Antelope fawns Yellowstone

Yellowstone Day 4

Yesterday we had a rather difficult day. Getting into the park was problematic. We lost out hot water heater and although we thought we had solved the problem by flipping the breaker switch it seems that there were other problems with the unit besides the breaker. I sent someone down into the hold, which as you know, is located way down in the bowels of the vessel, to check the water heater visually for any abnormalities. So far he has not returned. That was late last night and the debate that is raging on at this moment is whether to send someone else down there to check on the missing crewman, or to simply abandon ship and try and make their way back to civilization somehow. The fact that one of crewmen swears he heard screaming coming from down there doesn’t help any. I fear for the safety of the Bokeh Maru if any more crewmen desert.

Big Lemon has volunteered to go down into the hold to search for and perhaps rescue our missing crewman but I vetoed that idea as I need him up here to maintain order with these mutinous cutthroats I have left. I heard one of them trying to break into the strawberry locker and after sending Big Lemon to handle the situation I find I am down yet one more crewman. Things are beginning to look bleak indeed. If this keeps up I may have to take a turn at the wheel myself.

Even with the mounting problems of maintenance and low morale we have to keep focused with the task at hand which is gathering information that may be unknown to the traveling public and somehow present it in a way that pays for this trip. We’ve tried t-shirt sales with marginal success in another venture we had here in the park. We’ve tried setting up a food stand next to the highway but people began to demand to know what kind of meat we were serving and that led to disastrous results. It seemed like we had reached a stopping point when ExcuseMeMs presented what may be a trip saving solution.

“Why don’t you try taking pictures. Maybe you could sell some.” See that’s why it’s good to have more than one brain working on a problem. What a great idea. We have a camera. We have the opportunity. We have the desire. It’s like a natural solution. When you sink into the morass of your everyday life and are struggling to keep your head above water and whatever may be floating in it, you sometimes forget that the simple solutions are often the best. When it looked like we finally had a way out of our dire predicament a ragged cheer rang out from our bedraggled crew. At least what was left of them. ” Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah” rang weakly through the cabin as they attempted to lift ExcuseMeMs to their shoulders and march around in celebration. She wasn’t having any of that however and Big Lemon had to step in with his truncheon to help them regain their decorum. I’m beginning to change my opinion about ExcuseMeMs and think she may turn into a valuable member of the crew yet.

It’s easy to have a plan but difficult to implement unless you have strong leadership abilities. Where to start? What to shoot? I immediately set lookouts fore and aft to report if they saw anything alive. Soon reports began to drift down to the control room of live things that could have their pictures taken. The excitement was palpable as report after report of wild animals sighted here and there arrived. Many of them had to be discounted as they were sightings of mosquitos or road kill or people dressed in animal costumes walking along the road, but soon we hit the motherlode.

Every spring in Yellowstone National park a strange ritualistic event happens. Animal groups or more specifically female members of those groups, spontaneously begin to divide in two producing exact copies of themselves, apparently just because they can. Here is an example of this process, well, the aftermath of the process, the dividing thing has already occurred. This female is obviously experienced at this as she has been able to do it twice at the same time. The image above shows two of these clone-like small creatures doing what appears to be their main activity. They run back and forth constantly until they return to the mothership for what appears to be a refueling  operation, then they run some more until they fall exhausted to the ground to rest. Then they begin the process all over again. This is an endless occupation for them.

antelope fawns nursing

The adult is shown cooperating in another part of the process by providing an unknown substance to the two offspring. Not much is known about this process, at first we thought this to be some kind of simple refueling process but it appears to be more than that and we intend to look into to it further at a later date, but we do know that it involves the transfer of a liquid that the young appear to accept readily. Do not be alarmed they are not hurting her. This is apparently a natural act.

We are not sure how well-known this phenomenon is but we intend to introduce it to the general public as soon as we return to the Institute to see what the reaction is. If it is favorable we’re going to slam them with a full press campaign. T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, bumper stickers (“Got Milk?” No wait that one has been used already.) Anything that will pander to their voracious need for souvenir lust.

Exhausted with our efforts of shooting these small but cute creatures we feel that we have completely exhausted the opportunities for photographs in Yellowstone National Park and are preparing to move on the morning tide to other places that may have exploitable events. Ringing the Get Aboard bell so those scavenging out in the fields can get aboard we make ready to begin a new adventure tomorrow.

P.S. As we were leaving this guy flagged us down and asked to be included in our presentation. We weren’t that excited about him but he gave us two field mice and a vole so we took his picture. He seemed so depressed we didn’t have the heart to reject his offer.

Red Fox