I'm a Bit Jealous

Ok, so I must admit, I'm a bit jealous. Working in the office I find it easy to forget that we live in one of the world's most beautiful places. But Sonja doesn't have that problem. She gets reminded of it every single day. Take the above scene, for instance. That was Sonja's "office" today. Not fair.

I know, I shouldn't complain. All I have to do is step outside and breath the crisp mountain air and gaze up at the mountains surrounding park headquarters to remember that I get to live and work here, too. But I don't get to see things like that every day.

I also don't get to check out grizzly bear tracks, or watch Golden Eagles soaring overhead, or scan the cliffs for sheep and goats, or any of the other cool things Sonja gets to do.

It's not that I'm complaining about my job, really. I just have to work a bit harder to make sure that I can take advantage of the amazing resources this place has to offer.

And honestly, just knowing that Sonja gets to see goats standing on a snowy (and empty) Going to the Sun Road on a regular basis makes me really happy. I mean, seriously, check out the pantaloons on this guy! It's awesome!

Grin and Bear It

Pop Quiz: Who belongs to the choppers you see below?

Still not sure of the answer? How about another clue. This one will probably give it away, though. Here's another, rather characteristic body part of the same animal:

Ok, that makes it easy. It is, in fact, a member of one of North America's most infamous (and wrongly so, I might add) inhabitants: Ursus arctos horribilis...the Grizzly. But this isn't just any grizzly. It happens to be the very first grizzly that Sonja got to help outfit with a radio collar!

Yesterday we were informed by one of my coworkers that a local biologist from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks was going to be processing a young male grizzly they had captured in the Swan Range just to the south and east of the park. And wouldn't you know it? They had room for an extra hand to help out. So Sonja jumped at the opportunity and got to help outfit this bear with a radio collar.

No, the bear is not dead...just tranquilized. Sonja said these guys are really professional with how they treated the bear, handling it with the utmost care to ensure that it was not harmed at all by the experience. Unfortunately, Sonja wasn't able to join the team for its release back into the wild but the lead biologist did ask if she'd be interested in helping out with future captures.

She said yes.

Here's a short video of the bear in the capture cage just prior to it being poked in the butt with the tranquilizer.


That growl is pretty darn impressive for such a small grizzly!