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Yellowstone: Wildest Winter to Blazing SummerIn pictures... Wildest Winter to Blazing Summer

Kate Humble and Patrick Aryee experience wildlife dramas as they unfold at Yellowstone.

  • Great grey owl
  • Grizzly bears may wake from their hibernation earlier during mild winters.
  • Red foxes must plunge through the snow to catch rodents.
  • Bison must plough through deep snow to reach the frozen grass below.
  • As winter comes to an end, elk begin to migrate back up into the highlands of Yellowstone to feed on fresh green grass.
  • Wolves sometimes struggle when spring comes early. Their prey is strengthened by shorter and milder winters.
  • A great grey owl watches over her chicks. Until they learn to fly they’ll be at increased risk from predators.
  • An early thaw can cause flooding which may wash away a beavers dam.
  • Yellowstone’s thermal areas are the first places to thaw out in spring.
  • Fuelled by melting snow, over a million tons of water flows down the Yellowstone river.
  • The Teton mountains in the south of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
  • Summer for grizzly bears is all about fattening up ahead of hibernation.
  • In 2016 one hundred square miles of the Greater Yellowstone Region was burned in the worst wildfires for 25 years.
  • The rainbow colours of Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone are caused by microbes that each live at different temperatures.
  • Pika are relatives of the rabbit, but to stay cool they only live at the very highest elevations.

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