1st October 2009
Today we decided to take two ranger led walks in Yosemite Valley. The rangers here have loads of information about the park and are really keen to pass it on, along with their passion for Yosemite. These walks are totally free of charge and a fantastic way to learn more about our surroundings.
On leaving the car park, we encountered our first big wildlife (there are masses of squirels and chipmunks about), deer who were using the bushes in the carpark as a fine breakfast.
We took the first walk with Ranger Rachel and about 20 other people. It was a wildlife walk which looked at the way animals survive the coming winter months, either through hibernation, migration or confrontation. Ranger Rachel explained all about the Monarch butterfly which migrates annually and flourishes in Yosemite due to the Milkweed which flowers in the spring and is its primary food source.
She also explained about the Acorn Woodpecker, which at this time of year is storing its acorns in a granary, the birds work as a team filling their stocks ready for the winter. They are quite addictive to watch as they seem to have a major OCD problem when trying to find exactly the right hole - we watched one for a good 10 mins before he actually stored the nut!
The squirrels here in the park are also busy (when they’re not bugging tourists for their lunch!). In order to go into hibernation for the winter, they need to feed up, when they hibernate, they can even slow their heartrate and breathing right down to conserve energy. There are loads of squirrels and chipmunks about here at the moment running all over the place.
There are also some massive ravens in the park, these surprising animals tend to work as a pair, for example one keeps watch while the other eats some road kill (they can’t kill for themselves since their beaks are not strong enough). They are also often found directing other predators such as mountain lions to prey so that they can also take advantage of the kill. Cunning!!
The second walk we took was the bear stroll with Ranger Jennifer. We were told about the fact that the grizzly bear, although it appears on the California State flag, was hunted to extinction in the county by the early ninteen hundreds. The 500 or so bears that now live in Yosemite are black bears (although in truth brown in colour).
Ranger Jennifer explained how in the park’s early years the bears were fed by humans and from cars, which conditioned them to associate humans with food, an association which only since the 1990s they have been trying to break. They now have bear proof food lockers and bins (although these have been through several mutations as the bears manage to work out how to use them!).
Although we didn’t manage to see a bear, we had seen a bear skin earlier in the day with Ranger Rachel, the talk was informative and interesting and we are still hoping (probably in vain) to see a bear before we leave the park.
