The Bradford Exchange Collector Plates - Featuring Larry Thorngren's Yellowstone Wolves

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The Bradford Exchange has produced a five plate collection of my Yellowstone Wolf Photos for sale. This is the first time they have featured a wildlife photographer on any of their collector plates. I feel honored to have them use my photos in this series.

Wildlife Services Needs to be Abolished

WildLife Services uses airplanes like this one to shoot wolves from the air in western states. This agency kills thousands of animals each year to subsidize the livestock industry in the west. This plane was buzzing wolves in Yellowstone when I took this photo.
This Huffington Post  article  explains the reasons this agency should be abolished:
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendy-keefoverring/federal-aerial-wolf-kille_b_1151483.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Lamar Canyon Pack Pups Playing - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Sometime a photographer sees a lot more than he can adequately photograph. These pups were too far away and I was shooting into the sun, but I enjoyed watching them play for over an hour about a month ago.
I took lots of photos that are good enough for this blog, but will not be sharp enough to enlarge to any size.

Right now in Idaho, where I live, pups like these are being shot, trapped, and snared by the neck in the Idaho Fish and Game Department's War On Wolves. The department, at the request of Idaho Governor Butch Otter, is going to kill over 600 wolves this winter out of a total number of about 850. I have always been a moderate on wolves, but this is not good management.   It is a callous disregard for anything close to fair chase and good game management practice. Treating wolves this way is criminal.

Pocket Gopher - Red Cliffs, Utah

I hope this is a pocket gopher. I don't have a mammal ID book with me.
 I was sitting at my picnic table in the Red Cliffs Campground here in Utah when this little rodent started coming part way out of its' burrow and  clipping grass and stuffing it in its' pockets. You can see the bulge (pocket) where the grass is stored below and behind its' ear. After it had its' pockets full, it would disappear into its' burrow for a minute to empty its' pockets, and suddenly appear and start the whole process over again. This is the first time I have seen these animals active during the day. They are usually nocturnal.

Trapped Wolf in Alaska

http://www.alaskamagazine.com/blogs/trapped
Here is a link to a photo of a trapped wolf in Alaska. Anyone who would treat any animal like this needs to be jailed.

Dinosaur Egg? - Southern Utah

I found this strange item embedded in a coarse sandstone boulder along with two others. This one and one other had been broken open sometime in the past millions of years. The sandstone boulder it is in seemed to be an erratic. That is it didn't match the red sandstone it was sitting on. It appeared to be part of a deposit left by a flood as there were other strange rocks around the area that didn't seem to match the red sandstone either.
The round structure at the end looks a lot like a yolk.
Anyone out there that knows what this is?

Desert Bighorn Rams Fighting - Zion National Park, Utah

These two rams have just impacted during a fight. The shock of the impact has knocked hair up into the air off of the back of the ram on the right. The impact has thrown the back legs of both rams up off of the ground and driven the ram on the left toward the ground.. The skulls of bighorn rams are thick and filled with air spaces to protect their brains from damage
These rams were knocking heads frequently all one afternoon, but were often just out of sight over the ridge they are on. The sound of the collisions could be heard for  close to a mile in the quiet desert air.

Dinosaur Tracks near Saint George, Utah

I went to a Dinosaur Museum in St. George that had lots of tracks on display. I thought to myself "I could find some of those." I am camped about 15 miles north of St. George and so I went looking. I found a slab of ancient greenish rock and there were quite a few tracks on it. This trail had six tracks about 3 1/2 feet apart. There are 4 of the tracks in this photo. I will report my find to the BLM office in St. George on Monday and see if it is important or not.
This area was once  the shore of an ancient fresh water lake where the dinosaurs hunted each other and caught fish to eat as well. These tracks were obviously put down in thick sticky mud and were not perfectly clear, but it was fun to find them by just going out and looking. Just 3 toes on each foot were visible and they don't look big enough to be a T-Rex. You can use my rock hammer to compare for size.

Great Blue Heron With Catfish - Donnelly, Idaho

Here is a photo I took this summer a short distance from where I live. This Great Blue Heron is trying to figure out how to avoid the spines on this Bullhead Catfish it has speared in order to swallow it. If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it, you can see the heron's sharp bill has completely penetrated the catfish and is sticking out the other side.

Desert Bighorns - Zion National Park, Utah

I have a tendency to concentrate on taking photos of the big rams, but the rocks and natural beauty of Zion along with these bighorn ewes and young ram made for a pretty picture. There are so many different rock types and formations in Zion that it is hard to take a bad photo.

Desert Bighorn Ram - Zion National Park, Utah

I took this photo two days ago and just had time to process it. This is the largest ram I have seen in Zion since I came here two weeks ago.
If this ram lives for another four or five years and his horns keep growing, he will be VERY impressive.

Desert Ram Jumping Up Cliff - Zion National Park, Utah

This big ram is starting his jump to the next level as he climbs a cliff in Zion National Park. Bighorns are like  combination Gymnast/Rock Climbers. You can see the corded muscles in both front and back legs as he makes his move.

Fighting Bighorns - Zion National Park, Utah

The ram on the left is about to deliver what he hopes is a crushing blow to the ram on the right. The rams are like Karate fighters and will turn their horns to strike with the sharp edge of their horns just as they make contact. These rams were very evenly matched and fought off and on all afternoon. The ram on the right caught the blow with his horns and suffered no damage.

Big Boys - Desert Bighorn Rams - Zion National Park

I finally found some! These are the largest desert bighorn rams I have found so far. The light was harsh and too bright, but it was great to see these two rams. I got several shots of them fighting later and will post them over the next few days. I will be looking for them again tomorrow morning.

"Hi Dad" - Desert Bighorn Lamb and Ram - Zion National Park, Utah

This lamb has come up to stand by a mature ram who may or not be its' father.  Rams join the family groups of ewes and lambs in early winter during the rut. The rams usually stay with other rams in herds by themselves for most of the year, although that is not a hard and fast rule.
This ram has broken off the tip of his right horn during a battle with another ram.

Pretty Boy - Desert Bighorn - Zion National Park, Utah

The desert bighorn ram in this group looks so pretty that he resembles a stuffed toy. He doesn't show much wear and tear from fighting other rams. I took this photo last week and have been looking for this ram to get a closeup photo of him ever since. I will look again today.

Desert Bighorn Ewe Scratching Her Ear - Zion National Park, Utah

The same flexible toes that allow this Desert Bighorn Ewe to grip the rock cliffs she traverses everyday, work well to hold her ear and scratch both sides at the same time.

Desert Bighorn Ram - Zion National Park, Utah

This ram is displaying his horns to some ewes he is following. Bighorns have a number of visual displays they use to communicate to each other. The outside of his horn is keratin, just like our fingernails. It is naturally a dull white in color. The horn gets its' golden brown color from the ram butting and rubbing his head against trees and getting sap, tree bark and dirt on the horns. The horn has a bone core on the inside.
I like bighorn sheep. They are easy to see and approach. They generally live in spectacular mountainous country, which is an added bonus when photographing them..
They are very susceptible to diseases carried by domestic sheep and often suffer large die offs when they come in contact with their domestic cousins. I would like to see domestic sheep banned from grazing on all public lands.

Desert Bighorn Ewe - Zion National Park, Utah

This Desert Bighorn Ewe shows off her agiilty as she jumps from one rock to another. Bighorns are vey good at traveling in rough rocky country. They make moves like this one seem routine.

Desert Bighorn Ram At Sunset - Zion National Park, Utah

I took this photo just a few hours ago as the sun was setting over Zion National Park. The sunlight was no longer shining in the canyon where this ram was posing, but there was enough warm light reflecting  around to give this shot a nice pastel effect.