Monthly Archives: December 2008

Stop! In the Name of Snow!

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A snowy scene in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

One last picture of my favorite stop sign, an environmental portrait if you can consider a picture of a stop sign an environmental portrait. I think it shows nicely how much it was snowing that day, as well as how most people (and dogs) were choosing to get around our snowy neighborhood.

Speaking of dogs, we did go up to the Humane Society this weekend to look over their selection of dogs but didn’t come home with one. We loved all three we looked at but weren’t sure they were right for us and the cats. Two of the three dogs have since been adopted and they were the two I thought would be hardest to adopt.

My favorite cat at the shelter also got adopted, we weren’t considering adding another but I was charmed by this one in particular, at 13 years old I’m glad she found a good home (and no, it wasn’t ours).

Hibernation

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A hoary marmot rests on a rock on the Pinnacle Peak Trail in Mount Rainier National Park

This hoary marmot in Mount Rainier will have long since started its hibernation, here though it’s just resting on a nice day in the fall. Take a look at those claws, I thought our cats needed a trim!

I did a little hibernating of my own today, I felt ill when I woke up this morning so I went back to bed, the next thing I knew it was 3 p.m. I had a partner hibernating with me, or at least it seemed that way, as every time I woke up Sam was curled up tight against my body. He wasn’t there when I first woke up, only Scout was keeping me company, but as soon as he joined us Scout moved so she could curl up with both of us.

Velvet

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Young male elk with velvet antlers in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park

Since it was late September, I was surprised to see the antlers of these two young males still covered in velvet, the skin and blood vessels that supply nutrients to the antlers as the grow anew each year (the fine hairs give rise to the velvet name). Both were part of the same elk herd as the older bull in the previous post.

The dominant bull was an even older bull with a full rack of antlers on his head, I was also surprised to see him let the younger males in the herd, mixing in with the females of his harem. I did see a couple of older bulls half-heartedly sparring elsewhere in the rainforest, but all of the males here were getting along just fine.

I love the bugling call of the bulls during the rut so I was sorry I only heard the calls once in Mount Rainier and not at all in the Olympics. The rut would have been winding down this time of year in Wyoming, but I must have missed the prime time for Washington.

Young male elk with velvet antlers in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park

Roosevelt

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Elk bull in the Hoh Rainforest area of Olympic National Park

The race of elk we have in the Pacific Northwest are known as Roosevelt elk, which I believe are named for Theodore Roosevelt in honor of his early push to protect them. I came across this bull, part of a larger herd, on a rainy morning near the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park.

While President Cleveland protected some of the forests of the Olympic Peninsula in 1897 by declaring an Olympic Forest Reserve, the protection did not extend to the elk who lived there and in a few years less than 2,000 survived. President Roosevelt (Theodore, not Franklin) established the Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909 to protect the elk, but future politicians cut back the acreage to half of its original size.

President Roosevelt (Franklin, not Theodore) granted National Park status in 1938 after visiting the area, the status it has retained to the current day, protecting not only the elk that bear the Roosevelt name but also the many plants and animals that are unique to the Olympic Peninsula.

You can find more info about the park at the official park site and in a PDF on the history of its park status.