William H. Wiley
402-875-1809
bill@wmwiley.com
1221 Rockhurst Dr.
Lincoln, NE 68510
Savoring the sunshine, a yellow-bellied marmot perches on top of a granite rock while surveying a meadow. Marmots weigh 6.5 to 8.5 pounds, live in rockpiles and hibernate during winter. They are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with each other when alarmed.
Feasting on freshly caught salmon, a brown bear and her cub are wet from wading, swimming and lunging at salmon spawning at McNeil River in Alaska. Cubs usually weigh less than a pound at birth and stay with their mothers an average of 2 ½ years before separating and becoming independent. The lifespan of brown bears of both sexes within minimally hunted populations is estimated to be 25 years.
On a bitter cold February morning, a coyote asserts itself over another for reasons unknown. Yellowstone coyotes weigh from 30 to 40 pounds, stand less than two feet tall and live an average of about six years, although one Yellowstone coyote lived to be more than 13 before it was killed and eaten by a cougar. Coyotes are easy to distinguish from their much larger relative, the gray wolf, by their overall slight appearance compared to the massive 75 to 125-pound stockiness of a wolf.
