Blue camas blooms in June throughout the wetlands east of Jackson Lake. Following a forest fire, the lodgepole pine is one of the first trees to make a comeback as fire triggers the tree's cones to release seeds. A member of the poplar family and related to cottonwoods, its thin leaves quiver in the slightest breeze, hence its name. They scatter into high meadows and forests during the summer but come to the refuge in winter when the mountain snows are deep. In autumn, the bugling call of bull elk trying to attract mates lends an otherworldly sound to the fall air.
Males have large flat antlers, while females and young have none.
Their long, spindly legs help them maneuver through bogs in search of succulent water plants. Although they don't look similar to white-tailed and mule deer, moose are actually relatives of those smaller ungulates. Bull moose antlers grow a half inch to one inch every day throughout the spring and summer, attaining an average weight of 50 to 60 pounds before they're shed every year in March. A closer relative to the bison than to the elk, pronghorn can run up to 40 mph and leap as far as 20 feet in a single bound. Often called buffalo, these relatives of domestic cattle were nearly exterminated near the turn of the century.