Yellowstone ScienceA quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

Volume 10 Number 1

Tracking Yellowstone’s Red Fox

The Sediment of History:Coring Crevice Lake

2001 Christmas Bird Count

New Year, New Perspectives

The new year brings new perspectivesto Yellowstone. On this mid-winter dayas snow flurries swirl outside my win-dow, I’m afforded this momentary lull tolook forward and back in the same breath— to endings, beginnings, and a contin-ued desire for better understanding. Withthe arrival of the next superintendent,Suzanne Lewis, and a new administra-tion, another chapter in the Yellowstonestory begins. But just as life and deathcycle through nature, we also commemo-rate the passing of scientist FrankCraighead and honor his pioneering workin conservation biology and ecosystemmanagement. At the same time, the year2002 signals another benchmark asYellowstone Science enters its 10th yearof reporting the advances in science andadditions to the body of knowledge onnatural and cultural resources of the park.

In this issue, Dr. Cathy Whitlock of theUniversity of Oregon discusses her re-

search that interprets Yellowstone’s natu-ral history through examining coresamples from Crevice Lake. She beginsby studying present-day vegetation tofigure out how it evolved through theyears. In the course of this process, Cathyhopes to discover how long the forestshave been the way they are today andhow sensitive they were to environmen-tal change in the past, at present, and inthe future. Her findings on vegetationand climate change could prove useful ina variety of fields including fire, elk, andbear management.

While some of Yellowstone’s charis-matic animals have been studied in greatdetail, relatively little is known about itsred fox population. Historical recordsindicated that Yellowstone’s red foxeshad undergone several population fluc-tuations and that they exhibit an unusualvariety of coat colors. Also, the restora-tion of wolves to the park is likely having

an impact on fox distribution in andaround the park. Curiosity about theseissues led Yellowstone’s education pro-gram coordinator, Bob Fuhrmann, to in-vestigate this elusive species. Fuhrmann’swork provides significant new informa-tion on this previously under-studiedmember of the Yellowstone ecosystem.It also establishes an important pre-wolfbaseline on habitat use by foxes.

Contributing to the inventory and moni-toring function of the park, park orni-thologist Terry McEneaney presents thefindings of the annual Christmas BirdCount, now in its 29th year.

As the new year unfolds, many chal-lenges remain in understanding and pre-serving the resources of the park, and theYellowstone Center for Resources re-commits itself to addressing them.

RJA

A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

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Table of Contents

Yellowstone Science

Reading Yellowstone’s History Through CreviceLake Sediment RecordsJoin Cathy Whitlock as she cores into Crevice Lake to find clues aboutvegetation history, climate, and the role of fire in Greater Yellowstone.

An Interview with Dr. Cathy Whitlock

Tracking Down Yellowstone’s Red Fox:Skis, Satellites, and Historical SightingsLittle is known about red fox populations in Yellowstone, but BobFuhrmann’s study provides a wealth of insight into the distribution andnatural history of this charismatic animal.

by Bob Fuhrmann

Yellowstone Nature Notes:2001 Christmas Bird CountThe Christmas Bird Count is an annual tradition at Yellowstone and2001 did not disappoint bird lovers.

by Terry McEneaney

News and Notes New Superintendents for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks• Frank Craighead, 1916–2001 • Winter Season Includes OperationalChanges • Historic Yellow Buses Return to Yellowstone • InterpretivePublications Receive National Award • Yellowstone Proposes to BuildHeritage Center

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Editor

Roger J. Anderson

Assistant Editor and Design

Tami BlackfordAssistant Editors

Kevin SchneiderAlice K. Wondrak

Printing

Artcraft, Inc.Bozeman, Montana

Yellowstone Science is published quarterly, and submissions are welcome from all investigatorsconducting formal research in the Yellowstone area. Correspondence should be sent to the

Editor, Yellowstone Science, Yellowstone Center for Resources,P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190.

The opinions expressed in Yellowstone Science are the authors' and may not reflecteither National Park Service policy or the views of the Yellowstone Center for

Resources. Copyright © 2002, the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science,History & Education. Support for Yellowstone Science is provided by the YellowstoneAssociation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to serving the park and its

visitors. For more information about the association, including membership,or to donate to the production of Yellowstone Science, write to

Yellowstone Association, P.O. Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190.Yellowstone Science is printed on recycled paper with a linseed oil-based ink.

Cover: Red fox in Lamar Valley. Photoby Alden Whittaker.Inside Cover: The Craigheads trap agrizzly bear during their Yellowstonefield studies, 1961. NPS photo.Above: Fox tracks on BlacktailPlateau. Photo by Bob Fuhrmann.

Volume 10 Number 1 Winter 2002

Yellowstone Science2

In February 2001, former YellowstoneScience editor Sue Consolo Murphy andKevin Schneider skiied to Crevice Lake tointerview Dr. Cathy Whitlock. By study-ing sediment layers removed from thefloor of Crevice Lake and other lakes inthe region, Cathy hopes to gain a betterunderstanding of past changes in the cli-mate, vegetation, and role of fire in theGreater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In Octo-ber 2001, Cathy presented the openingkeynote at the Sixth Biennial ScientificConference on the Greater YellowstoneEcosystem.

Yellowstone Science (YS): Would youlike to start by telling us a little aboutyourself? A short biography?

Cathy Whitlock (CW): I’m at the Univer-

sity of Oregon where I’m a professor ingeography.

YS: So do you consider yourself a geogra-pher? Paleobotanist?

CW: That’s a good question. I describemyself as a paleoecologist, because I startwith the present-day vegetation and try tounderstand how it evolved. How long havethe forests been the way they are today?How sensitive are forests to environmen-tal changes in the past, at present, and inthe future?

YS: What are your degrees in?

CW: I received my undergraduate degreeat Colorado College, and my M.S. andPh.D. degrees at the University of Wash-

ington, all in geology. When you studypaleoecology, you can come at it froma geological perspective, where you’relooking at earth history, or you cancome at it from an ecological perspec-tive, where you start with the presentvegetation and go backwards.

Paleoecology research actually fitswell into all three disciplines—geol-ogy, ecology, and geography—and I’vebeen in all three departments during mycareer. My first job was at the Univer-sity of Pittsburgh in geology, but beforethat I was a postdoctoral fellow in botanyat Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Ilove being in a geography departmentbecause geographers look at spatial pat-terns across the landscape and studyhow these patterns change through time.Paleoecology is intrinsically geographi-cal.

YS: You mentioned that you startedyour work in the Yellowstone ecosys-tem, though, in the Tetons in the mid-1980s?

CW: Yes, in graduate school I wasinterested in how the Tertiary-age for-ests in the Jackson Hole area changedas the Tetons lifted up. I was workingwith Dave Love of the U.S. GeologicalSurvey, who was an inspiring and en-thusiastic mentor. But I was continu-ally drawn to the more recent past,because I love to hike and be outdoors.For me, it’s great fun to look at vegeta-tion and wonder why it has its currentcomposition and pattern. Ultimately forme, this tie to the present has been moreexciting than studying plants that wentextinct a long time ago.

When I finished graduate school, I

Reading Yellowstone’sHistory Through Crevice LakeSediment RecordsAn Interview with Dr. Cathy Whitlock

Cathy Whitlock’s team coring Crevice Lake. NPS photo.

Winter 2002 3

began researching the Quaternary veg-etation history of the Yellowstone andGrand Teton area. I focused on trying tounderstand how the forests developedsince the last ice age by studying Ho-locene pollen records. I was really inter-ested in measuring the sensitivity of pastecosystems to climate and environmentalchange. We know that the climate is chang-ing at present, and a lot of model projec-tions show that there’ll be enormous eco-logical adjustments in the future with glo-bal warming. The only way to understandthe sensitivity of ecosystems to futurechanges is to look in the past and see howthey responded to previous extreme con-ditions, such as periods of glaciation,drought, and extreme warming.

YS: And when we talk glaciation in theYellowstone ecosystem, we’re going backhow far?

CW: The last glaciation ended somewherebetween 17,000 and about 13,000 yearsago. That’s when the ice left theYellowstone Plateau, the YellowstoneLake area, and glaciers retreated backinto the Absarokas. Glaciers around here(at Crevice Lake) extended down to theChico Hot Springs area [north ofYellowstone National Park], and, as theyretreated, lakes were formed in ice-blockhollows and scoured basins.

YS: And you think Crevice Lake was leftbehind by the glaciers?

CW: Crevice Lake is a real puzzle, be-cause this area was scoured out by largefloods at the end of the glacial period.These floods formed when an ice-dammedlake in the Lamar area was drained and anenormous amount of water roared throughthe canyon where we are now. This floodleft deposits of gravel 100 meters abovethe level of Crevice Lake.

One theory we have is that the depres-sion that contains Crevice Lake was ascour feature created by that flood, per-haps in a big eddy. But, in truth, we’re notsure how and when the depression formed.We know it had something to do with thedeglaciation, but it’s hard to imagine thesequence of events that led to this isolatedlittle lake.

YS: You mentioned that you had a Na-tional Science Foundation (NSF) grant,along with some other folks. What, spe-cifically, are the questions you’re tryingto answer here, by coring Crevice Lake?

CW: My colleagues, Sheri Fritz and LoraStevens [from the University of Ne-braska], and I have a grant from the NSFEarth Systems History Program to lookat long-term drought frequency in thenorthern Rockies. We’re interested inthe severity and frequency of droughts inthe past. In this project, we’re looking atlong lake sediment records inYellowstone and near Glacier NationalPark.

At Crevice Lake, my student Mitch

Power is looking at charcoal records toreconstruct the fire history of the water-shed, because fire is a good indicator ofdrought. I am looking at the pollen recordto understand past changes in the vegeta-tion. Sheri and Lora and student JeffreyStone are looking at the diatom and iso-topic records in the sediments to recon-struct changes in the lake level throughtime. We are also working with KenPierce, Joe Rosenbaum, and Walt Deanof the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),who are examining the cores for changesin sediment composition and geochemis-try that might indicate periods of drought.The study of Crevice Lake is a multi-disciplinary project, and we’re hitting itwith all our specialties.

Crevice Lake is located in the north-central portion of Yellowstone National Park,near the Yellowstone River.

Yellowstone Science4

YS: How was it you chose to study Crev-ice Lake?

CW: I knew from work that had beendone by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice that Crevice was very deep. For itssize (6.7 hectares), it’s exceptionallydeep—about 30 meters. Its great waterdepth relative to its surface area suggeststhat the water column does not mix sea-sonally all the way to the bottom. Thismeans that the bottom waters lack oxy-gen and do not support a benthic [coldwater] fauna. Lakes that are permanentlyanoxic at the bottom are fairly rare; mostlakes are oxygenated during fall andspring turnover of the water column. Be-cause Crevice Lake supports little or nobenthic activity in its deepest part, thelayers of sediment that are deposited eachseason are preserved intact and not dis-turbed by critters living in the mud. Coresfrom lake sediments that preserve suchannual “laminations” look like tree-ringrecords, in which each year can be seen asa distinct couplet.

YS: What do you mean by “laminations?”

CW: Lamination is just a general term forlayering. We say that the sediments areannually laminated when layers are de-posited in discrete layers according to theseason. For each year, there is a darkwinter layer, full of organic matter, and alight summer layer, rich in summer-blooming diatoms or carbonates. Crev-ice Lake has thousands of these seasonal

layers going back to itsbeginning. These annualcouplets are called“varves.” So Crevice Lakeis technically a varvedsediment lake.

YS: How did you deter-mine that Crevice Lakewas one of these varvedlakes?

CW: I went to the lake in1990 and collected a coreof the upper 20 cm of sedi-ment with a small samplerthat one throws over theside of a raft. The sedi-ments that were recovered

in that sampler were indeed finely-lami-nated, and that got me really excited. In1992 a crew and I came back with raftsand more elaborate equipment, and weretrieved a longer core of about 60 centi-

surveys from the park, and probably takenmore sediment samples from Yellowstonelakes than anyone, and Crevice is theonly lake that we’ve found that’s varved.Most of the lakes that are the size ofCrevice Lake are about 10–15 metersdeep at the most. Because these lakes arerelatively shallow, the water column ismixed yearly all the way to the bottom,stirring up the seasonal layers.

YS: What makes varved lakes so signifi-cant in terms of research?

CW: The sediments of non-laminatedlakes are valuable for understanding whathas happened on time scales of decadesand centuries, and we’ve studied a lot ofother lakes in the park trying to under-stand the broad temporal changes in veg-etation and climate since the last ice age.But Crevice Lake, with its varved record,offers the opportunity to study annualvariations in climate. For example, ElNiño events happen on yearly time scales,and it would be nice to know the fre-quency and impact of El Niño and othershort-term climate variations over thelast 1,000 years.

YS: How will you recognize that whenyou see it in the cores?

CW: El Niño years are often associatedwith lower than normal winter precipita-tion in Yellowstone. At Crevice Lake, wemay find indicators of low precipitation,snowpack, or soil moisture in the sedi-ment record. For example, more charcoalin a particular layer at Crevice Lake wouldindicate more fires and dry conditions.Particular diatoms may also indicateevaporation rates and lower lake levelsassociated with drought.

YS: How are the layers likely to lookdifferent reflecting drought, or reflectingthe 1988 fires?

CW: To study the 1988 fires, we’ll startat the top of the core and count down 13annual laminations. That 13th layer pre-serves the history of events that occurredin 1988. From my previous work, I ex-pect that that layer will have abundantcharcoal fragments, diatoms that indicatewarm summer conditions, and an oxygen

Crevice Lake’s depth, combined with its relativelysmall surface area, prevents the lake from turningover, preserving annual accumulations of sedimentsintact. NPS photo.

meters. We counted the laminations inthat core and realized that we had recov-ered about 300 years of the lake’s history.Identifying layers with abundant char-coal particles gave us a glimpse of firehistory during the last few centuries.Having affirmed that Crevice Lake wasboth unique and important, I’ve beenworking since then to organize a group ofresearchers to study the entire post-gla-cial record and do it properly. It’s takeneight years, but here we are.

YS: Is this the only lake in Yellowstonethat’s known to be laminated?

CW: Yes. I’ve looked at all the lake

The only way to understandthe sensitivity of ecosystemsto future changes is to look inthe past and see how theyresponded to previous ex-treme conditions, such asperiods of glaciation,drought, and extreme warm-ing.

“

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Winter 2002 5

isotope record that suggests greater evapo-ration. The geochemistry may also showchanges indicating that the lake becameslightly more saline as a result of thedrought.

YS: So drought is not necessarily indi-cated by an ash layer, or the presence offire.

CW: Right. The environment in a dryyear is different than in a wet year, and weuse all our tools to look for evidence ofthese differences in the sediments of thelake. These tools then provide variousproxy of drought.

YS: Does the fact that you see charcoallayers give you any ideas about the size ofthe fires that laid down that charcoal?

CW: No. Our goal is to get a network oflakes to figure out fire size. In a particularyear, it will become clear that one water-shed burned, while another didn’t. A net-work of sites allows us to reconstruct thisbigger fire pattern. In the same way, theenvironmental history of Yellowstone isone piece of a bigger puzzle, that oftrying to understand the history of theentire Rocky Mountain region.

YS: Don’t you also look at pollen analy-sis? And are there certain plant speciesthat distribute more pollen, or less, in adrought year?

CW: Yes. Pollen is a great tool for study-ing vegetation history, but it is less usefulfor identifying short periods of drought.Because it takes years for the vegetationto change, pollen records are not as sen-sitive as charcoal records to year-to-yearvariations in climate. You could say thatpollen is a blunter tool for studying pastenvironments. I say this because pollen isairborne and the pollen that lands on thesurface of a lake eventually sinks and isincorporated into the sediments. The pol-len record is an integration of the pollenrain of the watershed. From pollen data,we can’t deduce exactly where the plantswere growing within the watershed. Wealso can’t discriminate between an openforest with widely spaced trees and aclosed forest with large meadows. Whatthe pollen record does provide is infor-

mation on past changes in vegetationcomposition. On a short time scale, thesemay be changes caused by a forest fire.

For instance, I sometimes find a lot offireweed pollen in the record after a fireevent. More often, however, I find thatthe pollen record registers little evidenceof a fire. Pollen records are best used todetect gradual changes in vegetation thatare related to large-scale shifts in climate.For example, if the climate became colder,the pollen of high-elevation trees, includ-ing spruce and fir, would become moreabundant. If it got warmer, pollen of low-elevation species, such as sagebrush andgreasewood, would increase in the record.At Crevice Lake, we might see morelimber pine and juniper pollen duringperiods of prolonged drought.

YS: What will you be able to learn aboutfire frequency?

CW: Many people said that the fires of1988 were a 300- or 400- year event. Butthat idea was based on that the fact thatthe oldest trees here are about 300-400years old and probably established afterfires. Two points, the 1988 fires and theage of tree establishment, aren’t muchevidence for cyclicity, and the lake-sedi-ment records allow us to look at firefrequency over much longer periods oftime. We’ve done very detailed fire his-tory studies in the Central Plateau, and

what we’ve found is that there is no firecycle. Rather, fires are frequent when theclimate is warm and dry and less frequentwhen conditions are cool and wet. Firefrequency has continually varied as aresult of the changing climate. I suspectwe’ll see that same story here at CreviceLake.

YS: Based on this one lake, how large anarea, geographically, can you reconstruct?

CW: The pollen and charcoal record willgive us a picture of what is happeningwithin and near the watershed.

YS: But certainly not in the whole eco-system.

CW: No. That’s why you need a networkof sites. The size of the lake you look atdetermines the size of the geographicarea that you can assess. A small lakecollects pollen from a relatively smallarea, whereas the sedimentary recordfrom, say, Yellowstone Lake integratesthe pollen of an enormous area. Onelearns about the vegetation history of theYellowstone Lake area by studying sev-eral small lakes in different environmen-tal settings within the watershed.

YS: 2000 was a major fire year in thewestern United States, but not so much inthe Yellowstone ecosystem. Much of

Cathy (on the left) examines a section of core removed from the bottom of CreviceLake. This piece of core will be carefully packaged in plastic wrap and aluminumfoil and then sent on to a laboratory for further analysis. NPS photo.

Yellowstone Science

western Montana and Idaho burned, butwe didn’t have many fires in the park, sowould you expect to see that show up inlast year’s lamination?

CW: No. We look at biggish microscopicparticles (100 microns in diameter), andthose particles are not transported veryfar. Small particles, like soot or ash, canbe transported great distances before theyare deposited. From studies we did afterthe 1988 fires in Yellowstone, we deter-mined that the large charcoal particlesprovide the best record of fires within thewatershed and allow us to separate localfires from those that are happening else-where in the region.

YS: So you’re not interested in stuff thatmay be coming from Oregon or Wash-ington.

CW: No. I suppose it would nice if one

record could provide a picture of envi-ronmental changes across the entire West,but the devil is in the details, and onelearns more by reconstructing the historyof many small watersheds than by look-ing at a single site. The Crevice Lakewatershed burned in 1988, so I’m hopingwe’ll see charcoal from that event in thesediments, but I don’t expect that we’llsee much charcoal from more distantfires. We also have a good fire historyrecord from the Slough Creek area, fromCygnet Lake in the Central Plateau, andfrom the southern part of Yellowstone atTrail Lake.

YS: Have you done any coring inYellowstone Lake?

CW: We do have cores from YellowstoneLake, and I have collected cores fromsmall lakes around Yellowstone Lake aswell. The vegetation history goes back

14,000 years or more,and begins with a pe-riod of tundra, followedby a period of spruce,fir, and whitebark pineforest, and ends withthe development oflodgepole pine forest. In addition to thislong-term history, wealso have studied envi-ronmental changessince the park was es-tablished in 1872. AtCrevice Lake, we’ll beable to identify the sedi-ment layer that was de-posited in 1872 andcompare the historyprior to that date withwhat has happened inthe 20th century. Forexample, it should bepossible to look at theimpacts of changing elknumbers through time.Some people haveclaimed that rates oferosion may have in-creased when elk popu-lations were high. If so,we should see evidenceof it in the magneticand geochemical prop-

erties of the sediment. Even small changesin the level of dust or surface run-off inthe lake can be measured in the sedimen-tary record. Sheri Fritz, along with folksfrom the University of Minnesota and I,did a study on the northern range in the1980s, looking for post-park/pre-parkchanges and evidence of erosion in theLamar area. It turned out that the biggestsignal we got was the increased dustduring periods of road construction. Ifelk had an erosion impact in that area, itwas less than the impact of road building.

YS: And you’re doing similar coringoperations in other lakes in Montana?

CW: We are. I have a pretty good under-standing of the environmental history ofthe Yellowstone ecosystem, and the goalnow is to put Yellowstone’s history intothe bigger picture that includes other ar-eas in northwestern North America. We’recoring lakes in western Montana andIdaho to fill in some of the gaps.

YS: How long will the process take thatwill allow you to analyze these cores thatwe saw you pull out this week? Severalyears? Lots of microscopic analysis?

CW: Lots of hours at the microscope.First, the cores are going to the Univer-sity of Nebraska, where they will be splitopen and photographed, and a chronol-ogy will be established by counting thelayers and getting some radiocarbon dates.Then sediment samples will be sent todifferent laboratories. The University ofOregon will get samples for pollen andcharcoal analysis. The University of Ne-braska will look at the diatoms and stableisotopes. The USGS will be examiningthe geochemistry and sediment magne-tism. It’s going to be a couple of yearsbefore we have some results and can puttogether the history.

YS: And about how long are those cores?

CW: The total depth of sediment recov-ered from Crevice Lake is about 6 meters.

YS: Representing…

CW: Probably somewhere between12,000 and 14,000 years. But don’t hold

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Winter is the ideal time of year to conduct this coringoperation because the lake’s frozen surface allowsresearchers to core into the deepest parts of the lakewithout using a boat. NPS photo.

Winter 2002

Cathy Whitlock has been a Professorin Geography at the University of Or-egon since 1990, where she currentlyserves as Head of the Geography Depart-ment and as President of the AmericanQuaternary Association. She received aPh.D. in Geological Sciences from theUniversity of Washington in 1983, andhas held research and teaching positionsat Trinity College Dublin, Carnegie In-stitute, and the University of Pittsburgh.Dr. Whitlock’s research focuses on thesensitivity of forests to past environmen-tal changes as well as the potential re-sponse of vegetation and fire regimes tofuture climate change. She has conductedresearch in Europe, China, and the Pa-cific islands, but her primary interestshave been in the western U.S. Her re-search has been published in over 70scientific papers and books, and she isco-editor of a volume on the Quaternaryenvironments of the former Soviet Union.

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me to that until we get some radiocarbondates and have a chance to count theannual laminations!

YS: Like with tree rings.

CW: Yeah.

YS: Why can you only go back 14,000years? Is that as far down as the corergoes?

CW: I’m guessing that’s when the gla-ciers left here and the lake was formed.14,000 years ago is about the time of thefloods that moved through the Yellow-stone Canyon. The lake was probablyformed by that event. At least it is hard toimagine a lake here before that time.

YS: So literally, today, we finally discov-ered the origin of the term, “hitting rockbottom.” Because you pull that core outand it shows approximately when thelake’s origins were.

CW: Right! We literally hit the rocks thatunderlie the lake sediments, and that’s asfar as we can core with our equipment.

YS: Can you describe how you’re takingthese cores out of the lake?

CW: We’re using a piston corer, which isa meter-long stainless steel tube with apiston in it. We lower it by rods down tothe depth at which we want to take asediment core. We secure the piston atthe bottom of the tube so it can’t moveand we basically push the tube past thepiston and collect a meter of sediment.Then we pull it out and extrude it on theice surface, wrap it up in plastic wrap andfoil, put more rods on, and go back downinto the same hole. Deeper and deeperuntil we hit the bottom. And it’s not hardto know when we reach the bottom. Youjust…stop (laughter).

YS: So, what’s the real application foryour research? Is it to judge climate trendsor climate changes and their ability toaffect ecosystems? How might this beused?

CW: There are many ways to answerthat. But for one, when you’re managing

an area, you want to know whether thecurrent vegetation is typical or completelyanomalous. Were the fires of 1988 un-precedented, or do fires of that size occurfrequently? It is necessary to identify therange of variability for an ecosystem, sothat land managers know when currentconditions exceed the range of variabil-ity of conditions in the past. Paleo-dataare one of the few ways to establish thatlong-term range of variability. How dryhas it been in Yellowstone in the past, andhow often have large fires occurred? Mostmanagement schemes recognize that wecannot make the national parks look likethey did in 1850. It wouldn’t be possibleand it wouldn’t make any sense. 1850was just one period and may not havebeen typical of anything. Knowing therange of historical variability, on the otherhand, allows us to evaluate whether ornot the current ecosystem is pretty muchbehaving the way it has for the past 2,000or 3,000 years.

YS: And that certainly would pertain toelk management and fire management.

CW: Absolutely. And the other consider-ation for managers is climate change.How much drought can these systemstake? How much fire can they take? Arewe seeing the effects of global warmingnow with the death of whitebark pine ornot? So our NSF project is an effort totackle some of these climate questions—using the past to establish the historicrange of variability.

YS: Have you seen evidence of death ofwhitebark pine already in some of yourwork?

CW: Not here. I’m doing some work inthe Bitterroots where you can see thewhitebark pine decline in the pollen recordin the last few decades.

YS: We’ve certainly heard a lot about itup in the Glacier National Park area.

CW: Yes, it’s a big concern.

YS: In doing this research in Yellowstone,can you think of one outstanding episodeof adventure, or excitement, or discoverythat you might share?

NPS photo.

CW: Well, I just get excited workingwith the lake sediments. That soundsdumb, but every lake tells a differentstory, and you never know quite whatyou’re going to find until you collectsome cores. The cores contain the historyof the watershed, and each history is alittle different. Coring remote lakes inYellowstone has offered its share of fieldadventures. We’ve had our gear broughtin by helicopters and we’ve had it hauledon horses and on our backs. The misad-ventures, lousy weather, and improvisedtechnology of past expeditions providefor hours of conversation and humor onthe next field trips.

Yellowstone Science8

Tracking Down Yellowstone’s RedFox: Skis, Satellites, and

Historical Sightings

by Bob Fuhrmann

Relatively little is known about the redfox population of Yellowstone NationalPark and its surrounding areas, yet avariety of historical and anecdotal recordsindicate that Yellowstone’s red foxes(Vulpes vulpes) have undergone severalpopulation fluctuations and exhibit anunusual variety of coat colors. Further,the restoration of wolves to Yellowstoneis likely having an effect on fox distribu-tion in and around the park, and foxsightings have increased in recent years.Curiosity about these things, coupled with

the general lack of knowledge regardingYellowstone’s red fox population, ledme to investigate red foxes inYellowstone.

Prior to this study, the only formalresearch project that examined the redfox in Yellowstone was a medium-sizedcarnivore study (Gehman, Crabtree, &Consolo Murphy 1997). Results obtainedfrom baited camera stations and tracksurveys indicated that red foxes werepresent throughout Yellowstone’s north-ern range. My research aimed to investi-

gate the potential variety of red fox sub-species living in this region and describethe kinds of habitat they use. The resultwas a multi-faceted project focusing onfield methodologies and including archi-val research and oral history.

Biogeographic Background of theRed Fox

During their expedition up the Mis-souri River in 1804–1806, Lewis andClark catalogued many species of plants

Photo by Michael Francis.

Winter 2002 9

and animals. In the upper Missouri drain-age, they reportedly identified a “great-tailed fox” which they presumed to be theRocky Mountain red fox (V. v. macroura)(Cutright 1969). This sighting probablycame from near the Missouri in northcentral Montana. In addition, Audubonnotes that a fox similar to what Lewis andClark described was collected from atrapper before 1850 on the upper Mis-souri River. This fox was mostly gray andhad a rather large tail, and was presum-ably collected in central or eastern Mon-tana.

In 1969, however, Hoffman et al., whoexamined sighting and trapping recordsin Montana, indicated that prior to 1950,the only population of red fox (V. v.macroura) inhabiting Montana was inthe higher elevation forests (e.g.,Yellowstone National Park), indicatingthat they were absent from low elevationvalleys (Hoffman, Wright, and Newby1969). These foxes were restricted tomountainous areas of extreme westernand southwestern parts of the state. Thediscrepancies between Lewis and Clarkand Audubon compared with Hoffmanmake it appear that red foxes were presentin this region during the early 1800s butmight have disappeared between thatperiod and the 1950s, raising the ques-tion: where did they go? One possibilityis that foxes on the plains of easternMontana were extirpated through preda-tor eradication programs in the early de-cades of the 20th century.

After 1950, red foxes were commonlyseen in lowland and agricultural areas,especially throughout eastern and centralMontana, but the origin of the animal’shabitation of these areas is unclear. Ifthese foxes are the Rocky Mountain redfox (V. v. macroura), they could havedescended from the montane habitats backto the plains following the conclusion ofthe large scale predator eradication pro-grams alluded to earlier. Conversely, theEuropean red fox (V. v. fulva) could havemigrated from the surrounding region tofill the niche of the Rocky Mountain fox.

European red foxes were brought tothe eastern U.S. in the 18th century for foxhunts, but many escaped the jaws of thehounds or fur farms and successfullyadapted to new environments. Prior tothe 1800s, red fox distribution west of the

Mississippi River was limited to the moun-tainous regions of the western UnitedStates, possibly including central andeastern Montana. Presently, it is believedthat the European red fox inhabits agri-cultural and other human-disturbed habi-tats at lower elevations (the extent of theEuropean red fox’s expansion has beenattributed, in part, to the widespread habi-tat changes brought on by agriculturaldevelopment), while the mountain foxstill resides in the high-elevation mon-tane/alpine zones of the Rocky, Sierra,and Cascade mountain ranges and theboreal forests of Canada, Alaska, and thenorthern Great Lakes states (Sheldon1992). However, it is unknown whetherthere is a dividing line between these twosubspecies or if there is an integrade zonewhere they co-exist.

Potentially, the endemic red foxes in-habiting isolated mountain ranges of thelower 48 states are relics from the Wis-consin glaciation (Aubry 1983). If thishypothesis is true, the mountain foxeswould not be well adapted to low eleva-tion grasslands under the current climaticconditions and mix of competing preda-tors (Merriam 1900). We know that thehigh elevation red fox has survived in thehigher elevations of the Greater Yellow-stone Ecosystem since the Wisconsin gla-ciation, but more information is neededto validate the historic distribution of redfox within the Greater Yellowstone Eco-system.

The Influence of Wolves and Coyoteson Red Fox

Another area which requires more studyis the question of how the restoration ofwolves to Yellowstone is affecting thearea’s foxes. For most of the 20th century,Yellowstone had only two canid preda-tors, foxes and coyotes (Canis latrans).In 1995, wolves (C. lupus) were reintro-duced. This reintroduction will likely havemajor impacts on the other canids in theecosystem. A review of 16 separate stud-ies of sympatric coyote and red fox popu-lations indicates that coyotes have a tre-mendous negative impact on fox popula-tions (Crabtree and Sheldon, in press). InYellowstone, track surveys and remotecameras demonstrated that 90 percent ofknown fox locations occurred on the pe-riphery of or in between coyote territo-ries in the northern range (Gehman,Crabtree, and Consolo Murphy 1997).

Wolves are known to kill coyotes andmay exclude them from core areas ofpack ranges. Since 1995, many coyoteshave been killed or displaced by thewolves. Due to decreased competitionfor space and food, foxes seemed to fill inbehind the missing coyotes. In one areaof the Lamar Valley where there werefour contiguous coyote territories con-taining 25–30 coyotes prior to wolf rein-troduction, there are now no coyote packs.In this same location, a high concentra-tion of fox sightings have been reported

Adam Kaufman, one of Bob’s field assistants, collects data with a GPS receiver onthe Beartooth Plateau. Photo by Bob Fuhrmann.

Yellowstone Science10

Figure 1. Historic fox sightings in Yellowstone National Park, 1892-1985.

Figure 2. Fox sightings in Yellowstone National Park, 1986-1996.

compared to what was documented in thefew years prior to 1995. This indicatesthat wolves can have an indirect effect onthe occurrence and distribution of redfox. Future studies will be able to com-pare habitat use patterns with what Iobserved in this study to determine if redfoxes’ habitat use also shifts.

Yellowstone Sightings, Distribution,and a Fox of a Different Color

I began my historical research onYellowstone’s red foxes by examiningthe park’s sighting records. Sightingrecords collected over long periods oftime will often provide an indication ofthe presence or absence of a species, andpossibly indicate major trends. Therecords from 1880 to 1900 indicated thatfoxes were frequently observed in theearly decades of the park’s history (Varleyand Brewster 1992). According toYellowstone’s second superintendent,P.W. Norris, some park officials werevery adept at distinguishing species andeven color morphs of the red fox. Norrisstated that foxes were “numerous and ofvarious colors, the red, grey, black, andthe cross varieties (most valuable of all)predominating in the order named”(Norris 1881).

Shortly after the turn of the last cen-tury, however, reports of red foxes withinYellowstone National Park were spo-radic, and sightings uncommon. It ap-peared that the once frequently sightedred fox was on the decline. Those sightingsthat were reported occurred in diverseareas of the park (see Figure 1). Thesefoxes were consistently light- and gray-colored, especially at higher elevations.Following and possibly as a result of theextirpation of wolves in the 1920s, therewas a marked increase in coyote observa-tions and a decrease in red fox sightings.

The frequency of red fox sightings didstart to increase in the late 1980s, but thiswas likely the result of increased interestand reportage rather than an actual in-crease in red fox numbers. Two events,an official rare mammal sighting pro-gram instituted in 1986 and a coyotestudy initiated in 1989, marked the be-ginning of a period in which the numberof red fox sightings steadily grew. Sincethen, red foxes have been reported

Winter 2002 11

Figure 3. Red fox color frequency by elevation.

Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, he canremember seeing only one fox prior tothe 1950s, and never saw a fox track. Hedid recall his father shooting a fox bytheir house on Trail Creek Road around1920. He believes that foxes from thelower Yellowstone River Valley colo-nized the Livingston and Paradise Valleyareas beginning in the 1950s. He doesremember hearing of foxes inhabitingthe higher elevations around YellowstoneNational Park, and once saw a very light-colored one that was captured in TomMiner Basin. Kolence and other trapperscalled these high-elevation foxes “frostybutts” because of their light color. Thispattern of red foxes’ being present inhigher-elevation forests, yet absent fromlowlands, is supported by Hoffman(Hoffman, Wright, and Newby 1969).

Adding to the intrigue of elevationaldistribution of fox in the northern Yellow-stone region is the variation in their coatcolors, such as was described by Kolence.Analysis of park records suggests thatfoxes at lower elevations usually havered fur. In contrast, a large percentage ofreports from higher elevations through-out the region, including the BeartoothPlateau, note a gray or cream (“frostybutt”) color phase (see Figure 3). Thiscoat color has not been described previ-

throughout the Greater Yellowstone Eco-system in all months of the year in areasranging from riparian communities atlow elevations (1,500 meters) to alpinetundra at elevations exceeding 3,000 m(see Figure 2). Because of the nocturnalbehavior, habitat use, and relatively lowdensities of red foxes in Yellowstone,many employees and visitors have neverseen one in the park. Many long-timearea residents say they have never seen afox in their travels in and aroundYellowstone, and an examination of re-cent sighting records of red fox inYellowstone (Figure 2) confirms that mostsightings occur along the road corridor,where Yellowstone’s visitors spend mostof their time. In fact, most of the foxsightings that I personally collected inYellowstone were in the headlights of mycar.

In addition to examining the park’s redfox sighting records, I also talked withlong-time residents in Yellowstone andthe surrounding communities to learnabout their recollections of foxes in thisregion. Trapper Martin Kolence, born in1911 and raised around Livingston, Mon-tana, does not remember any foxes in the“low country” prior to World War II(pers. comm. 1995). In all of his hiking,camping, fishing, and hunting in the

ously in the wild. Also, a red fox hit by avehicle between Mammoth Hot Springsand Tower Junction in 1998 was about 60percent black, with intermixed red furpatches. When asked about this dark color,many current wildlife biologists in thepark had never seen or heard of anythinglike it (though Superintendent Norris hadmentioned this dark appearance in the1880s). Other color anomalies exist, in-cluding red foxes without the diagnosticwhite tail tip, and a handful of a nearlywhite or “ghost” color phase.

These findings led me to a variety ofunanswered questions. What could ac-count for the unexpected patterns in foxesat different elevations? What might ac-count for the unique coloration of foxesin the northern Yellowstone region? Andwhere were foxes, and why? These ques-tions beckoned personal investigation intothe current status of Yellowstone’s mys-terious red fox.

Tracking the Elusive Mountain Fox

To investigate red foxes inYellowstone, my colleagues and I em-ployed both old and new field techniques.Snow tracking, one of the oldest forms oflearning about mammals during winter,is a “tried and true” field technique of

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Figure 4. The “12-5-3 Rule:” Measurements used to identify fox tracks(not to scale).

bounty hunters, sportsmen, and biolo-gists. When hunting was a way of life, thedifference between reading tracks welland not understanding them could meanthe difference between life or death. Thisstudy, along with others, shows that track-ing can be a very useful tool to biologists(Johansen 1989).

Snow tracking has both advantagesand disadvantages. It can provide veryaccurate, detailed information on move-ment and behavior patterns with minimalresearcher impact, the main advantagebeing that the research animal is usuallynot disturbed. Tracking can be very cost-effective, requiring only a map, clipboard,and data sheets. However, additional ex-penses can be incurred with the use ofGlobal Positioning System (GPS) unitsand handheld computers to gain moreaccurate data. Snow tracking providesinformation during winter only but canprovide insights into year-round habitatutilization. Nearly all red foxes in a givenpopulation belong to a breeding group(pair or trio), and maintain territoriesyear round. Therefore, we might be ableto predict a fox’s summer range by iden-tifying its winter range, keeping in mindthat foxes tend to cover more ground in

the winter in search of food.On the other hand, tracking can be

difficult because of unpredictable snowconditions, resulting in variability in thequality of data collected. Frequent snow,wind, and melting makes snow trackingdifficult and often fruitless. The noctur-nal behavior of red foxes in Yellowstonealso makes direct observation techniquesdifficult. During this study, I observedvery few foxes while tracking and travel-ing to transect sites. Despite the disad-vantages, my colleagues and I decidedthat the most plausible and least invasiveway to study the distribution and habitatuse of Yellowstone’s foxes was to trackthem through the snow. To accomplishthis, 25 ski transects were establishedbetween Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo.,and Island Lake on the Beartooth Pla-teau. Each ski transect was traversed atleast twice during each field season fromDecember through March in the wintersof 1994–1995 and 1995–1996. In addi-tion, we monitored the road corridor fromMammoth, Wyo., to Cooke City, Mont.,for fox activity during both seasons. Mostof the transects followed established skior snowmobile trails, allowing us to covermore than 186 kilometers.

The Fox Track

Our next challenge was to distinguishcoyote and fox tracks from one another.Using data previously collected by JamesHalfpenny of Gardiner, Montana,Gehman et al. (in the medium-sized car-nivore study mentioned earlier), and byme, we developed a formula: red foxtracks were defined as any set of trackswith an intergroup distance of less than12 inches, a straddle of fewer than fiveinches, and a track length of less thanthree inches (Figure 4). This was dubbedthe “12-5-3 Rule.” To maximize accu-racy, these measurements were taken inat least three locations along a track set,because using only one of these measure-ments would not verify that a fox madethe tracks. All three of the measurementcriteria had to be met in order for a foxtrack to be distinguished from a coyotetrack. The most reliable and discriminat-ing criterion was clearly straddle. Thesemeasurements excluded small coyotesand, potentially, a few large foxes.

The behavior of an animal could alsobe ascertained by looking carefully atclues left in the snow. For example, coy-otes and foxes travel differently. If trackswent under something, we measured theheight of the object above the snow. If theobject was one foot off the ground and nobelly rubs were found on the snow, thissuggested a fox track. Also, differentodors occur from scent marks producedby foxes and coyotes and we were able todistinguish them. Examining several as-pects of the track set allowed us to differ-entiate fox and coyote tracks and collectbehavioral data.

GPS Tracking

Global Positioning System (GPS) unitswere used to collect locations and eleva-tions of fox tracks observed along thetrack transects. While skiing the transects,fox tracks were systematically searchedfor on both sides of the trail, and when aset was located, the GPS unit was acti-vated and UTM coordinates were logged.The tracks were first backtracked, so asnot to disturb the fox and bias its behav-ior. If time permitted, the tracks were alsoforward-tracked.

Track sets were followed for distances

Winter 2002 13

ranging from 150 to 1500 meters. Differ-ent limiting factors determined how longwe followed a track set. Some track setswere lost because of our inability to de-termine where the fox was traveling rela-tive to the plentiful tracks of other ani-mals. Other limiting factors were mal-function or battery failure of the GPS unitor handheld computer. At times, trackingwas discontinued because the fox trav-eled into areas unsafe for researchers, forinstance, areas with high avalanche dan-ger (i.e., steep slopes), ice that was notstable enough to support a human, orareas occupied by a bison herd. EachGPS had pre-programmed function keysto collect data such as snow type, scentmarks, forage sites, and bed sites. Ap-proximately every 150 m, we establisheda habitat collection point and entered iton the GPS. At these points, we collectedhabitat characteristic data such as covertype, distance to ecotone (edge), slope,aspect, and snow depth, and entered it onhandheld computers. GPS base stationfiles were used to differentiallypost-correct GPS field files. Once cor-rected, these data were estimated to havean accuracy of two meters or less.

We determined habitat availability fromthe GIS, defined as a 500–meter bufferon either side of a tracking transect. Thisdistance was chosen because it includedmore than 95 percent of the track setsfollowed. Other habitat variables such aselevation, slope, and aspect were extractedfrom the GIS layers relative to thoseparameters.

Findings

Habitat UseA total of 77 kilometers of fox tracks

were followed during two winter fieldseasons. These tracks were found on allof the trails skied throughout the northernYellowstone region. Despite a wide rangeof elevations and habitats, red foxes werefound to be contiguous in distributionacross this area. Fox tracks were locatedat all elevations from 1,350 to 3,000 m.Frequent sightings in areas that were notformally examined for fox tracks, such asParadise Valley between Livingston,Mont. (1,350 m) and Gardiner, Mont.(1,585 m), further demonstrates the con-tiguous distribution of fox throughout

the northern Yellowstone ecosystem.Although red foxes were found to inhabitalmost every habitat type in the studyarea, their use patterns (preference andavoidance) of specific habitat compo-nents differed by elevation and season.

Prior to this study, little was knownabout fox habitat use in this area. Myresearch suggests that foxes generallyprefer habitats that are close to the edgeof a major structural change in vegeta-tion, or “ecotone.” Sagebrush and oldergrowth forests are important as escapecover for foxes because they provide ahigh degree of visual security. Over 87percent of our distance-to-habitat edgemeasurements were <125 m from an eco-tone, and 50 percent of the track sets were<25 m from an ecotone.

I observed distinct differences in habi-tat preference between foxes tracked atlow and high elevations, however. Be-low 2,100 m (approximately 6,930 feet),they showed less selection for old growthforest, even though red foxes frequentingopen habitats below 2,100 feet are oftenchased and occasionally killed by coy-otes (Gese, Stotts, and Grothe 1996).These foxes frequently used open andsagebrush areas, and avoided coyotestemporally (through nocturnal behavior)and spatially (by using areas outside coy-ote core areas). The main habitats usedby foxes at this elevation were mesicmeadows, and sagebrush (52%). Thesagebrush offered cover that effectively

hid foxes from coyotes. Foxes also usedolder growth Douglas-fir, spruce-fir, andlodgepole pine stands that provided pro-tective cover. Foxes remained closer toescape cover when using open cover typesat low elevations than when they traveledin sagebrush and forested areas. Sage-brush may provide the most protectivecover for foxes.

Above 2,100 m, where coyotes wererare, I assumed that foxes would be morelikely to venture farther into and spendmore time in open areas to catch smallmammals. Instead, they utilized heavierforest cover and had lower mean dis-tances to edge than those below 2,100 m.At these higher elevations, however, foxesutilized the edge of open mesic habitats27 percent and spruce-fir forests 30 per-cent of the time.

These habitat differences could be theresult of variations in preference betweentwo subspecies, as mountain foxes (e.g.,V. v. macroura) are reported to prefersubalpine forests and European red foxes(V. v. fulva) to prefer more open covertypes (Aubry 1983). Or, other factorsmay account for the difference betweenthese two elevational zones. They mayhave been related to sub-specific prefer-ences or variations in prey availability atdifferent elevations. Although it mightbe conjectured that one such factor couldbe the lack of coyotes above 2,100 m inthe winter, a recent coyote study inYellowstone and my personal observa-

Measuring red fox tracks. Photo by Bob Fuhrmann.

Yellowstone Science

tions suggest that coyotes do not havedefended territories above 2,100 m, andare absent from high elevations duringwinter, making them a non-factor in ac-counting for differences in fox habitatuse above and below 2,100 m (Crabtreeand Sheldon, in press). The dissimilarhabitat use of low and high elevationfoxes, however, could be associated withthe differences in genotypes and pheno-types I observed.

MorphologySome evidence suggests that there are

genetic, phenotypic, and potentially mor-phometric differences between red foxesabove and below 2,100 m in theYellowstone region. Foxes at higher el-evations may have adapted to colder cli-matic conditions, and generally have“frosty butts.”

Based on an examination of 21 tissuesamples collected from trapped and road-killed red foxes, there appear to be twogenetically distinct populations of redfoxes inhabiting the northern Yellow-stone ecosystem, separated by elevation.Interestingly, although there is no dis-tinct geographic barrier separating them,very limited gene flow occurs betweenthese elevational zones. The fox sub-populations show a degree of divisioncomparable to that found between islandand mainland red fox populations in Aus-tralia, which shows that they have been

isolated for many years (Lade et al. 1996).More questions may be answered aboutthe genetic separation of these subpopu-lations through further analysis of tissuesamples.

With no geographic barrier separatinglow and high elevation foxes, it might beassumed that the high elevation foxesmight disperse to lower elevations andestablish home ranges in the more hospi-table lower environments, or that lowelevation foxes might move to higherelevations to avoid coyotes. However,the limited gene flow indicates low dis-persal in either direction. In general,canids are thought to interbreed exten-sively (Sheldon 1992). There are wolf-dog hybrids, coyote-dog hybrids, and thered wolf is thought to be a combination ofgray wolf and coyote (Sheldon 1992).Sympatric coyotes and wolves in Ontarioappear to have been morphologically con-verging in body weight and length overthe last 40 years (Schmitz and Lavigne1987). It is unusual, then, that there issuch limited gene flow between subpopu-lations above and below 2,100 meters.

Foxes in the Yellowstone area haveadapted to survive in harsh winter condi-tions at high elevations. They exploithigher elevations more regularly thancoyotes, which may be a spatial compe-tition avoidance mechanism on the partof foxes (Gehman, Crabtree, and ConsoloMurphy 1997; Crabtree and Sheldon, in

press). In addition, foxes seem to be bet-ter adapted to hunting in deep snow thancoyotes. Foxes have large feet in propor-tion to body size when compared to coy-otes. An adult coyote weighs about 13.5kg (30 lbs.) in Yellowstone, which isthree times as large as an adult fox (4.6 kgor 10.1 lbs.), but its track size is not threetimes as large. Foxes’ sizable feet andlong track length act like snowshoes,allowing them to stay on top of the snowinstead of sinking.

Morphologic divergence is another pos-sible test of population isolation, depend-ing on the amount of time the populationshave been segregated and the extent towhich phenotype characteristics are plas-tic. Although the morphometric data donot indicate that there is a statisticallysignificant difference in fox size alongthe elevational gradient found within thestudy area, high elevation foxes living inharsher environments did tend to havelarger bodies and smaller ears than lowelevation foxes.

Another interesting variable washindfoot length. The trend indicated thatfoxes at higher elevations may have largerhind feet than those at lower elevations.Foxes at higher elevations have to with-stand significantly deeper, less densesnow, and longer periods of it. Therefore,the hind feet should be longer and largerto act like a snowshoe and reduce footloading (lower kg/cm2). With the smallsample size, this appears to be the case.Most of the foxes I observed at highelevations had very small toe pads (~3mm wide x ~10 mm long) and an abun-dance of fur covering all of the pads intheir entirety, including the heel pad.This could potentially keep the foxes’paws from forming ice crystals whiletraveling in deep, less dense snow. Inaddition, abundant fur on the feet (as inlynx) decreases foot loading and increasesthe snowshoe effect. Such small pad sizeand large amounts of fur were neverobserved at low elevations.

Summary

Due to the small sample size and lackof genetic information from other foxpopulations, I was unable to determinethe exact taxonomic origin of the foxes athigher elevations in Yellowstone National

A lighter colored fox live trapped at Island Lake, Beartooth Plateau. Photo byBob Fuhrmann.

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Winter 2002

Bob Fuhrmann has worked inYellowstone National Park for almost 10years. Since 1998, he has served as theEducation Program Coordinator for theNPS, coordinating most of the studentgroups that visit the park. This includes aresidential program for fourth throughsixth graders, a summer educational pro-gram for local students, and the JuniorRanger program.

From 1994 to 1998, Bob researchedred foxes in the northern Yellowstonearea in order to earn his master’s degreein fish and wildlife management fromMontana State University in Bozeman.While completing his degree, Bob alsoworked full time as a lead interpretivepark ranger at the Albright Visitor Cen-ter in Mammoth Hot Springs.

Before coming to Yellowstone, Bobworked at various jobs across the west-ern United States. These included re-searching stream and aquatic ecology onthe North Slope of Alaska; studying black-birds in central Washington; and operat-ing a ski lift near Seattle. Bob received aBachelor of Arts degree in biology and asecondary education teaching certificatefrom Lawrence University in Appleton,Wisconsin. He grew up in a northernsuburb of Chicago.

Outside of work, Bob enjoys spendingtime with his family, including his two-year-old son. The great outdoors hasalways been fascinating to Bob. He lovesto kayak on the Yellowstone River (out-side of the park, of course), backcountry/telemark ski, and hike the many trails inand around Yellowstone.

the mountain fox. Yellowstone Sci-ence 1(3).

Cutright, P. M. 1969. Lewis and Clark:Pioneering naturalists. University ofNebraska Press, Lincoln.

Gehman, S., R. L. Crabtree, and S.Consolo Murphy. 1997. NorthernYellowstone carnivore study. AnnualReport Series, U.S. National ParkService and cooperators.

Gese, E. M., T. E. Stotts, and S. Grothe.1996. Interactions between coyotesand red foxes in Yellowstone Na-tional Park, Wyoming. Journal ofMammalogy, 77(2):377–382.

Hoffman, R. S., P. L. Wright, and F. E.Newby. 1969. Distribution of smallmammals in Montana. Mammalsother than bats. Journal of Mammal-ogy 50(3):579–604.

Johansen, O. J. 1989. Lynx winter habitatselection in central Troms County,Northern Norway. Master’s Thesis,Idaho State University.

Lade, J. A., N. E. Murray, C. A. Marks,and N. A. Robinson. 1996.Microsatellite differentiation be-tween Philip Island and mainlandAustralia populations of the red fox(Vulpes vulpes). Molecular Ecol-ogy, 5(1):81-87.

Merriam, C. H. 1900. Preliminary revi-sion of the North American red foxes.Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., 2:661–676.

Norris, P. W. 1881. Annual report of thesuperintendent of the YellowstoneNational Park to the secretary of theinterior for the year 1880. Washing-ton, D.C.: GPO.

Sargeant, A. B. and S. H. Allen. 1989.Observed interactions between coy-otes and red foxes. Journal of Mam-malogy, 70(3):631–633.

Schmitz, O. J. and D. M. Lavigne. 1987.Factors affecting body size in sym-patric Ontaris Canis. Journal ofMammalogy, 68(1):92–99.

Sheldon, J. W. 1992. Wild dogs: Thenatural history of the nondomesticcanidae. San Diego: Academic Press,Inc.

Varley, J. D., and W. G. Brewster, eds.1992. Wolves for Yellowstone? AReport to the United States Con-gress, Volume IV Research andAnalysis. Yellowstone National Park,Wyo.: National Park Service.

Literature Cited

Aubry, K. B. 1983. The Cascade red fox:Distribution, morphology, zoogeog-raphy, and ecology. Ph.D. diss., Uni-versity of Washington.

Crabtree, R. L. 1993. Gray ghost of theBeartooth: On the taxonomic trail of

Park and the Beartooth Plateau. Sincethis is the only study of the Rocky Moun-tain subspecies (V. v. macroura), furtherresearch is needed to compare the twofox subpopulations studied to those ofother regions such as the grasslands ofeastern Montana or central Wyoming andother parts of the Rocky Mountains. Inaddition, the high elevation foxes shouldalso be compared with the red foxes in-habiting northern Canada and Alaska (V.v. abietorum). This would assist in iden-tifying the origin of these high elevationfoxes. Depending on its origin, an iso-lated fox subspecies may have existedand could still remain today in the alpineregions of the Greater Yellowstone Eco-system.

From the differences in coat color,habitat use, and morphology, it appearsthat foxes at higher elevations (>2,100m) are unique. This study was unable todetermine the exact cause of this unique-ness, but did show that two subspecies offox may occupy the northern Yellowstoneecosystem. This study also provided apre-wolf baseline on habitat use patternsfor low and high elevation foxes, butmore research is needed. I hope that some-one takes advantage of the opportunity toreexamine red fox distribution and habi-tat use after wolves have fully establishedthemselves in northern Yellowstone.

This study was completed as a collabo-rative effort with Bob Crabtree, Yellow-stone Ecological Research Center; LynnIrby, Montana State University;Yellowstone National Park; Gallatin Na-tional Forest; Shoshone National Forest;Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; andWyoming Game and Fish.

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NPS photo.

Yellowstone Science

On December 16, 2001, the Yellowstone Christmas Bird Count (YCBC) was conducted in theGardiner, Montana, and Mammoth, Wyoming, areas. This YCBC marks the 29th year for thistraditional bird survey. The established center point for this bird count is the North Entrance ofYellowstone National Park and extends 7.5 miles from this point in any direction, with boundary limitsbasically east to Blacktail Ponds, north to the mining town of Jardine, Montana, and northwest toCorwin Springs, Montana. The YCBC is divided into teams of observers to maximize landscapecoverage. All bird species and total individual birds detected during the count day are included in thefinal results. Additional birds incidentally observed three days before and three days after officialcount day are included in another category called the count week totals.

Since the YCBC is totally voluntary, the number of observers showing up in any given year is neverknown until count day. However, each year at least a half-dozen skilled observers repeatedly returnto participate. Weather conditions highly influence overall participant turnout as do personal holidayplans. The number of people participating in the YCBC has little bearing on the number of bird speciesor individuals detected during count day. In fact, weather plays a greater role in finding birds than doesthe number of participants. Because of access limitations in the winter, experience has shown birdscan be best counted in specific habitats. The more inclement the winter weather (e.g., coldtemperatures and deep snows) the better the birding, since birds are concentrated primarily near bird-feeding stations, riparian areas, and geothermal or open water areas. Birds are also less concentratedduring mild weather conditions, since natural foods are more available. Ironically, the largest numberof participants show up during years of mild weather conditions when birding is just average or below

2001 YellowstoneChristmas Bird Count

by Terry McEneaney

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Winter 2002

average (Figure 1). Hence, mild weatheryears for the YCBC result in few birdrarities being detected.

The 2001 Yellowstone Christmas BirdCount tallied a total of 34 bird species and1,675 individual birds (Figure 2). Themild weather conditions resulted in anaverage number of species and a slightlyabove average number of individualbirds observed. As expected dueto the mild weather, a record of22 observers showed up for the2001 YCBC, tying the previ-ous record set in 1999, an-other mild year. Tempera-tures during the 2001 YCBCranged from 12 to 27 degreesF., with 3–12 inches of snow,depending on the elevation, andthe edge of the rivers were not evenfrozen.

Three bird records were broken dur-ing the 2001 YCBC. A total of 389 com-mon redpoll were detected in the countarea this year, compared to the previousrecord of 148 set in 1989. The irruption ofcommon redpolls was the result of a raresuperabundance of food, namely Dou-glas-fir seed cones, alder catkins, andexposed grass seed heads, coupled withan early winter storm forcing redpolls

into the area in November. Two yellow-rumped warblers were also detected,whereas only one was seen in 1983, 1987,and 1990. Additionally, seven song spar-rows were found this year compared tothe previous record of six observed in

1988. Two marsh wrens were also foundduring the 2001 YCBC; this ties the recordset in 2000. Four northern flickers werefound in 2001, tying the previous recordset in 1987. Species that are regularlydetected such as the common goldeneye,hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker,dark-eyed junco, and American tree spar-

row could not be located due to the mildwinter weather conditions.

In conclusion, a grand total of 95 spe-cies have been recorded on the YCBC(97 species with the YCBC and countweek combined) during the 29 years thecount has taken place. This year, mildweather conditions resulted in an aver-

age number of bird species detected,and a slightly above average num-

ber of individuals observed. How-ever, experience has shown that

colder temperatures and aboveaverage snow depths are theoptimum conditions for find-ing the greatest bird richnessand abundance during theYCBC. Participants are re-minded of these factors whendeciding on attending future

YCBC’s. Regardless, theYellowstone Christmas Bird Count tra-dition continues and a fun time was hadby all.

Editor’s Note: A more detailed sum-mary of past Yellowstone Christmas BirdCount results and methods can be foundin the Winter 2001 issue of YellowstoneScience.

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Figure 1. Total participants in Yellowstone Christmas Bird Counts. Photo above: common redpoll. NPS photo.

Yellowstone Science

Species Yellowstone NP Yellowstone NP Outside Yellowstone NP Totals (in Wyoming) (in Montana) (in Montana)

Green-winged Teal 25 11 36Mallard 51 66 117Barrow’s Goldeneye 12 12Common Merganser 5 5Bald Eagle 6 5 6 17Rough-legged Hawk 1 1Golden Eagle 2 2 4Common Snipe 2 2Rock Dove 26 22 48Belted Kingfisher 1 1 2Northern Flicker 1 3 4Horned Lark 1 1Gray Jay 4 4Steller’s Jay 1 4 5Pinyon Jay 35 35Clark’s Nutcracker 39 22 61Black-billed Magpie 63 8 46 117Common Raven 49 13 58 120Black-capped Chickadee 3 8 11Mountain Chickadee 50 21 71Red-breasted Nuthatch 9 10 19Marsh Wren 2 2American Dipper 10 28 4 42Townsend’s Solitaire 22 5 20 47Bohemian Waxwing 19 50 69Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 2Song Sparrow 4 3 7Gray-crowned Rosy Finch 120 120Black Rosy Finch 2 2House Finch 36 36Common Redpoll 75 314 389Red Crossbill 17 17Pine Siskin 55 60 115House Sparrow 15 120 135

Totals 552 152 971 1675

Total Species: 34 Additional Species Count Week : 2

Figure 2. Yellowstone Christmas Bird Count results from December 16, 2001.

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Winter 2002

&notesNEWS

New Superintendents for Yellowstoneand Grand Teton National Parks

On December 14, 2001, new superin-tendents were named to Yellowstone andGrand Teton National Parks. SuzanneLewis, a 22-year veteran of the NPS, willmanage Yellowstone National Park, andSteve Martin, a 26-year NPS veteran,will manage Grand Teton National Parkand John D. Rockefeller, Jr., MemorialParkway. Lewis and Martin will assumetheir new responsibilities in early Febru-ary 2002.

“The selections of these individualswere approved by Interior Secretary GaleNorton because of their successful recordsworking in collaboration with others toaccomplish community conservationobjectives,” said Regional Director KarenWade.

Suzanne Lewis is currently the super-intendent at Glacier National Park, whereshe manages over 1,013,000 acres, a staffof approximately 525 during the heightof the summer season, and an annualoperating budget of over $11 million.She began her NPS career as a seasonalpark ranger in 1978 at Gulf Islands Na-tional Seashore.

Suzanne Lewis, Yellowstone’s newsuperintendent. Photo courtesy GlacierNational Park.

During her 11-year tenure there, sheserved in a variety of positions includingpark technician, park historian, supervi-sory park ranger, and management assis-tant to the superintendent. Chosen in 1988for an international assignment to theRepublic of Haiti, she assisted the UnitedNations’ efforts to preserve, protect, andeducate Haitians in the preservation ofcultural resources. In 1989, Lewis wasappointed acting superintendent forChristiansted National Historic Site andBuck Island Reef National Monument inthe U.S. Virgin Islands. She was selectedin 1990 as the first superintendent for thenewly-created Timucuan Ecological andHistoric Preserve—a 46,000-acre nationalpark in Jacksonville, Florida. Lewisserved as the superintendent for theChattahoochee River National RecreationArea in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1997 toApril 2000, where she managed one ofthe busiest national recreation areas inthe United States, with more than 3.5million visitors annually. Lewis gradu-ated in 1978 from the University of WestFlorida, earning a B.A. (Magna CumLaude) in American History.

Steve Martin is currently superinten-dent of Denali National Park and Pre-serve where he is responsible for all as-pects of the management of the 6.2 mil-

lion-acre park. The park has 100 perma-nent and 200 seasonal employees and anaverage annual budget of about $15 mil-lion.

Prior to assuming the superintendencyat Denali, Martin was superintendent ofGates of the Arctic National Park andPreserve, an 8.2 million-acre park en-compassing part of the Brooks Range ofnorthern Alaska. He moved to Alaskafrom Yellowstone National Park, wherehe was chief of concessions. Prior to thatassignment, Martin was chief of resourcemanagement and visitor protection atVoyageurs National Park in northernMinnesota. Before Voyageurs, he wasthe north district ranger and Old Faithfuldistrict ranger at Yellowstone. Martinbegan his career in 1975 as park ranger atGrand Canyon National Park, where hesupervised the Colorado River field op-eration. He earned a B.S. in Natural Re-source Management from the Universityof Arizona in 1975.

Frank Craighead, 1916–2001

Frank Craighead recently passed awayin Moose, Wyoming, his longtime home.He was 85. Best known for theirgroundbreaking studies of grizzly bearsin Yellowstone from 1959 to 1970, broth-ers Frank and John Craighead were pio-neers in the field of conservation biologyas well as in the development and use ofradio telemetry and other methods ofmarking and tracking animals for pur-poses of scientific research. The Craig-heads’ activism and the degree to whichthey refused to limit their findings toscientific outlets had sometimes provedvexing to the NPS, since their work, aswell as their disagreements with the parkservice, were chronicled by the nationalnetworks and press in addition to maga-zines and nature television like NationalGeographic.

But it was their high public profile, infact, that allowed the Craigheads to givethe world something even more valuablethan tracking technology: popular aware-ness of the concept that wildlife preserva-

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Steve Martin, Grand Teton NationalPark’s new superintendent. Photo bySteve Harrel.

Yellowstone Science

&notesNEWS

tion and management required an eco-system approach. Through their researchand its publicity, the Craigheads showedus that even Yellowstone National Park,with its 2,221,773 acres, wasn’t big orcomplete enough as an ecological unit tofully provide for the grizzly and otherspecies that utilized the land within itsboundaries. They didn’t invent the idea,but they put the term “GreaterYellowstone Ecosystem” onto the lips ofmanagers and laypeople alike.

Frank Craighead’s legacy also includesa substantial body of scientific papersand popular books published with hisbrother John, such as the classic FieldGuide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers.He also authored Track of the Grizzly andFor Everything There is a Season: TheSequence of Natural Events in the GrandTeton/Yellowstone Area.

Winter Season Includes OperationalChanges

On December 17, Acting Superinten-dent Frank Walker announced that a one-year operational program to help addresswinter issues in Yellowstone will be ineffect this winter season. The changesinclude putting additional park person-nel and volunteers on the snow roads,improving grooming and visitor educa-tion, and attempting to reduce employ-ees’ exposure to unhealthy and unsafeconditions. The operational changes donot limit the number of snowmobilesallowed in the park this winter season.

Walker noted that ongoing winter useplanning in Yellowstone National Park

has identified some serious issues relatedto employee health and safety, human/animal conflicts, air quality, noise, anddeteriorating visitor experiences, and thatwinter planning and preparation of aSupplemental Environmental ImpactStatement are underway and will addressthese concerns in the long term. Theissues that have been identified, how-ever, require interim, short-term actionsthis winter. The changes will be imple-mented on the road segment between theWest Entrance and the Old Faithful area,a 30-mile segment of road (out of the 180miles that are open for snowmobile use).

The first is designed to help reduceexposure of employees and visitors tohigh levels of air pollution and noise atYellowstone’s West Entrance Station: allWest Entrance permits will be pre-sold atseveral locations in the community ofWest Yellowstone, including the Cham-ber of Commerce and various snowmo-bile rental outlets and hotels/motels. Visi-tors should plan to purchase their en-trance passes at those community loca-tions, rather than at the entrance gate.Also, additional express lanes will beopen for employees to check gate passes.This will reduce idle time at the gate and,hence, the accompanying tremendousbuild-up of exhaust fumes which hasadversely affected the health of gate em-ployees in years past. Pre-selling passeswill also give park staff an opportunity toprovide information to visitors in a morerelaxed atmosphere.

In an effort to reduce disturbance ofwildlife by wintertime motorized users,volunteers and park staff will presenteducational programs on low impactsnowmobiling at the Chamber of Com-merce, various hotels, and other facilitiesin the community of West Yellowstone.The park will also explore the use ofvolunteers to serve as “hosts” within thepark to help visitors better understandand use low impact snowmobiling tech-niques.

Park staff will be monitoring bisonmovements on the road between WestYellowstone and Old Faithful, and thespeed limit between the West Entrance

and Old Faithful will be lowered from 45mph to 35 mph to attempt to reduceconflicts.Because late night snowmobile use cre-ates safety issues, potential wildlife/hu-man conflicts, and decreases the effec-tiveness of grooming, Yellowstone willcontinue to recommend that all visitorsnot travel the roads during hours of dark-ness (specifically between 9 p.m. and 8a.m.).

Rough snow roads reduce the qualityof visitors’ experience and create safetyand health concerns for both visitors andemployees. To help address this, Yellow-stone will be double-grooming the Westto Old Faithful roads on many nights. Thepark will work with the town of WestYellowstone on an experimental programusing a town groomer in the park duringmid-day.

Historic Yellow Buses Return toYellowstone

This past fall, Yellowstone NationalPark acquired eight antique yellow busesthat were once used to transport visitorsthrough the park. Originally purchasedby the Yellowstone Park Company be-tween 1936 and 1939, the vintage WhiteMotor Company Model 706, 14-passen-ger motor coaches were part of a fleet thatultimately numbered 98 buses. The samemotor coaches were used by several othernational parks, including the red “Jam-mers” still in use at Glacier and bluebuses once used in Rocky Mountain Na-tional Park. Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Mt.Rainier also purchased the same type ofmotor coaches. The buses recently pur-chased by Yellowstone came from theSkagway (Alaska) Streetcar Companyand were in a nearly unaltered condition,with the original Yellowstone NationalPark license plates remaining on the ve-hicles. Despite the fact that the buseswere in great shape and appeared to havemany more years of service in them, theowners of the Skagway Streetcar Com-pany decided to sell them to purchaseolder buses. Although still undecided asto where the buses will be used, they are

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Frank Craighead, Grand TetonNational Park. Photo courtesy JacksonHole News.

Winter 2002 21

assigned for visitor transportation to thepark concessioner, Amfac, and are in-tended to provide park visitors with aquality historic experience.

Yellowstone National Park Interpre-tive Publications Receive NationalAward

On November 27, Acting Superinten-dent Frank Walker proudly announcedthat a series of eight self-guiding trailbooklets produced by the National ParkService was recently awarded the grandprize at the National Association ofInterpretation’s annual Media Competi-tion.

The award was announced on Novem-ber 14 in Des Moines, Iowa, during theannual meeting of the National Associa-tion of Interpretation, a professional or-ganization encompassing federal, state,local, and private institutions in whichinterpretation and education are primarymissions.

Production of the self-guiding trailbooklets was funded by a generous anony-mous donation to the Yellowstone Asso-ciation. The booklets are used by mil-lions of visitors each year to explore theUpper Geyser Basin (including Old Faith-ful Geyser), Grand Canyon of theYellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, FortYellowstone, Norris Geyser Basin, Foun-

tain Paint Pots, Mud Volcano, and WestThumb Geyser Basin. The publicationswere cited for their excellence in designand appeal to a wide range of users.

Yellowstone Proposes to BuildHeritage Center

Yellowstone’s museum, archives, andlibrary collectively protect more than 5million items—treasures such as the firstpaintings and drawings ever made ofwhat is now the park, including works byartist Thomas Moran; more than 90,000photographs illustrating park history andresources from the days of trappers andthe earliest explorers of the region; Ameri-can Indian artifacts; natural science col-lections documenting the park’s wildlife,plants, and geology; historic vehicles,including stagecoaches and the first busin Yellowstone’s fleet; an archive docu-menting park management from its in-ception through U. S. Army administra-tion to the present; and a library contain-ing most of the rarest publications onYellowstone.

For decades, this growing collectionhas been primarily housed in the base-ment of the Albright Visitor Center, abuilding not originally designed for anyof its current uses. In 1989, the park wascited by the Office of the Inspector Gen-eral for the poor preservation conditions

of its museum collection and archives,which are actually scattered among fivefacilities, all of which are cramped andlack environmental controls and adequatefire protection. The limited space alsoseverely restricts use by the general pub-lic and more than 1,000 researchers whoseek direct access to the collections eachyear. These researchers produce books,articles, films, videos, web sites, and othermedia that educate millions of peopleabout Yellowstone.

To correct these deficiencies, the parkproposes to build a new 32,000-square-foot Yellowstone Heritage and ResearchCenter to preserve current collections,allow for an estimated 25-year growth inimportant new collections, provide ad-equate public access, and include a mod-est space for changing exhibits. The NPSline-item construction budget for 2002includes $6.1 million dollars for the firstphase, which includes storage for all butoversized objects (such as historic ve-hicles and large furniture), a new library,some work space for visiting researchers,and staff offices. Future (presently un-funded) phases will provide for preserva-tion and display of the historic vehiclecollection and for added research and labfacilities for the numerous scientists whoconduct studies in Yellowstone each year.An estimated $6–8 million will be neededfor future phases, for which the parkhopes to secure private donations andgrants.

An environmental assessment to ex-amine the alternatives and impacts re-lated to this facility was released in Janu-ary 2002. The preferred alternative is tolocate the Heritage Center on alreadydisturbed park land, a former gravel pit,adjacent to the town of Gardiner, Mon-tana, about five miles north of park head-quarters. Construction is likely to com-mence in late 2002 or early 2003, andcompletion of the first phase is antici-pated in 2004–05.

Public comments related to the pro-posal may be sent through February 25,2002 to Heritage Center, P.O. Box 168,Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming,82190.

&notesNEWS

One of Yellowstone’s yellow buses, in Skagway, Alaska. Photo by Paul Schullery.