Yellowstone Facts #3

During the fires of 1988, the park was completely closed to visitors for the first time since it opened in 1872.  The park was closed for one day on August 20, 1988.

Smoke plumes from the Yellowstone fires could be seen from the space shuttle, and ashes fell 100 miles away in Billings, Montana.

August 20, 1988 became known as "Black Saturday" when hurricane-force winds blasted through the park, whipping fires to a frenzy and burning 165,000 acres in one day.

About 80% of Yellowstone Park is forested.

About 50% of the 60 mammal species in Yellowstone Park are rodents such as voles, pocket gophers, and mice.

60% of a coyote's diet is made up of rodents.

A muskrat can stay underwater for up to 20 minutes.

A single five (5) ounce pocket gopher can move up to five (5) tons of soil in a typical year.

A moose can keep its head underwater for three (3) minutes.

There are 100 to 200 wolves in Yellowstone Park, but there are 1,000 coyotes in the park.

It's estimated that about 10,000 elk, 4,000 bison, 1,000 deer, and 500 pronghorn antelope live in Yellowstone National Park.

An average porcupine has 30,000 quills.

The trumpeter swan is North America's largest waterfowl, weighing about 30 pounds with a wingspan of eight feet.

There are 40 species of mosquitoes and 80 species of bees living in Yellowstone Park.

A grizzly bear will typically eat 35 pounds of food in a day, consuming 20,000 calories daily, and gain 40 pounds of weight every week.

Bears have 42 teeth.

The hump on a grizzly bear's back is made of muscle, which aids in digging for food and to make dens.

A typical female grizzly bear will give birth once every three years.

About 40 percent of grizzly cubs die in their first year of life.

A male grizzly bear will typically lose 30 percent of its body weight during hibernation.  A female grizzly bear will lose 40 percent or more of its weight if she is nursing cubs.

A bear cub weighs about one pound when it is born in the den in January.  Having eaten nothing other than the mother's milk since birth, the cub will weigh about 20 pounds when it exits the den.

From a standing start, a grizzly bear can run 100 meters in just six (6) seconds.

Cow milk is two to four percent fat, but grizzly bear milk is 50 percent fat.

A black bear's hearing is about twice as sensitive as a human's hearing.

Grizzly bears can live up to 30 years in the wild.

An adult male black bear can weigh 300 to 500 pounds while an adult male grizzly bear can weigh 500 to 800 pounds.

96 percent of Yellowstone is in Wyoming, 3 percent in Montana, and 1 percent in Idaho.

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel was the first lodge built in Yellowstone, opening in 1883.  It was torn down in 1936, an a new complex was built.

Former President Gerald Ford worked as a seasonal employee in Yellowstone in 1936.

The top causes of death in Yellowstone are car crashes, illness, drowning, and falls.

On average in the summer, the water temperature of Yellowstone Lake is 41F.  The average survival time in water that cold is 30 minutes.