Bright Eyes and the pups huddled together for warmth after a big meal of muskoxen. These quiet moments seemed to be the happiest times for the wolves. Bellies full, surrounded by their family and content to sleep for the next 12 hours. I think we can all relate to that happiness and comfort – amongst loved ones with ample food and security to rest. It’s the universal desire of all social mammals. Learn more about this family of wolves in the @natgeo magazine article and 3-part series for @natgeowild that both published in 2019 – links in my bio. Available streaming on @disneyplus and more #kingdomofthewhitewolf #wolves
#wolf #arcticwolf #nature #wild #whitewolf #wildlife #higharctic
Today, March 21st, marks the 25 year anniversary of the first wolves released into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. It took decades of hard work by a passionate group of Conservationists, NGOs and politicians to make this restoration effort possible. Thank you for your efforts. Under the bipartisan supported Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf became protected in the lower-48 in 1974. The loss of Wilderness and Wildthings was felt across the nation at that time and the gray wolf was the final piece to restore the Yellowstone Ecosystem to its historic glory – before Europeans and market hunters/trappers changed the West forever. Today, Yellowstone’s roughly 100 wolves represent one of the great restoration stories of the last century. I hope you all have the chance to one day hear a wild wolf pack howling in the distance. If you’re interested to learn more, there are dozens of books on the topic, but a few notable titles are : Decade of the Wolf, Of Wolves and Men, and American Wolf @yellowstonenps @nationalparkservice #wolves #wolf #mrblue #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark
Today, March 21st, marks the 25 year anniversary of the first wolves released into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. It took decades of hard work by a passionate group of Conservationists, NGOs and politicians to make this restoration effort possible. Thank you for your efforts. Under the bipartisan supported Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf became protected in the lower-48 in 1974. The loss of Wilderness and Wildthings was felt across the nation at that time and the gray wolf was the final piece to restore the Yellowstone Ecosystem to its historic glory – before Europeans and market hunters/trappers changed the West forever. Today, Yellowstone’s roughly 100 wolves represent one of the great restoration stories of the last century. I hope you all have the chance to one day hear a wild wolf pack howling in the distance. If you’re interested to learn more, there are dozens of books on the topic, but a few notable titles are : Decade of the Wolf, Of Wolves and Men, and American Wolf @yellowstonenps @nationalparkservice #wolves #wolf #mrblue #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark
Today, March 21st, marks the 25 year anniversary of the first wolves released into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. It took decades of hard work by a passionate group of Conservationists, NGOs and politicians to make this restoration effort possible. Thank you for your efforts. Under the bipartisan supported Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf became protected in the lower-48 in 1974. The loss of Wilderness and Wildthings was felt across the nation at that time and the gray wolf was the final piece to restore the Yellowstone Ecosystem to its historic glory – before Europeans and market hunters/trappers changed the West forever. Today, Yellowstone’s roughly 100 wolves represent one of the great restoration stories of the last century. I hope you all have the chance to one day hear a wild wolf pack howling in the distance. If you’re interested to learn more, there are dozens of books on the topic, but a few notable titles are : Decade of the Wolf, Of Wolves and Men, and American Wolf @yellowstonenps @nationalparkservice #wolves #wolf #mrblue #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark
Today, March 21st, marks the 25 year anniversary of the first wolves released into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. It took decades of hard work by a passionate group of Conservationists, NGOs and politicians to make this restoration effort possible. Thank you for your efforts. Under the bipartisan supported Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf became protected in the lower-48 in 1974. The loss of Wilderness and Wildthings was felt across the nation at that time and the gray wolf was the final piece to restore the Yellowstone Ecosystem to its historic glory – before Europeans and market hunters/trappers changed the West forever. Today, Yellowstone’s roughly 100 wolves represent one of the great restoration stories of the last century. I hope you all have the chance to one day hear a wild wolf pack howling in the distance. If you’re interested to learn more, there are dozens of books on the topic, but a few notable titles are : Decade of the Wolf, Of Wolves and Men, and American Wolf @yellowstonenps @nationalparkservice #wolves #wolf #mrblue #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark
Today, March 21st, marks the 25 year anniversary of the first wolves released into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. It took decades of hard work by a passionate group of Conservationists, NGOs and politicians to make this restoration effort possible. Thank you for your efforts. Under the bipartisan supported Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf became protected in the lower-48 in 1974. The loss of Wilderness and Wildthings was felt across the nation at that time and the gray wolf was the final piece to restore the Yellowstone Ecosystem to its historic glory – before Europeans and market hunters/trappers changed the West forever. Today, Yellowstone’s roughly 100 wolves represent one of the great restoration stories of the last century. I hope you all have the chance to one day hear a wild wolf pack howling in the distance. If you’re interested to learn more, there are dozens of books on the topic, but a few notable titles are : Decade of the Wolf, Of Wolves and Men, and American Wolf @yellowstonenps @nationalparkservice #wolves #wolf #mrblue #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark
The standoff. A one-year-old arctic wolf, known as Grey Mane, looks back for direction from the rest of his pack while a herd of muskoxen form a defensive rosette nearby. Wolves can be patient hunters, especially when faced with this cooperative defense from their main prey on Canada’s Ellesmere Island – known in the Inuktitut language of the far North as Umingmak Nuna or Muskox Land.
Muskoxen have evolved to work together to achieve what they cannot alone – just like the wolves. While the muskoxen work together to protect themselves, the wolves work together in order to wear down their prey. Both behaviors from prey and predator are inextricably linked – the muskoxen wouldn’t be a different animal if not for the wolf and vice versa.
Grey Mane is the largest wolf in the pack I followed, but he still needed to learn how to be a master hunter. Hence, why he’s stepping back from this herd of muskoxen and looking to his older relatives for guidance. Are they lying down or pushing forward? Are they intently focused on their prey or blinking slowly as they look around? These are the behaviors Grey Mane is watching for and others as he learns the ways of how to be a successful wolf in the High Arctic.
There’s a link in my bio to watch the 3-part series on Grey Mane and his family called Kingdom of the White Wolf – check it out if you’re interested to learn more about wolves and this island in the North. #kingdomofthewhitewolf #wolf #arcticwolf #nature #wild #hunting #predator #prey #whitewolf #arctic #canada #animals #wildlife #dogstagram #earth Arctic Circle
The Arctic wolf known as One Eye tests the stamina of a lone bull muskoxen on August 20th at 21:37, 2018. Learn more about One Eye and her large family of wild wolves living 700 miles from the North Pole in the 3-part series called Kingdom of the White Wolf #kingdomofthewhitewolf links on how to watch are in my bio.
A common raven pierces the frigid morning air in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. #yellowstonenationalpark @yellowstonenps @yellowstonenps @natgeoexpeditions #wyoming #raven #birdsofinstagram #birdnerd
This scene shows the yearling male known as Grey Mane chasing after a herd of Arctic hares – yes, a herd of hares! This is a followup to a @natgeo post from today. This scene was at the end of a 35 hours stint where the pack was hunting, covering a distance of 60 miles on a mission to make a fresh kill. The 12-week-old pups had begun to whimper and whine in protest. Their young legs and small bodies were exhausted. Grey Mane was a little over a year old, but he was the largest wolf in the pack by size. But he was a skilled hare hunter.
These clips are from a 3 part series about this family of Arctic wolves called Kingdom of the White Wolf. Watch it streaming online – links in my bio. #wolf #arcticwolf #nature #wild #hunting #predator #prey #whitewolf #kingdomofthewhitewolf #arctic #canada #animals #instadaily #instagood Ellesmere Island
It was the wolves that brought in the most likes in 2019. And one Bearzilla. Thank you all for following along and for all of the likes & comments. I look forward to sharing more stories and imagery in 2020. Happy New Year, here’s to the wild ones #bestnine #wolves #wildlife #kingdomofthewhitewolf
Grey Mane, the one year old wolf, weighs his options during a long hunt on the tundra of the High Arctic. A large bull muskoxen stands his ground against Grey Mane and his pack.
At 80 degrees north, the first sunset of the summer was on August 30th. This image was taken on September 10th at 23:40 under a beautiful twilight sky. Imagine 3 months of creating imagery without a single golden hour! It drove me crazy. But in the final weeks of this project, as my body unraveled, the colors and the wolves were magnificent.
Check out the @natgeowild 3-part TV series titled Kingdom of the White Wolf about the same family – available streaming and on @disneyplus links in my bio #kingdomofthewhitewolf #wolves
#wolf #arcticwolf #nature #wild
While many of us are used to the sight of a chimp eating a banana, it’s not actually part of their natural diet. Bananas didn’t even originate on the same continent where chimps live – Africa. Bananas are a Southeast Asia food that was brought to the Africa continent through trade in the last 2,000 years. This photo is of a wild male chimp, known as Araali to the researchers, belonging to the Bulindi chimpanzee, studied by Dr. McLennan (@bulindichimps), eating a banana in someone’s garden in rural western Uganda. The second photo shows another male, named Jack, standing in a eucalyptus tree plantation (another noon native plant) and found a discarded bottle to play with. Not a good thing with how many diseases we share in common with chimps. Photo 3 shows the little strip of forest left where chimps live in this part of western Uganda. Learn more in the story but David Quammen (@davidquammen) and I for @natgeo – link in my bio. Call to action here is to donate $ to the @bulindichimps, link in bio. Thank you.
While many of us are used to the sight of a chimp eating a banana, it’s not actually part of their natural diet. Bananas didn’t even originate on the same continent where chimps live – Africa. Bananas are a Southeast Asia food that was brought to the Africa continent through trade in the last 2,000 years. This photo is of a wild male chimp, known as Araali to the researchers, belonging to the Bulindi chimpanzee, studied by Dr. McLennan (@bulindichimps), eating a banana in someone’s garden in rural western Uganda. The second photo shows another male, named Jack, standing in a eucalyptus tree plantation (another noon native plant) and found a discarded bottle to play with. Not a good thing with how many diseases we share in common with chimps. Photo 3 shows the little strip of forest left where chimps live in this part of western Uganda. Learn more in the story but David Quammen (@davidquammen) and I for @natgeo – link in my bio. Call to action here is to donate $ to the @bulindichimps, link in bio. Thank you.
While many of us are used to the sight of a chimp eating a banana, it’s not actually part of their natural diet. Bananas didn’t even originate on the same continent where chimps live – Africa. Bananas are a Southeast Asia food that was brought to the Africa continent through trade in the last 2,000 years. This photo is of a wild male chimp, known as Araali to the researchers, belonging to the Bulindi chimpanzee, studied by Dr. McLennan (@bulindichimps), eating a banana in someone’s garden in rural western Uganda. The second photo shows another male, named Jack, standing in a eucalyptus tree plantation (another noon native plant) and found a discarded bottle to play with. Not a good thing with how many diseases we share in common with chimps. Photo 3 shows the little strip of forest left where chimps live in this part of western Uganda. Learn more in the story but David Quammen (@davidquammen) and I for @natgeo – link in my bio. Call to action here is to donate $ to the @bulindichimps, link in bio. Thank you.
Images by Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols @michaelnicknichols in collaboration with Yellowstone National Park @yellowstonenps and myself.
It was June 16th, 2014 when I received a voicemail from Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols @michaelnicknichols. We had never spoken before and he wanted to talk to me about camera traps. I called him back on the train from D.C. to Charlottesville and we immediately began to discuss his need for a longterm camera trap assistant for a project in Yellowstone.
The following day, I met with Kathy Moran @kfmoran , at the time the senior natural history editor for National Geographic Magazine, and she officially offered me the position. Kathy said, ‘we’ll give you two weeks to start since you’ve never met Nick and you need to have that first date.’ Two weeks turned into nearly two years working with Nick and it’s remained the most formative time in my career. Spending that time with Nick and his wife Reba in the field was a rare opportunity to learn from a master artist, technician, and storyteller. Nick is a mentor, but more importantly, he’s my friend. •
Nick has a new retrospective book coming out soon with a limited first run needed to reach 500 copies sold before the publisher begins the next run. Find a link with more info in Nick’s profile @michaelnicknichols
•
From the publisher:
WILD is famed wildlife photographer Michael Nichols’ choice of his favorite images. Presented in chronological order from the beginning of his career in 1980, when he used Transparency film and was a Magnum photographer, until 2016, when he had embraced digital capture as the editor at large of National Geographic magazine. Shown without words to explain the images, Nichols is asking the viewer to “look and feel.”
•
“This book is to be displayed and left open to a page that sings for a time. It is as if I had made 240 limited edition prints of my career and had given them to all of you …this is truly meant as a BOOK for FRIENDS.
If you are one of the first 500 people to order this book, you are helping to pay for the printing. You get a dedication, as well as the book and a fine art print.”
– Michael Nichols
A series of images from a recently pulished article by David Quammen and I: Chimps and people are clashing in rural Uganda (link in bio).
.
1 – On this trail near Mparangasi village, a boy fetching water pauses cautiously as chimps pass. Around some villages in western Uganda, small groups of chimpanzees survive in remnant strips and patches of forest. Deprived of wild foods, the chimps emerge to raid crops and cultivated fruit trees, competing desperately with people for sustenance, space, survival.
2 – Two adult male chimps gaze out across what once was primary forest habitat in western Uganda. Besides small-plot farming and sugarcane plantations, vast tea estates have displaced forests.
3 – Land conversion shows starkly from the air, as along this boundary between Kibale National Park, with its protected forest, and the sprawl of tea fields and small farming
4 – A young male chimp clutches a discarded soda bottle as he stands in a young grove of planted eucalyptus trees. Chimps are our closest living relatives and therefore we share communicable diseases with them (think malaria, HIV and ebola) and more commonly respiratory diseases. This level of close contact is troublesome for the increased potential for a spillover event. .
The story is about the dire situation in some towns in western Uganda where humans and chimpanzees have collided from resource competition. It’s a blueprint story for similar conflicts around the world as a result of habitat loss and human encroachment. As is typical with this issue, the animals tend to disappear as they become food or loose their own natural foods. But in Uganda, one of the animals happens to be wild chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. They too are territorial apes living in tribal groups, as we do. Scarcity breeds conflict and there are casualties on both sides. In this series, I’ve highlighted the plight of the chimpanzees and in future posts (as with my previous post) I’ll balance the story with telling the human side of the issue. .
How to help? Send resources/$ to the NGOs working to curb deforestation. In this case, @bulindichimps has successfully been working to find solutions. Link in bio.
A series of images from a recently pulished article by David Quammen and I: Chimps and people are clashing in rural Uganda (link in bio).
.
1 – On this trail near Mparangasi village, a boy fetching water pauses cautiously as chimps pass. Around some villages in western Uganda, small groups of chimpanzees survive in remnant strips and patches of forest. Deprived of wild foods, the chimps emerge to raid crops and cultivated fruit trees, competing desperately with people for sustenance, space, survival.
2 – Two adult male chimps gaze out across what once was primary forest habitat in western Uganda. Besides small-plot farming and sugarcane plantations, vast tea estates have displaced forests.
3 – Land conversion shows starkly from the air, as along this boundary between Kibale National Park, with its protected forest, and the sprawl of tea fields and small farming
4 – A young male chimp clutches a discarded soda bottle as he stands in a young grove of planted eucalyptus trees. Chimps are our closest living relatives and therefore we share communicable diseases with them (think malaria, HIV and ebola) and more commonly respiratory diseases. This level of close contact is troublesome for the increased potential for a spillover event. .
The story is about the dire situation in some towns in western Uganda where humans and chimpanzees have collided from resource competition. It’s a blueprint story for similar conflicts around the world as a result of habitat loss and human encroachment. As is typical with this issue, the animals tend to disappear as they become food or loose their own natural foods. But in Uganda, one of the animals happens to be wild chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. They too are territorial apes living in tribal groups, as we do. Scarcity breeds conflict and there are casualties on both sides. In this series, I’ve highlighted the plight of the chimpanzees and in future posts (as with my previous post) I’ll balance the story with telling the human side of the issue. .
How to help? Send resources/$ to the NGOs working to curb deforestation. In this case, @bulindichimps has successfully been working to find solutions. Link in bio.
A series of images from a recently pulished article by David Quammen and I: Chimps and people are clashing in rural Uganda (link in bio).
.
1 – On this trail near Mparangasi village, a boy fetching water pauses cautiously as chimps pass. Around some villages in western Uganda, small groups of chimpanzees survive in remnant strips and patches of forest. Deprived of wild foods, the chimps emerge to raid crops and cultivated fruit trees, competing desperately with people for sustenance, space, survival.
2 – Two adult male chimps gaze out across what once was primary forest habitat in western Uganda. Besides small-plot farming and sugarcane plantations, vast tea estates have displaced forests.
3 – Land conversion shows starkly from the air, as along this boundary between Kibale National Park, with its protected forest, and the sprawl of tea fields and small farming
4 – A young male chimp clutches a discarded soda bottle as he stands in a young grove of planted eucalyptus trees. Chimps are our closest living relatives and therefore we share communicable diseases with them (think malaria, HIV and ebola) and more commonly respiratory diseases. This level of close contact is troublesome for the increased potential for a spillover event. .
The story is about the dire situation in some towns in western Uganda where humans and chimpanzees have collided from resource competition. It’s a blueprint story for similar conflicts around the world as a result of habitat loss and human encroachment. As is typical with this issue, the animals tend to disappear as they become food or loose their own natural foods. But in Uganda, one of the animals happens to be wild chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. They too are territorial apes living in tribal groups, as we do. Scarcity breeds conflict and there are casualties on both sides. In this series, I’ve highlighted the plight of the chimpanzees and in future posts (as with my previous post) I’ll balance the story with telling the human side of the issue. .
How to help? Send resources/$ to the NGOs working to curb deforestation. In this case, @bulindichimps has successfully been working to find solutions. Link in bio.
A series of images from a recently pulished article by David Quammen and I: Chimps and people are clashing in rural Uganda (link in bio).
.
1 – On this trail near Mparangasi village, a boy fetching water pauses cautiously as chimps pass. Around some villages in western Uganda, small groups of chimpanzees survive in remnant strips and patches of forest. Deprived of wild foods, the chimps emerge to raid crops and cultivated fruit trees, competing desperately with people for sustenance, space, survival.
2 – Two adult male chimps gaze out across what once was primary forest habitat in western Uganda. Besides small-plot farming and sugarcane plantations, vast tea estates have displaced forests.
3 – Land conversion shows starkly from the air, as along this boundary between Kibale National Park, with its protected forest, and the sprawl of tea fields and small farming
4 – A young male chimp clutches a discarded soda bottle as he stands in a young grove of planted eucalyptus trees. Chimps are our closest living relatives and therefore we share communicable diseases with them (think malaria, HIV and ebola) and more commonly respiratory diseases. This level of close contact is troublesome for the increased potential for a spillover event. .
The story is about the dire situation in some towns in western Uganda where humans and chimpanzees have collided from resource competition. It’s a blueprint story for similar conflicts around the world as a result of habitat loss and human encroachment. As is typical with this issue, the animals tend to disappear as they become food or loose their own natural foods. But in Uganda, one of the animals happens to be wild chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. They too are territorial apes living in tribal groups, as we do. Scarcity breeds conflict and there are casualties on both sides. In this series, I’ve highlighted the plight of the chimpanzees and in future posts (as with my previous post) I’ll balance the story with telling the human side of the issue. .
How to help? Send resources/$ to the NGOs working to curb deforestation. In this case, @bulindichimps has successfully been working to find solutions. Link in bio.
Castle Geyser eruptiom from a few days ago in Yellowstone National Park’s Upper Geyser Basin. Wandering through the basin’s primordial landscape is as close as I feel to traveling back in time to an age when the Earth was young. The winter palette combined with the cold air temperatures compliments the geyser eruptions nicely. Castle Geyser typically erupts in a 10-12 hour cycle, with its 90ft tall water eruption lasting ~20 minutes followed by ~40 minutes of its steam phase. #yellowstonenationalpark @yellowstonenps #geyser #supervolcano @nationalparkservice
Two wild juvenile chimps having a playful wrestle in a day nest high in the canopy of Kibale National Park, Uganda. Have a playful weekend😃
I could watch slow motion muskoxen in the wind everyday and never grow tired of it. They are incredible animals and are so well adapted to the North. Here, the herd is grouped together in a protective formation while a pack of Arctic wolves tests the herd for weakness. Male muskoxen only put on weight for 2 months out of the year and the rest of the time they are either maintaining or losing weight. I filmed this scene for the series called Kingdom of the White Wolf #kingdomofthewhitewolf for @natgeowild and now on @disneyplus links in my bio for where to watch the series.
I always love these moments when the adults join in for a good game of wrestle. This wild adult male chimpanzee, known to the researchers as Big Brown, was 45 years old in this video – a grandfather in the wild chimp world. He’s playing with 7 year old Likizo. I get such a kick out Big Brown’s move towards the end 😁 Kibale National Park
