoying the spectacle through spotting scopes with another 100 or so specators parked along the road between Gardiner and Cooke City.

Other photographers, including Pete Bengeyfield of Dillon, Mont., scored memorable shots, such as these two, using 600mm telephoto lenses and 1.4x extenders.

When I watched the proceedings, all of the grizzlies — the boar as well as the sow and her three yearling cubs — were on the carcass at the same time.  It appeared to me that the boar and sow had made rare peace because the five of them had a better chance of keeping the wolves at bay.

Read Bengeyfield’s perspective and see more photos in this story from the Billings Gazette.

Click continue reading (below) to see another photo here.