Wonderlandscape by John Clayton

Author:John Clayton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2017-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

The bridge over the outlet from Yellowstone Lake is known as Fishing Bridge because it was once one of the easiest places in the world to catch fish. (With overfishing, populations of Yellowstone cutthroat trout became imperiled, and now the bridge is viewing-only.) East of the bridge is a tourist village: museum, gas station, store, and RV park. Behind the gas station, hidden between the RV park and the river, is a “utility area” including an employee dorm.

Six weeks after the Mammoth meeting, on Friday, October 10, 1969, a female grizzly bear and some yearlings were seen at the utility area. It was Marian, the bear that had received the Craigheads’ first collar. Over the past eight years she had shown herself to be a remarkable animal, mating with dominant males, bearing several litters of young, and denning right there in the Hayden Valley. Unlike some bears, she had a small range, centered on the Trout Creek dump. In 1968, with the dump curtailed, she had to travel farther to obtain the same amount of food. But it was a good year for berries and pine nuts, and she was mostly able to avoid food sources near humans, as she had her entire life so far. She made it through the summer of 1969 as well, but in a poor nut/berry year, by the fall her family was foraging in developed areas. That Friday, rangers trapped and transplanted two of her yearlings. The next Monday morning, a ranger saw a third yearling near a trap. He shot it with a drugged dart and moved in closer to finish the job with another dart. He got between mother and cub.

As Frank Craighead told the story, Marian charged out of the woods at full speed. Then, near the ranger, she paused. Perhaps it was a “bluff charge” of the sort bears have become famous for. Perhaps Marian, in her vast experience with men bearing drugged darts, was realizing that maybe the situation didn’t require violence. She seemed “uncertain of her next move,” Frank wrote. She turned toward her yearling, but then pivoted back toward the ranger. He was in danger. He used his .44 magnum to shoot Marian between the eyes.11

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