Click on the small pictures below if you want to see a larger image.

We were on a snow coach tour from Mammoth to Old Faithful and had taken the normal break at the Madison warming hut. A bobcat had been observed in the vicinity for the last few days. Our snow coach driver checked with the ranger who said it had not been seen today and in fact was last seen taking a swan carcass up into the woods. We decided to go out and see whether we could find the bobcat.

We were lucky and found it lying along the other side of the Madison River across from Harlequin Lake. When we got there the bobcat was lying down and waiting for some geese and swans to come close enough to catch. These geese and swans were downstream from the bobcat, but were slowly moving upstream.

A coyote was stalking the geese and swans and caused them to move.

The bobcat saw the coyote and sat up. The geese were gone.

The bobcat finally got up, stretched and looked for more geese.

He saw another group of geese that were further upstream and moved in their direction.

He needed to cross a small stream to get to these geese.

Should I jump across this small stream to get to the geese?

Just how far is it to the other side?

Getting ready to jump.

And away we go.

Oops! Must have miscalculated just a litte bit.

Now I must cross this little stream.

This was easier than the first stream.

As he got closer to the geese they became alarmed and moved away from him.

Another coyote pressured the bobcat by looking for the bobcat's carcass.

The bobcat then made a wide circle past a herd of bison and went back into some fallen trees to defend its carcass. As the bobcat was leaving, the bison herd was crossing the river.

We went back to this spot three more times but did not see the bobcat again. When we checked with the ranger, she said it had not been seen all week.

   Return to Monday, January 23, 2006 — Going to Old Faithful