Two things you don't see in this photo, which we didn't see either until we pulled out the trusty binoculars, are her little fawn hunkered down nearby and a coyote further away. The mom was obviously agitated. She crossed the barbed wire fence in the background. Her baby crawled under it. Then we noticed that the mom started running away from the fawn's location at a pretty good clip. In a couple of minutes she was much farther away and had crossed back to this side of the fence again. This is where we finally realized what she was doing. A coyote was trying to grab her fawn and she was luring it away. Next thing we knew she darted straight at the coyote. He took off, zigzaging to avoid mom's charge. This happened several times. The coyote always just managing to escape the mom pronghorn's charges. Finally she chased him back across the fence and over a hill, where they disappeared from view. Noboby else whizzing by us on the interstate had any idea of the little nature drama that had just taken place.
At Wall SD we turned south and headed into the Badlands. I wanted to show Lynne the amazing thing about the Badlands, which is how they just drop away from the land surface on which you approach them. To understand that, check out this video, if you haven't already:
Lily: "Where did Sherman go?
Lynne: "Don't go there? BTW, where is the insurance policy?"
Actually, I survived!!
A panoramic shot of the Badlands:
We added several more FIRSTs to our travels on this day:
Our FIRST Yellowbelly Racer -- An Open Range, Grasslands Snake
Our FIRST Close-up View of a Prairie Dog Colony
I don't know what has attacted these four pups' attention. Obviously it is not us. Perhaps it's.........
Our FIRST Bison
This bison (with ox-pecker bird aboard) is considering whether or not to charge. Thankfully he decided not to.
A few more shots...............
How are the Badlands formed? Simply, by erosion. Specifically, this hoodoo is formed by raindrop erosion, which detaches the rock particles, and flowing water, which carries off the detached rock particles.
Evidence of the erosion is provided by this benchmark which was placed here by the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads in 1959. It was placed ON THE GROUND SURFACE at the time. Today, the ground surface is almost 1 foot lower. That is how much erosion has taken place at this site in 52 years.
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