23 May 2003 - Friday

Wow, what a great weekend in the park with a bunch of fantastic loony folks! Ha! We had a lot of firsts and this will be a very hard weekend to top!

On Friday we (Carlene, Rachel and myself) arrived and found Oldtymrs standing on a hillside south of the Lamar Ranger Station. We hugged and chatted and spotted for a while. We saw bison, elk and bighorns throughout the valley. Then we went up to the ranger station and spotted five black bears - a sow and cub and a sow and two cubs. Two were behind the ranger station and three were up on Specimen Ridge to the south.

We met tons of old timers and loons while waiting and watching and sharing the scopes. Oldtymrs and our family and the Dougster decided to head east to the Soda Butte Cone to look at a griz that had been on an elk kill all day.

We turned out about a quarter mile past the cone and setup our scopes. A very large boar griz was having supper. His head looked like it was the size of a garbage can lid and talk about massive claws... whew! We had a great time watching this guy. He was mid way in the valley just on the north bank of Soda Butte Creek.

When he tired of eating, he laid right by the kill. Every so often a raven would try to sneak in and grab a bit to eat, but the griz would rise and shoo it off. He was not in a sharing mood!

Flyty and her friend from Rosy showed up and it was nice to meet and share the experience. At about 8:00 PM, it got really interesting.

We were all chatting and getting to know each other. Talking about our good fortune to be able to watch this bear. When all of a sudden, Doug looked up and announced that there were two other griz coming towards the kill. We all watched with anticipation as to what would happen. I had my scope trained on the kill and the large boar. He did not move until the other two got within about 10 yards of the kill. He then heard or smelled something or both and sprang to his feet for action. He looked at the on coming bears and decided to head south away from the kill. The incoming boar griz gave pursuit. They ran about 40 yards away and the new boar bear stopped. He looked back and saw the sow on the kill. He then turned and returned to the kill and knocked the sow off and chewed on her a bit for starting supper without him. The boar started to eat and the sow walked off.

Well, the other boar noted that his buddies mind was on other things, so he gave his attention to the sow. It is mating season for bears. He tried his best to entice her away for some time alone. At first she played hard to get, but slowly she started to warm up to the big guy. Just when it looked like something was going to happen. The other boar happen to notice that his girl friend was not around. He perked up and saw what was going on and he took off after the other boar. The big boar managed to stay out of the other bears jaws and claws for a while in the chase. They would both stop the pursuit at the same time and eye each other.

Then, they met eye to eye, mouth to mouth and paw to paw, and we had a major bear fight. Talk about ear biting and clawing, Mike Tyson would of been happy! Ha! It was totally amazing and you could hear the oohs and aahs all up and down the valley as a large group of folks were watching a once in a life time event! It was better than National Geographic. You had to be here. Bob Landis wasn't here to film it and it was just out of the Dougsters photo range... major bummer!

Once the battle ended, the large boar that was first on the kill moved off south and gave the other two some space.

The sow, in the mean time while the fight was going on, went back to the kill and had the rest of her supper. She wasn't interested in the fight at all. Maybe just in who was the winner.

The boar came back to the kill and the sow made a quick exit. The boar again laid down and began to eat. The first boar made his way back and soon he and the sow were playing patty cakes and exhibiting courting behavior. This went on for a little while until the eating boar noticed the two being a little more friendly than he though was appropriate. He went on the offensive again.

It was now getting dark and things were hard to track, but the couple went south up the hillside while the lone boar went south also just a little ways from the pair. About half way up the hillside or meadow, one of the pair left the other and moved south to the lone boar and they again started to play and wrestle. We watched until we were out of light and decided to give the bears some privacy...

What a great day in Parkadise with family, loons and friends! And I thought it couldn't get any better. We had something new happen everyday! You just got to love this place!

Has anyone ever seen a mountain fox? That's the next story!

Take care my friends until next time!

Lamar Valley Sunset by John W. Uhler ©