SNAPSHOT

Photographer MIKE CLARK, who lives in Denver and Helena, watched this pronghorn and her two fawns during several snowy days in early spring just outside Yellowstone National Park’s northwestern entrance at Gardiner. “We didn’t think the fawns would survive. The snow was heavy and wet, the fawns were soaked the whole time, and we could hear coyotes at night in all directions,” Clark says. “She would hide the fawns in a slight depression and then position herself far enough away to not call attention to them. It was tough to watch, because it was snowing hard and the fawns were exposed out there on their own. But every few hours she’d return and nudge them up to run around and nurse. Each morning we were sure they’d died. But after a while we’d see their ears sticking up from behind a slight rise and cheer that they’d made it through one more night.” ■