Part 4

The porcupine’s nose is very sensitive, a good blow on it being sufficient to kill him, so he has learned to tuck it down between his feet for protection, and to turn so that his back and tail are presented to the enemy. There are no quills on his underside and an occasional enemy has learned to reach under with a paw and quickly flip him over on his back in order to expose the unprotected portion for final attack.

The principal food of the porcupine, in winter, is the bark and small twigs of various trees. In the summer, the bark, buds and foliage of many trees, shrubs and plants are used. Porky is very fond of salt and will gnaw on anything that contains it; shovel or other tool handles with deposits of perspiration on them, or antlers after being shed, are a delicacy. Occasionally he kills a tree by removing too much bark but seldom does enough damage to be of economic importance.

One litter with usually one, or rarely if ever two young, is born each year in late April or May. A baby porcupine at birth weighs about a pound and is as large or larger than a bear cub. The den is located among rocks, in cavities under logs or fallen tree tops. However, during most of the year, even in the winter, the favorite place is well up in the tops of the trees.

General description: A large, clumsy rodent with fairly soft hair with which is mixed longer, coarser hair and many stiff, sharp, barbed spines or quills over the upper parts and tail. Tail short, thick and muscular. In color black with longer hairs tipped with greenish-yellow. Total length 32 inches, weight 15 to a maximum of 35 to 40 pounds.

Where found: In all timbered areas of the park and is sometimes seen near the roadsides or trails either during the day or night.

BADGER Taxidea taxus

Many of the smaller animals, especially those of the rodent group, are known for the dens and runways that they dig, some of them becoming rather expert at this activity. Their burrowing activities, however, are undertaken primarily as a means of providing a suitable home for the animal. The Badger, however, is equipped by nature as an excavating machine. He, too, makes a burrow for use as a home but this is only a small part of his digging activities.

Badgers are equipped with large strong claws, especially on the forefeet, and backed by powerful muscles they can literally dig themselves out of sight in a surprisingly short time, throwing out a stream of dirt behind them like a mechanical elevator. It is this ability that he depends upon as a means of securing his food. Badgers are rather clumsy, heavy bodied and short legged animals, lacking the speed and dexterity needed to capture their prey in the open, but how they do like to dig for their food! Living primarily on the smaller rodents, especially ground squirrels, the badger snoops from burrow to burrow until his nose tells him that the occupant is at home, then dirt starts to fly. If the ground squirrel has provided his home with some extra entrances and he is quick to use one of them he may escape, otherwise the badger has secured a dinner.

Entirely beneficial from the standpoint of the kind of food he eats, the badger’s activities in obtaining it soon result in numerous holes throughout the area where his foraging operations are carried on. In areas where domestic stock are ranging these excavations made by the badgers are hazards to the stock and rancher alike, often resulting in a broken leg to the horse that steps into a hole and sometimes serious injury to the rider when he is thrown from the horse as it falls. In such areas this animal is usually hunted or trapped by man. In Yellowstone he is left to live an undisturbed life. The badger is a fearless and vicious little fighter, which combined with his digging ability makes him a match for anything but man and his gun.

Badgers inhabit the plains and prairies or open forests, wherever their principal food items of ground squirrel, gopher or prairie-dog can be obtained. They generally hibernate from October to March, except in the southern portions of their range. The young, probably averaging about three to a litter, are born in May or early June.

General description: A low, heavy bodied animal with short legs, short bushy tail and long shaggy fur. Color a silvery gray grizzled with black. Head rather small, broad and flat with black and white striped markings. Total length 28 inches and weight averaging about 14 pounds.

Where found: Northern part of the Park from Mammoth to Tower Junction and the Lamar Valley, in open sections. Occasionally seen in meadows of the interior parts of the park where the picket-pins are to be found. Badgers are not numerous, but could be called commonly seen residents, especially of the northern side of the park.

SAGEBRUSH WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE Peromyscus maniculatus artemisiae

The White-footed Mouse, Deer Mouse, or Vesper Mouse is an interesting little animal, a member of a very large and widely distributed genus whose members are generally the most common small animal of any given region. They are clean little creatures with large bright eyes, large ears, and tails about as long as their bodies, with gray or brown upperparts and white feet and lower parts.

These mice are found throughout the forests, among rocks, in meadows and open grassy places, living in burrows, among rocks, or in hollow trees and logs and they frequently come into camps and houses. They are expert climbers and will readily take refuge in trees as well as into burrows if the occasion warrants.

White-footed mice depend upon seeds and grains, small nuts and dry vegetable matter for their food rather than green vegetation like the meadow mice, and are rarely carnivorous.

They may have three or four litters of 3 to 7 young each year and so are able to keep pace with the activities of their enemies which include all of the smaller carnivorous animals and the owls.

General description: Upper parts, pale cinnamon to brownish fawn, more dusky along mid-back; underparts and feet white. Total length 6 to 7½ inches with the tail being one-third to one-half of the total length.

Where found: It is possible to find them almost anywhere in the park but since they are nocturnal they are rarely seen in the daytime.

MEADOW MOUSE OR VOLE Microtus sp.

The Meadow Mouse is one of the more common and widely distributed of our small mammals. There are many species and subspecies and some form is to be found practically anywhere in North America.

These little mice prefer the open meadow country where there is plenty of grass the entire year. They may be found in the moist to semi-arid sections and anywhere from sea level to above timberline elevations.

Their presence can be readily detected by the characteristic runways through the grass. The mouse makes the runway both by cutting some of the grass and pushing the balance to the side, and the floor of the runway is kept free from all obstructions. A colony of mice will have a regular labyrinth of these paths with frequent openings into underground burrows and nests. The young are usually born in the underground nests. However, many of the species also build surface nests of thick balls of grass which are used during the winter time. In these nests, when snow blankets the landscape they are warm and secure, and able to run about their passage-ways, beneath the snow in their daily quest for food, for they do not hibernate.

The food of the meadow mouse is chiefly vegetation: grass, foliage, seeds, twigs, roots and bark and at times they may become very destructive to field crops and orchards.

This little animal is very prolific and usually has several litters each year, with each litter consisting of from four to eight young. Were it not for their many enemies they would soon overrun the grass lands and do untold damage. As it is, their enemies, which are practically every predatory animal and bird, can barely keep them in check. Meadow mice serve as a valuable source of food for the smaller predatory animals such as coyotes, foxes and for the various hawks and owls.

There are four species of these mice that have been found in Yellowstone Park:

Sawatch Meadow Mouse: Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus. A medium-sized mouse with upperparts dull ochraceous, sprinkled with black. Underparts soiled whitish to ashy or cinnamon. In winter many black hairs along upperparts and underparts with wash of creamy white. Total length 7 inches, tail 1.8 inches. Has been found at Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper and Lower Geyser Basins and Shoshone Lake.

Dwarf Meadow Mouse: Microtus montanus nanus. A small-sized, rather short-tailed mouse with upperparts everywhere mixed gray, sepia and blackish, feet grayish; tail bicolor, dusky gray and whitish; underparts whitish. Total length 6 inches; tail 1.6 inches. Found in the grass of meadows and upland slopes over most of the park and appear to be the most abundant and generally distributed of the meadow mice in the park.

Cantankerous Meadow Mouse: Microtus longicaudus mordax. Resembles Sawatch meadow mouse in size but the tail is longer, ears larger, and color grayer. Upperparts grayish bister; sides grayer, underparts whitish. Lighter colored in the winter. Total length 7.4 inches; tail 2.8 inches. These mice have been found at Mammoth and Tower Fall and are probably common in most of the meadows of the park, equally at home on dry ground or in mountain streams.

Big-footed Meadow Mouse: Microtus richardsoni macropus. Largest of the meadow mice. Total length 8.8 inches; tail 2.8 inches. Upperparts dark sepia mixed with black, sides paler, feet gray; tail bicolor sooty whitish; underparts washed with silvery-white. In winter grayer above, more white below. Usually found close to water where they swim much in the manner of muskrats. This mouse had been taken at Heart Lake and its runways seen in marshy meadows of most of the western part of the park.

WOOD RAT Gray Bushytail Wood Rat—Neotoma cinerea Colorado Bushytail Wood Rat—Neotoma cinerea orolestes

Pack Rat or Trade Rat is the name commonly applied to this individual, represented in the park by both of the above forms. Pest of the stations and patrol cabins because of his fondness of getting into buildings and collecting items of every description, especially those of shiny appearance. These are packed to his nest, which is located either in rock piles, cliffs or whenever possible in or around buildings. He cuts open food containers, bedding and other contents and makes a general mess.

He frequently leaves some object in place of the stolen article, hence the name trade rat. However, this trade is probably due to his dropping something that he was already carrying, when he spied the new object that was more attractive, rather than any desire to make a fair trade. They gather anything that is of a convenient size to carry.

The wood rat is a very clean animal, of no relation to the common barn rat except in superficial resemblance. A vegetarian in diet he lives on green vegetation such as grass and foliage, fruit, bark, roots, fungi, seeds and nuts. He is active all year but seldom accumulates much of a store of winter food.

Mainly nocturnal in habit, they are, however, occasionally seen in the daytime. Their principal enemies here are hawks, owls, weasels, coyotes and martens.

The young, from three to six in a litter, are born in June or July and are duller in color than the parents.

General description: Large in size, mouse-like in appearance. The fur is fairly long, soft and grayish buff in color, darker in the Colorado form, on the upperparts, white underparts and feet, and a large, bushy, flattened almost squirrel-like tail. Total length 15 to 16 inches. Sexes equal in size.

Where found: Throughout the park. The gray wood rat mainly in the transition zone in open country along the Yellowstone, Lamar and Gardner Rivers and around Mammoth. Colorado wood rat in higher portions of the park.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN MUSKRAT Ondatra zibethica osoyoosensis

Quiet streams or the shallow grassy margins of ponds and lakes are the home of this valuable little fur-bearing animal. More valuable than many people realize since few know that he is the Hudson Seal and other trade names of our popular fur coats. Ironically, muskrat fur is used as an excellent imitation of his greatest enemy, the mink, in the mink-dyed muskrat coats.

A hardy little animal that lives much like the beaver, in bank dens with underwater entrances or in dome-shaped houses made of rushes, grass, turf and mud instead of the coarser sticks and branches used by the beaver. In these houses or bank dens they spend the winter in comfort. Remaining active all of the year and seldom storing any food, muskrats are out in the coldest weather.

Their food consists of bulbs and tubers, roots, tender portions of numerous marsh and water plants, sedges, grass and clover, and possibly some small aquatic animal life, salamanders, etc. In the winter it is sometimes necessary to make extensive excursions under the ice in search of food.

The young are born in the house or bank nests in May or June, usually six or eight in a litter. In lower, milder sections more than one litter is raised during the year. Fortunately muskrats are prolific breeders.

The name muskrat originated from the fact that there are two glands near the base of the tail that contain the strong though not unpleasant musk, which may be left at intervals about his haunts possibly as signs or marks of possession. While several may use the winter house the muskrat is ordinarily rather fussy and gets into frequent fights over territorial rights.

General description: A rather large, robust, somewhat rat-like appearing animal, with short legs and broad feet, the hind ones partially webbed; tail long, scaly and sparsely haired, flattened laterally. Ears scarcely showing above fur which is dense with longer guard hairs. Upperparts are dark brown, underparts lighter in appearance. Total length 23½ inches, tail 10 inches; weight about two pounds.

Where found: Throughout the park along moving streams, like the Yellowstone River between Lake and Canyon, and most of the ponds and lakes. Frequently working in the morning and latter part of the afternoon as well as at night.

PIKA Ochotona princeps ventorum

This little Pika, Cony or Rock Rabbit of Yellowstone is in reality a diminutive, tailless rabbit. Common in the higher elevations wherever loose rock piles and slides offer suitable locations for his home.

Timid and secretive in nature and possessing a protective coloration that makes them hard to locate in their rocky homes, the pikas are not often noticed by the majority of park visitors. The call of a pika, a squeaky bleat, has an elusive quality that confuses the hearer as to the direction in which it originated.

The best indications of the habitation of the pika are the small stacks of hay among the rocks. He is an industrious little farmer and is usually busy during the summer cutting and curing grass and plant foliage for winter use. This material is first put in the sun to cure, then piled in sheltered places among the rocks where it will be accessible during the winter when the snow has made a protective blanket over the landscape. In protected cavities and runways beneath the rocks, with an ample supply of hay, the pika has nothing to worry about during the winter months and find no need to hibernate. Just what family activities they have during this period is not known.

If an observer remains quiet near their rocky homes he may soon be rewarded by a sight of them running silently about over the rocks, and it may occasionally be possible to approach close enough for a picture.

The young, from three to five in number, are born from late May or early June to early September. Due to their secretive nature and the location of their homes not a great deal is known yet about the home life of the pika.

General description: A short, chunky, apparently tailless rabbit-like animal, ears rounded and of good size; legs short and hind legs very little longer than forelegs. Color of upperparts grayish to buffy, underparts whitish varying to cinnamon-buff. Sexes alike in color and size; about 7½ inches long, height to shoulder 3½ inches and weight 4 to 7 ounces.

Where found: Distributed throughout much of the park at elevations above 7,000 feet wherever rock slides and talus slopes are available. Most likely seen around the Golden Gate, Sheepeater Cliffs, cliffs south and west of the Upper Geyser Basin, rockslides along the Dunraven Pass road and other such places. Look for the hay piles as indications. Active during the daytime.

BLACK HILLS COTTONTAIL Sylvilagus nuttalli grangeri

This shy and timid little rabbit leads a precarious existence in the sagebrush-covered valleys of the lower portions of the park. Its numerous enemies, especially the coyotes, foxes, bobcats, hawks and owls keep the cottontail constantly on the alert and seldom far from dense thickets or sheltering rocks. Its short legs are not a match for the speedy coyote and so artful dodging and hiding tactics must be resorted to.

The mother cottontail makes a nest, lined with her own fur, in a sheltered place where the young, born blind, naked and helpless, are placed. They grow rapidly and are soon able to run about and play, then it isn’t long until they are out on their own. There are usually several litters born each year; this helps keep up their numbers in spite of the inroads made by the various enemies.

General description: A small rabbit with short ears and legs. Upperparts of creamy-buff color lightly grizzled with gray. Tail short and fluffy, gray on top and white on underside. Total length 15 to 16 inches.

Where found: Most likely to be seen near Mammoth and in sagebrush flats along the Gardner River. Mainly found in the transition zone and lower. Most frequently out in the early morning, evening or during the night.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SNOWSHOE RABBIT Lepus americanus bairdi

The Varying Hare or Snowshoe Rabbit is found throughout the higher parts of the mountains, fairly common but not abundant in numbers. Provided by nature with special adaptations, this rabbit is not bothered greatly by the winter storms and snow. Very large furry hind feet act as snowshoes enabling these rabbits to scamper readily over the snow without sinking in and thus are the basis for its common name.

Nature also provides these hares with a camouflage to help protect them from their enemies. Their summer coat of fur is dull brown in color which blends well with the forest floor, while in the winter they get a new coat of pure white, except for black ear tips, making them hardly distinguishable from the snow drifts over which they run. This varying color with the seasons is the source for the other name by which it is known.

These rabbits, like other members of the family, depend upon the foliage of plants and shrubbery as their principal food; however, when this is buried beneath the winter’s snow their diet is frequently mainly composed of the bark of bushes and small trees.

The snowshoe rabbit makes a nest in a sheltered place, where the young, usually three or four in number, are born. These young, unlike the cottontail, have their eyes open and are covered with a coat of very fine close hair. They leave the nest in about ten days. In some places there may be more than one litter in a year.

General description: Larger than a cottontail with long ears and hind legs. Color of upperparts (summer) buffy grayish brown to rusty brown, underparts and bottoms of feet white; (winter) white, with black-bordered tips of the ears and underparts pale salmon. Total length about 18½ inches.

Where found: Likely to be seen almost anywhere in the wooded sections of the park and near the camp and cabin areas. Especially during the early morning and evening. They are generally rather tame.

WHITETAIL JACKRABBIT Lepus townsendi campanius

This big Prairie Hare is readily distinguishable from the other jackrabbits by its all white tail. It may also be found at higher elevations than the other species of jacks. Normally frequenting the open country it has been seen in alpine meadows above timberline at 10,000 feet elevations. This species is the largest of the jackrabbits.

All of the jackrabbits are known for their speed as they go bounding over the prairie, covering twelve to fifteen feet at a jump. The whitetail is the fastest and best jumper of the lot. When in high-gear speed he is a match for all but the fleetest of greyhounds.

The whitetail jackrabbit makes little if any nest for the young, but like other rabbits, does have several forms scattered about his home range. The form is simply a place just large enough to accommodate his body, padded down and hollowed in a clump of grass, weeds or bushes. Each individual has several of these forms and when not out feeding or playing may usually be found crouched down in one or the other of them. The young are fully furred and have their eyes open when born. They are active but stay hidden close by one spot for the first two or three weeks. There are usually about four to the litter and there probably is more than one litter each year, at least in the warmer sections of their range.

The representatives of this species that live in the northern, colder parts of the country change into a winter coat of white fur each fall and like the snowshoe rabbit are protectively colored when out in the snow. Their large feet also aid them in traveling over the snowdrifts.

General description: A large, heavy bodied rabbit with large ears, long legs, and a good sized fluffy tail that is all white throughout the year. The color above is fairly uniform buffy gray, underparts white. Its winter coat is much the same as the summer, though paler in tone, except in the northern parts of the range, which includes Yellowstone, where it becomes pure white with black tipped ears and irregular buffy patches about the face. Total length 24 inches.

Where found: Open sections in the northern parts of the park. Has been seen on the highest slopes of Mount Washburn. Most frequently seen in the early morning and evening. Not numerous.

ADDITIONAL ANIMALS

The following animals are also found in the park area:

Bangs Flying Squirrel: Glaucomys sabrinus bangsi. A medium-sized squirrel, total length about 12.5 inches. Upperparts dark grayish cinnamon; underparts pinkish cinnamon.

These squirrels are strictly nocturnal and for this reason it is difficult to tell how common they really are. Found only in the forested areas they nest in woodpecker holes or in hollows in the trees or possibly build a nest among branches or utilize old pine squirrel nests when hollows are not available.

Probably common throughout most of the forests of the park.

Mountain Weasel: Mustela frenata arizonensis. A medium-sized weasel about 14 to 15.4 inches long. Upperparts raw umber-brown, darker on the head; underparts yellow to orange with a white chin. In winter the animal is all white with a black tip on the tail.