by Doug and Andrea Peacock A pale illumination creeps across the
mountain meadow towards a wedge of moon just rising over the
high peaks of the Gallatin Range. It is a few hours before
sunrise, still cool in these early days of summer on the
northwest corner of Yellowstone Park. At the base of a lodgepole
pine, a grizzly bear looks out to the west. He lifts his head at
the sound of a distant vehicle shattering the silence of the
night. The bear is a young male, having slept through five
winters. He knows where he is going: some fifty miles southwest
to the land where he was raised as a cub, a hazardous trip
across major highways, open river bottoms and two small towns.
To remain where he is would be precarious: it is the mating
season for grizzlies. Three days ago, a larger boar attacked him
and bit him viciously on the flank. The bear rises from his bed
and stretches. He moves down off the bench, across the sagebrush
studded flat, toward the willow bottom and the road that runs
along the river. He crouches i