Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Recent Posts

Thermal imaging offers high-tech look at disease among Yellowstone wolves

Thermal imaging reveals a bright blue patch near the shoulder of a captive wolf, whose fur was shaved to simulate the effects of sarcoptic mange.

A high-tech method for detecting disease in domestic cattle is helping researchers in Yellowstone National Park learn more about how sarcoptic mange effects gray wolf survival and behavior during the park's long, cold winters. For Paul Cross, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, a moment of insight came when he learned how thermal imaging was used in the cattle industry to detect cows infected with foot-and-mouth disease. The heat-sensitive cameras can pick up on the heat caused by related inflammation in a cow's hoof within a day or two of contracting the disease. Heat-sensing videocameras could help show the metabolic costs of mange in specific wolves, Ross realized. Continue Reading →

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Yellowstone Science Conference looks beyond boundaries for answers

The 12th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is being held over three days this week at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, centered on a theme of "Crossing Boundaries." But judging from some of the comments during Tuesday's panel discussions and coffee breaks, it seemed like the conference itself had at times crossed a boundary from the world of esoteric hypotheses posed by cautious researchers into a realm of eager discovery and engaged debate by journalists, advocates and members of the general public. Continue Reading →

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Yellowstone to focus on hiker safety education after fatal grizzly attacks of 2011

A few grizzly bears have been spotted emerging from hibernation in Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park managers have decided against establishing new backcountry use restrictions in the Hayden Valley after an extensive review of grizzly bear attacks throughout the park over the last four decades. A range of potential restrictions on hikers in the Hayden Valley were up for consideration in response to two separate fatal bear attacks there in summer 2011. Park officials will instead focus on improving safety messages for day hikers. Continue Reading →

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