Wilderness Predators of the Rockies: The Bond Between Predator And Prey

by Mike Lapinski

Overview

Wilderness Predators of the Rockies takes readers on an in-depth journey into the secluded backcountry where legendary predators such as the mighty grizzly, taciturn wolverine, stately wolf, awesome jaguar, and other wild animals call home. Casting aside the canned, often misleading, biology often cited, this book offers a deeper understanding of wilderness and its predators and prey as well as an explanation about how humans fit into this fascinating cycle. Full of newly discovered facts and many first-hand accounts, the text is accompanied by award-winning action photos that bring these secretive predators and their roles in the cycle of nature to life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762735372
Publisher:	Falcon Guides
Publication date:	03/01/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Mike Lapinski is an award-winning outdoor writer and photographer. He is considered an expert on wilderness habitat and wildlife and speaks frequently at seminars on wildlife and nature. Mike lives amongst the Rockies in Superior, Montana, with his wife Aggie.

Read an Excerpt

A few years ago, I was scouting for grizzlies in the Many Glacier area on the eastern slopes of Glacier National Park. It was late April and the bears had emerged from hibernation, but the spring grass had not yet pushed up. I was watching a herd of eight mountain goats 400 yards away bedded on a rocky ridge above a protected bowl that had begun greening up. A large boar, or male, grizzly ambled into sight and, ignoring the goats in the rocks above, began feeding on a small patch of sedges. The bear fed across the bowl while the goats watched tensely from about 150 yards away. When the grizzly fed out of sight, the goats relaxed and went back to lazing in the spring sun and chewing their cuds. Out of sight of the goats, the grizzly's disposition changed immediately. The bear hurried to the base of the rock cliff and began climbing the steep terraces in a route that would take him around and above the goats. I lost sight of the grizzly when he entered a narrow crevice, and I guessed that he had continued upward and over the ridge. I went back to glassing the goats, but a minute later the herd suddenly scattered as the grizzly thundered into their midst at a full gallop. The goats scrambled down the rock face, easily escaping the bear. To the casual observer, the grizzly was foolish to have expended so much energy in a fruitless charge at the goats, who are adept at maneuvering along the sheer rock walls. But I knew better. The leading cause of death among goats is an accidental fall. That boar grizzly was not trying to catch a goat, he was trying to "create" an accident.

Table of Contents

Introduction; (1) The Wilderness Life Cycle; (2) The Prey Base; (3) The Wolverine; (4) The Lynx; (5) The Bobcat; (6) The Mountain Lion; (7) The Black Bear; (8) The Grizzly Bear; (9) The Wolf; (10) The Mountain Coyote; (11) The Fisher; (12) The Marten; (13) The Ermine; (14) Ghost Predators of the Southern Rockies.