The black and grizzly bears of Yellowstone National Park have played a significant role in establishing the region's reputation for wilderness and wildlife and consequently any bear sighting is a wonderful addition to any of our safaris.  This beautiful black bear was seen on a 'Best of Yellowstone' excursion last week strolling along the Firehole River while digging enthusiastically for insects within fallen logs.  2010 has proved to be a challenging year for bears as some of their normal (natural) food resources diminish and they occasionally become accustom or even aggressive toward people.  Fortunately, this bear paid no attention to wildlife enthusiasts hoping to get a glimpse or photo.

Grand Teton and Yellowstone aren't the best place to live for amphibians and reptiles but we still see snakes occasionally and the garter snake is by far the most common snake here.  This garter was spotted this morning near Wilson, Wyoming and can be seen "smelling" the surroundings with its tongue.  The forked tongue allows it to smell in stereo which is an asset when hunting prey.

Badgers are present here and in much of the Rocky Mountains but rarely seen. 

Recent wildlife safaris (including tonight's) have been fortunate enough to see badgers on several occasions.  Tonight we watched this badger and its family from about 10 feet away.....very unusual!!  Last night we observed one of the most interesting cooperative behaviors found anywhere when we witnessed a coyote and badger hunting squirrels together.  Watching two completely different predators work together is absolutely fascinating and we were able to observe this for almost 45 minutes.

Between the dramatic landscapes and abundant wildlife, this place is truly a photographer's playground.  We conducted a photo safari this morning and had several excellent opportunities.  These photo safaris are slow paced to allow participants to spend time to explore creatively and when we arrived at this location we all set up tripods and took advantage of the vibrant wildflowers complimenting the towering Teton range.  This was the perfect spot to discuss the concept of depth-of-field so we all experimented with different settings to see which we thought was most interesting. In this image, a very shallow depth-of-field was obtained and only a small percentage of the wildlflowers (on the right side of the composition) were kept sharp.

This photograph pretty much tells the whole story of what we observed early this morning.  Great gray owls are the biggest owl on the continent and are rare in most places.  We are fortunate to see them often in this region, but this morning's sighting of an adult owl landing next to one of its chicks and then soaring off moments later was unforgettable.