The Earth Story

visittheusa

If you’re looking for a home where the buffalo roam, look no further than the Mount Rushmore State of @southdakota

corytnaturephotography

America’s National Mammal  #bison - on the move through #lamarvalley in @yellowstonenps this #summer

- love the sidekick action about half way through  lol

natgeo

Video by Ronan Donovan @ronan_donovan | This is Bearzilla. Estimated to weigh in the 600-700 lb range, this is a really big male for the Rocky Mountains. What's interesting is that most bears in March emerge from hibernation lean and muscular, having burned through their fat stores. But not Bearzilla. I spent a few weeks watching him gorging on several bison carcasses along the Yellowstone River in March. Of the six other male grizzlies coming by to feed, Bearzilla was by far the largest and most rotund. He was also the only bear that was relaxed enough to nap and play near the carcasses. The rest of the bears ate fast and got outta there quickly. In this video, Bearzilla gets annoyed with the ravens, swats a European starling, and plays with his meal. It's a brief window into the day in the life of a Yellowstone grizzly. Video taken while on assignment for @natgeo Hope over to @ronan_donovan for more photos and videos of Bearzilla

• Lab cleaning an Ice Age fossil Bison vertebra found in the North Sea and covered in marine life deposits.  Before the glaciers melted in the end of the last Ice Age, you could have walked from Holland to England.   What is now the bottom of the North Sea, was once a fertile valley teeming with all sorts of prehistoric beasts and  humans.

paleodirect

richardpetersphoto

I wouldn’t normally post a video but this was one very close encounter on our winter wildlife trip! Bison look slow but they’ve got surprising speed when they want to move!

In October 2018, while on a solo trip I took to film part of a personal documentary, I spent time in the Badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND.

wagner.tim

Finally found a good corner shelf for some large artifacts and others that wouldn’t quite make a frame. Rounded it out with fossils, geodes, crystals, and shells we’ve collected over the years. Got at least 1/50th of our things out of tubs! 😂

fossilsiowa

Taking advantage of the clear December water and the warm weather this weekend

Cody Yellowstone on Instagram: “#TBT: You know what they say, at the first sign of winter, traffic always slows to a crawl! 📹: @danamcmullens_imageroom … #codywyoming…”

NATURE IN MOTION - Specifically, the perpetual motion one sees in Yellowstone National Park. Highlights from my October visit include Snowy, a three-year old grizzly bear, thermal springs, tumbling waterfalls, and of course, pondering bisons basking in a dust bath.

• Video by @renan_ozturk // A serendipitous close encounter with a heard of buffalo on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation while shooting for @gatherfilm feature doc on Native American food sovereignty ~ More knowledge from director @mrsanjayr - The Oglala Lakota Native Americans on Pine Ridge are as resilient and proud as they come. Much is made in the Western press of the alarming poverty on the Reservation but in my opinion much context is missing. These great Peoples bore the brunt of the US military’s rage post Civil War. In fact the military enough was not sufficient to force their surrender. US government policy shifted to adopt asymmetrical warfare - destroying the food supply of the Oglala Lakota became the key to weakening the core of their identity. “Kill one buffalo, kill two Indians”, a quote attributed to a Colonel Dodge, was more impactful than bullets. The buffalo population was reduced from 60 million to just 24 individuals. Yet the ancestors of the present day Natives did not give up and as a result, the Buffalo people, as they’re known, are experiencing a slow but marked rejuvenation. Folks like Ed Iron Cloud, who considers himself a “caretaker” of the buffalo rather than a rancher, continue to grow the strength and numbers of these once mighty herds. The Buffalo People are on the ascendant.

natgeotravel