A production of: Nature Scene is made possible in part by viewer donations to: additional funding is provided by: ♪ easy music ♪ Hello, and welcome to Nature Scene.

I'm Jim Welch with naturalist Rudy Mancke.

Today we're at Devils Tower National Monument on the fringe of the Black Hills in northeastern Wyoming specifically right on the edge of the Belle Fourche river.

And, Rudy, this would make for a very interesting hike for us because of where we are.

And the great amount of diversity here, Jim and the geology.

It's great to be in the western part of the United States because the geological features are so much more obvious here than in the east.

And we'll talk a little bit about Devils Tower and how it formed-- great story.

But then also, we always look at plants and animals and the diversity of plants and animals here is great so we should have a pretty good time looking at them.

When you get near water, of course there are quite a few plants that are going to be right by the river here that we would not see elsewhere.

So we might want to start off with a couple of broad-leaved trees.

The one that's very obvious behind us here is one of the maples.

Ash-leaved maple is one name for it because the leaves do resemble ash leaves.

Another name for it is Box Elder.

That's the one that it's usually called.

The leaves may fool you, but look at the fruit.

See it hanging down there?

And that's typical maple fruit dangling down.

So one of the maples doing well right on this river terrace.

Really, that's what we're standing on here.

Rudy, there's a bird coming up to the Box Elder.

Mm-hmm, yeah, and look at the color of the head-- solid red and one of the woodpeckers, so... Redheaded woodpecker.

Redheaded woodpecker makes sense.

Both sexes have that brilliant red head once they become adults.

And then, speaking of ash right off to the side is Green Ash.

Both trees really enjoying wet places.

And then right off in front and just look in that direction.

Look at all of the trees standing up many of them dead.

Some dead.

Far-gone, yeah.

Those are the Cottonwoods that do very well along river situations.

They're not really long-lived trees but big ones, you see, dominating.

And here's one, really, right over there that's doing very well-- leaves blowing in the breeze.

Rudy, perhaps understandably the state tree of Wyoming.

Mm-hmm, and that species is pretty widespread all over from here east in the United States.

But a beautiful tree, isn't it?

And offering a good bit of shade in an otherwise rather wide, open place.

And here's a plant right in front of us-- one of the shrubby plants never getting to be tree-size.

If you crush the leaves you would get a very interesting smell.

And that's one of the plants that is called Sage.

It does well in dry areas but it's also doing well this fairly open situation by the river.

Still pretty sandy here.

When you think of out west you think of tumbleweeds and sage.

Sagebrush, yeah, and this is one of the plants that gets called sagebrush.

Now, look down the river here.

There's one other story.

We talked geological story.

Look at the red beds outcropping down there.

Those were laid down oh, 180 or so million years ago during Jurassic times now being exposed by the movement of the river.

And, of course, this river is carving out a valley for itself and exposing a lot of the geological history of this place.

That's red clay, Rudy?

Kind of a clay, shaley, sandstoney material.

Jim, look down at the bottom.

Look at the Whitetail deer-- a doe.

Oh, yeah.

See, right down there in the grass.

Beautiful animal.

Look at those large ears easing away from us a little bit.

And the tail-- little bit of darkness on the top of the tail but not really heavily black at the end like a blacktail deer would be.

Seems troubled by something.

Yeah, moving on up away from us.

I guess she spotted us but still, yeah, moving up the hill looking over her shoulder every now and then as if there's something else going on.

Is that a... Look at the little fawn down there.

With the speckled white.

Spotted.

Yeah, spotted white.

Yeah, yeah, spotted fawn.

Usually they have twins.

This must be the first one for that one.

Usually there's just a single fawn in the beginning.

White tail-- look at that flag raised as the fawn's going up the... Rudy, that must be why, of course she was waiting and so nervous.

Yeah, yeah, pushing up that hill with the back legs.

That's where the power is in those animals.

and then look at them together.

♪ Bouncing away... And away from us into the woods.

Oh, that's amazing.

A lot of diversity here, lots of mammals.

I think we're going to be able-- in the west usually-- to see a large variety of mammals, very obviously.

Why don't we head off in this direction and get on a little higher terrace next.

♪ It does seem so much more dry as we get away from the river.

Dries out quickly.

Yet there's a lot of forage here for whitetail deer.

Yeah, trees, though, begin to go away.

Those broad-leaved trees don't do well without a lot of water.

Oh, my goodness gracious.

Look at the tower of rock.

Wow!

Isn't that phenomenal?

Rudy, it looks almost like a giant tree stump, petrified wood.

Well, I guess it does to one degree or another.

Columns are very obvious there.

And how in the world big crystal-like columns develop, of course lets us know that that's igneous rock.

I mean, it's got to be liquid slowly cooling to form those crystals.

So when it first came in it wasn't sticking up in the sky.

It was buried.

Intrusive rock.

We got to get a little closer to that.

And then look at the top as it's almost flattened off on the top.

No wonder it was proclaimed a national monument-- the first in the nation, in fact-- 1906.

Mm-hmm, oh, that is a spectacular view.

We'll get a little closer look and other looks, as we go along.

Pines all along the base, there.

No hardwoods up there.

It's just not... Not wet enough drying out a little bit.

And then sprawled out here, of course, on this level is the prairie.

And there's no doubt the animal that's sticking up out there.

Look at them all over the place.

Prairie dogs everywhere you look.

Prairie dogs.

They do make a doglike yip-yip-yip kind of sound, so... Not really of the dog family.

No, not at all-- one of the rodents and really, you see, a pretty good-sized animal.

Great burrowers.

Able to dig fairly deep-- ten, 15 feet or so in the ground and pretty sophisticated burrows.

Look at the one eating over there sitting up and nibbling on material.

They feed on plant material mainly.

They will take some insects, though.

Grasshoppers, I imagine, are pretty common here and easy to catch and they change them into prairie dogs.

Look at the adult with the young one coming alongside-- see it?

Very social.

Yeah, these really are social animals.

This is the Black- Tailed prairie dog.

There's another species that's found south of here but the black-tailed prairie dog is the more social of the two and there's good communication activities there.

And, of course, they warn each other when there are problems in the area.

That could be.

You know, some books say as many as 25 billion on earth at one time.

Could be the communication that helped them become so prolific.

Oh, yeah, well, these are social animals.

There's no doubt about that.

Usually pulling down material around the mound.

Look at the one looks like it's got whiskers on it almost.

Like a walrus.

Uh-huh, collecting plant material.

Could use that for bedding if it's dead material or, of course, could be nibbling on it if it's fresh.

But doing their work there and then using that hole as protection from predators and also from the elements.

You know, when it's raining or lightning or hailing or something like that then you go down in the ground get away from all of those bad conditions.

And what does... What is the main predator?

Well, hawks will get them when they're sitting up sometimes.

There are snakes that will come and go down the hole and get them.

And then the rare ferret that may be still alive in the united states today.

May not be any left either.

But they would go down the hole and take advantage of them.

Look, coming across the field... Oh, my, yeah!

Something startled it.

Whitetail deer moving.

Look at the tail up, raised flag showing, bouncing along.

Look at that animal move.

♪ Again, another doe.

Kind of a reddish coat.

Mm-hmm, beautiful.

Coming up to the edge of the woods over there now.

Slowing down, making sure no problem in there and then slipping down.

Interesting animal.

Why don't we head on from here to a higher prairie almost a meadowlike situation with some low areas, too and see what we can find there.

(Relocating) All of these open areas, now are really hot with the sunlight on them.

And I'd say we're about halfway from the river to the rock.

Mm-huh, following a deer trail, probably.

Look at that.

If you want to see whitetails this is the place to come.

This is the place to come because they spend the daylight in these cooler places.

And one of the reasons that that tree is here is because it's a little lower, a little wetter and that helps cool this area down, too.

What is the cluster of trees right there?

Bur Oak is the common name for that.

Look at those lobed, oaklike leaves-- very typical.

Probably the only oak that we're going to see here.

And clustered, as you say adding a lot of shade.

Picking up a little extra moisture in this low area.

Interesting plant.

Another one, now, that's over here, too one of the cherries-- probably Choke Cherry.

Small, small berrylike.

Yeah, look at the fruit on it, dangling down.

Doing fairly well.

Pretty widespread plant, too.

But right here on this edge a little extra moisture, a little extra shade, helps that plant a great deal.

Not nearly as tall and big and robust as the oak.

More of an understory plant.

Rudy, there is a lot of ground cover that looks somewhat like holly.

Yeah, looks like the holly leaves on that.

You see the sharp spines on the edge protecting the investment of water and food that plant has made.

Deer won't lick off those leaves and eat them like they'll lick off others.

Hollygrape is one name for it.

Oregon grape is another name.

Low-growing, though, here.

Some of these species really get up but this one is low to the ground, and with those spines, again, for protection.

It's interesting the way plants protect themselves from the animals that seem to always take advantage of them.

Let's head up to a little higher area and take a look at some Ponderosa Pines.

(Relocating) These higher ridges are just perfect for the pines here.

All these are Ponderosa pines like the ones we saw at the tower you know, a bit earlier.

Seem to do well in these dry places-- long taproots that go down for water.

Park service does a good job of keeping trails in different areas, as well.

Yeah, it gives you a chance to see some of the diversity here.

I heard something buzzing.

Look right down here.

Look at the insect right here, Jim.

Got it, I think.

Don't want to hurt it.

Yeah, this is one that, at one time of its life actually feeds on those pines.

Common name for this thing is the Cicada.

Smaller Cicada than I've seen back east.

Yeah, there are many different species in North America and some are a little bigger than others.

This is the adult, now.

It won't get any larger than this.

Look at the orange on the legs and also on the abdomen, there.

Kind of pretty.

Big compound eyes, too.

Will it shed its skin the same as the other species?

Right-- this one spends most of its time in the ground and then it slowly comes out and crawls up on the side of the tree; sheds its skin and then grows wings.

I'm holding him by the wings here.

And then flies off.

Lives maybe a couple of weeks as an adult.

But spends sometimes a number of years as a nymph, we call it, in the ground.

Really, one of the most interesting life cycles of any of the insects.

Do you find it more often in the fields or in the woods?

Usually woods, and especially pine woods because the nymph takes sap specifically out of the roots of pine trees so we're in the right place for it.

Put it down here and let's head on up the trail.

It's about 1,300 acres in the national monument area here and it's good that it is protected.

And ridges like this give us such nice views of everything.

Here's the sign of another creature up here on the top.

Look at the bark eaten away-- some of the small Ponderosa Pines.

What animal ate that?

All right, when I first look at that that looks like beaver work to me.

But, of course, no beaver would be up on this high ridge.

That's a relative of the beaver-- the porcupine; active mainly at night, coming out and nibbling and, look, it girdled that tree, jim.

It took all of that bark away and that'll kill that tree eventually.

Goes to a cool place in the daytime?

yeah, yeah.

Of course, the quills protect it a little bit.

Well-known for that fact and great climbers.

They do get up high in tree.

That one was sitting on the ground right there nibbling as high as it could reach.

And that was a food source?

Yeah, mm-hmm-- taking ponderosa pine, in this case and changing it in to... in to porcupine.

And those kinds of changes are going on in every direction.

Here's what's left of one of those tall ponderosa pines.

It has fallen, broken down.

Decomposers in nature break this dead material down and release all the nutrients back into the soil.

And down below us here look at this nice meadow or prarie.

With so much activity, so many things going on.

Look at the thistle over there.

Look at it right there.

With the butterfly?

Butterfly coming to it-- one of the fritillaries.

I'm not sure from this distance which one.

Tanking up on nectar, taking that long tongue-- really, mouthparts that are grown together in a tube-- and sticking it down.

The thistle is... loads of flowers or a number of flowers in one place.

Sticking that tube in and taking nectar and changing it, basically, into Fritillary butterfly.

There's a much, much smaller butterfly close to it.

Yeah, one of the skippers, yeah on another one of the thistles.

Again, doing the same thing-- reaching way in-- I guess the tongue isn't quite as long-- but reaching way in-- look at that-- getting that sugar water, basically which is energy to keep that little insect flying.

Now, thistles not only attract nectar feeders.

Look on the thistle over here.

See that bug with the large abdomen on it?

A beetle of some kind?

That's a...

It's one of the true bugs.

It's called an Assassin bug and it's not there getting nectar it's there getting some of the insects that are drawn to the flowers to get nectar.

Now, that is a neat kind of interrelationship there.

So much going on out here in the, uh...

In the meadow.

One beautiful white flower over there.

Yeah, and look at it-- look at the parts to the flower-- three parts to the flower-- one of the lilies.

Number of common names for that.

Sego lily is one of the names for it and if that is the particular species that's known in Utah that would be the state flower of Utah.

And it's edible.

It's an edible plant, and indians took advantage of the edibility of that plant, and so did the Mormons.

When the crickets would ruin their crops they fed on that plant.

Isn't that amazing?

And there is a cricketlike thing.

Look right over here to the side.

See in the sagebrush we have seen the sagebrush earlier down by the river.

There's one, looks like a Shield-back katydid there.

See that big shieldlike projection on the back?

Large, looks like a large cricket.

Mm-hmm... And you see, no wings-- I mean, no large wings at all.

That animal doesn't fly-- never gets wings.

It stays here hopping, trying to find itself a little bit of shade.

I imagine it'll work its way around to the shade in a little while.

Is there a common name for it, Rudy?

I think that's the one that usually gets called a Mormon cricket, Jim.

Of course, most everything that we're looking at here is native but there's one right in front here-- see the Leafy spurge, it's called with those funny-looking flowers on it, sticking up?

Strange plant.

I see clusters of it here and there.

That's a non-native species.

It's now become quite a weed in this part of the united states taking over places where native species are supposed to be.

So much to see when you really slow down and start looking.

Here's a plant right here right up here in front of us.

Take a look at this one, now.

It's a dandelion type?

Has to be a relative of the dandelion.

One of the names for it is Goatsbeard.

And the wind, and we feel the wind blowing in our face coming across the field takes those seed and carries them away.

That's a non-native species that has come in and done very well in open situations in western North America.

And as we mentioned the Ponderosa Pine does very well here, too.

Yeah, and another name for it-- just look at the color that you see on the side.

Maybe yellow pine?

Yellow-bellied pine?

There are a number of other common names.

What do you suppose killed this one?

I don't know, lightning could have gotten it here.

It's right up here on the top of the ridge.

Another little shrubby plant here, not doing well; I guess it's too dry for it.

But I see... One red berry.

A fruit on it, yeah.

One of the sumacs, known as Skunkbush and you see the leaves in three parts.

Is it poisonous?

No, uh-uh, that's not poisonous at all and really, you know, kind of showy with the, uh... With the red fruit.

I see something moving right here, Jim.

I'll just see if I can... Another insect.

Yeah, oh, yeah.

This is one that also uses Ponderosa Pines.

It's called a Metallic Wood-boring beetle.

Very hard-looking casing on it.

Yeah, that exoskeleton is really solid in the beetles and one pair of wings has been modified into this solid covering for the other wings that actually help it fly.

So it's pretty sturdily built.

The larvae bore in the wood so "borer beetle" would make sense.

But "metallic" refers to that underside, Jim that's almost brassy.

See the coppery reflections a little as I turn it?

Strange animal.

And again, that woodpecker we saw earlier would love to dig out the larva of this beetle and make a meal of him.

Strange, almost mechanical-like moving parts.

Mm-hmm, yeah, it's an amazing creature.

Great diversity of beetles in the world.

Let's put him down here.

Why don't we head on and get a better view of that tower?

♪ Relocating ♪ The rolling hills... And opening up giving us really, really nice views here.

Well, Rudy, Wyoming is such a big state and the word itself means sort of "large plateau between two mountains" and that's understandable.

Now, you can see the river-cut valley out there below us very nicely.

Absolutely amazing country.

And then, of course, the thing that stands above it all and that makes it extra, extra special is that mass of cooled igneous rock.

Now, what does igneous rock mean?

Formed by fire, liquid rock.

Liquid rock, rock that was liquid at one time that has cooled and when you find liquid rock that has cooled and formed those nice columnar crystals you know that it must have been under the surface.

And not too deep-- if it had come out the top and spilled out like lava flows it wouldn't have had time to form those large spires like that and columns like that.

So it had to be under the surface, not too deep because too much pressure would have kept them from forming, too.

Intrusive rock that came in between sedimentary layers now eroded away.

Now, what would have eroded all those layers away?

Of course, we saw the river earlier.

The river...

The river has done most of that removing that lightweight material leaving the more solid igneous rock to weather slowly in the sunshine and the temperature changes and, of course, freezing in the winter heating up so hot, ice forming causing those cracks.

Probably not ever a volcano at the surface.

Maybe, but probably not.

Now, when did it come in?

You mentioned the black hills earlier that rose.

60 million years ago?

Somewhere between 70 and 40 million years ago when the black hills were pushed up in came this liquid rock.

And of course it came through those layers from below.

I mean, it goes way, way, way down.

We're just seeing just the stump sticking out-- just the tip-top of it sticking out.

And that erosion weathering we're talking about-- you can see the piles of material around the base usually referred to as a talus slope-- big masses of rock that offer homes for porcupines and quite a few other animals.

But interesting view up against that blue sky with those white clouds telling us of igneous rock squirted in from below millions of years ago-- fascinating story.

Let's try to get just a little bit closer to Devils Tower maybe on that talus slope if we can.

Rudy: let's just be careful getting out on these rocks.

This should give us a great-- oh, my goodness-- opportunity to see the tower and to see that talus that we saw from a distance a moment ago.

Look at the size of those big hunks of rock.

That talus is just broken rocks from the column?

Yeah, that just accumulates at the base.

Now, I've been calling those columnar crystals.

Those aren't crystals in the truest sense of the world although they look like it.

Columnar prisms would be a better term for it.

Formed as that liquid rock began to cool slowly but surely, and as it did it contracted and there were certain points of contraction in there that lead to those columnar joints forming.

And that's what gives the Tower its structure there.

A lot of weathering has gone on here.

Look at the climbers on the side, Jim using those columnar joints to move up the side.

Can you imagine?

Would you climb that rock, Rudy?

No, no, not me at all.

The first, you know, coupleanchers went up in 1893 the first recorded ascent.

And the past few years, a thousand people a year climb that rock.

Well, not me.

I'll tell you, that is phenomenal, though.

Phonolite is the name of that volcanic rock there.

Rather rare intrusive rock but typical here at Devils Tower.

And a few of those Ponderosa Pines coming in trying to get a foothold at the upper part of that talus slope.

That is really amazing.

There's so many interesting things here.

One plant that we haven't seen yet-- look at the Quaking aspen here.

Really, another one of the poplars like the cottonwood was a poplar.

Small in size.

Yeah, look at those little leaves and rather smooth bark.

Trembling aspen is one of the names for it, or quaking aspen.

But loves a little extra moisture and shade and it finds it here at the rock.

We've got a small squirrel watching us from the tree there.

Good gracious, look at the arms just draped over the branch-- taking it easy.

Red squirrel is the common name for that-- reddish tail you can see there and almost, you can see, little tufts on the ears.

Usually in the winter they're more obvious than they are this time of year.

But that's a squirrel that does fairly well here feeding on ponderosa pine seed and other seed that it finds.

And you know, that thing eats mushrooms every now and then-- carries them up in the tree.

Sometimes you'll see a mushroom on the branches of that tree that wouldn't normally be there and you know the red squirrel has been working.

Much smaller than a fox squirrel and smaller too than a gray squirrel.

Yeah, beautiful animal.

Red squirrel-- he likes the higher elevations and here at 4,200 feet, it's probably a good place to live.

Yeah, looks like he's pretty happy there and what a view he's got of this monument behind us.

It has been a fascinating day.

It's been very, very interesting for me because geologically, the story here is so exciting-- liquid rock, magma that has cooled and yet we're getting a chance to see that exposed now.

The work of the river, as we've said and all the plants down by the the river and in the prairies with the praire dogs and the rest.

The Ponderosa Pine Forests, the low bur oak areas-- a lot of diversity, a lot of fun-- been a great day.

And such a unique area: Devils Tower national monument near Sundance Wyoming the nation's first national monument.

Thanks for being with us.

Join us again on the next Nature Scene.

♪ Nature Scene is made possible in part by viewer donations to: additional funding is provided by: