Yellowstone Migrations: Preserving Freedom to Roam

Riis, Joe

Imagine you’re standing still in the heart of the American West. Listen closely and you might hear a faint, but recognizable sound—the pounding of hooves moving through rocky terrain. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—a dozen times the size of Yellowstone National Park—harbors the last great populations of elk, pronghorn antelope, and mule deer. For millennia, thousands of these grand animals have coursed through this region with the turn of the seasons to feed and give birth, but scientists have only recently discovered how significant their migrations truly are. Photographer Joe Riis came to Yellowstone to reveal these previously invisible migrations. As a young boy, Joe was transported to far away worlds by the images in National Geographic, and he never let go of the curiosity those images stirred within him. And now his images, in Yellowstone Migrations, will carry you into the heart of a vast, still wild landscape. You’ll follow pronghorn, elk, and mule deer as they make their months-long journeys, navigating through many natural challenges such as rivers, lakes, and sand dunes, and man-made obstacles, including major highways, hundreds of fences, and a changing climate, that put them at great risk. You will meet a group of unique and curious individuals who worked together first as colleagues and eventually as friends, tightly bound by their desire to protect these wild creatures. These artists and scientists will show you that it is possible to preserve the natural heritage of the American West. Listen, and you’ll hear their invitation to you: to help these animals to carry out the migrations that are essential to their survival and give the region its pulse.