Open Spaces

Photographer Captures The Yellowstone Migration

Wyoming Public Radio | By Melodie Edwards

Published October 27, 2017 at 4:29 PM MDT

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Elk migrating over a high mountain pass on the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. This photo was made with a motion triggered camera trap, the elk did not know that they were being photographed.

Joe Riis

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Mule deer migrating in western Wyoming near the town of Pinedale, Wyoming. These mule deer migrate 150 miles one way, making it the longest known deer migration in the world.

Joe Riis

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Mule deer buck migrating south for the winter. Joe Riis has dedicated a decade of fieldwork to his Yellowstone Migrations photography project.

Joe Riis

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Mule deer migrating south for the winter, these deer are part of the herd of 5000 deer that make up the "Red Desert to Hoback migration". They must cross several highways and fences before they reach their wintering grounds near I-80 in southern Wyoming.

Joe Riis / Wyoming Migration Initiative

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Elk on the move as spring turns to summer. Of the roughly 900,000 Rocky Mountain elk in North America, some 20,000 migrate through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Joe Riis

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Bull elk migrating out of Yellowstone National Park into the lower elevation ranch lands for the winter. It's massive antlers catch snow as its brushes by trees. This photo was made with a motion triggered camera trap. Joe Riis has dedicated a decade of f

Joe Riis

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Backcountry field camp. Photographer Joe Riis worked with Cody, WY guides and outfitter Lee Livingston for his elk migration fieldwork.

Joe Riis

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In search of the elk summering grounds; backcountry guide Wes Livingston, elk researcher Arthur Middleton, and photographer Joe Riis and their horses/mules navigate a small pond in the headwaters region of the Yellowstone River.

Joe Riis

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Joe Riis portrait. Joe often uses motion activated cameras to document the Yellowstone migrations, showcasing upclose wide-angle views of animals on the move, without disturbing them. Joe has dedicated a decade of fieldwork to the Yellowstone Migrations

Joe Riis

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Grizzly bear on the trail of the fall elk migration in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Grizzly bears rely on elk calves in the spring and elk gut piles from hunters in the fall as significant food sources.

Joe Riis

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A band of pronghorn antelope, primarily female does with a few male bucks in the back, migrate south for the winter in western Wyoming. Pronghorn antelope are the only endemic ungulate in North America.

Joe Riis

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A pronghorn caught in a fence on her annual migration. This fence has a barbed bottom wire a few inches off the ground, forcing this doe pronghorn to jump the fence, and got its wrist tangled in the top two wires, a common way for pronghorn to die. Luckil

Joe Riis

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Pronghorn antelope migrating south for the winter, passing near the town of Pinedale, WY. These pronghorn summer in Grand Teton National Park, but must migrate out of the protected area for the winter, passing several highways, fences, and residential are

Joe Riis

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Joe Riis

It’s only been in the last few years that scientists have realized that pronghorn, elk and mule deer are migrating rugged terrain over hundreds of miles to reach the best grazing around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

It’s almost impossible to conceive what these animals endure on those journeys. But that’s what wildlife photographer Joe Riis set out to document through pictures.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards talked to him about his new book, Yellowstone Migrations…and how he got into photography in the first place.