Hank and Carol Fischer have covered nearly every inch of Montana researching their two popular guide books, "Paddler’s Guide to Montana" and "Montana Wildlife Viewing Guide." Now they’re sharing their expertise in their business, Fischer Outdoor Discoveries.

Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER

Dawn breaks crisp and sunny and full of promise on June 11 for a group of tourists intent on feasting their eyes on the wildlife of Yellowstone Park last summer.

A spectacular sunrise at Swan Lake reveals a flock of sandhill cranes. With 11 pairs of eyes scanning the scene through binoculars and spotting scopes, a proud new mother elk soon becomes the group’s focus. She licks her twin calves that appear to be only a few days old. They take turns nursing and cavorting around her.

It’s a blissful image of the miraculous rebirth of nature. But it’s an image that would haunt the group following a drama they witnessed later in the day that showed the darker side of nature.

From a vantage point overlooking Indian Creek, the group spots a grizzly bear prowling through the willows about 150 yards away. Suddenly, two cow elk charge the grizzly, which rears on its hind legs and then rushes at the elk. The elk flail furiously at the bear with their hooves, but they’re no match for a grizzly, and they turn and flee.

Then the group notices a calf elk struggle to its feet. Although the cows tried to distract it, the grizzly spies the calf too, and runs toward it. The calf plunges into the swollen creek in a desperate attempt to escape. But the bear is on top of it instantly.

The grizzly drags the calf up on the bank and begins feeding as the stunned group of tourists watches. "I realized I was hogging the spotting scope," said Hank Fischer of Missoula, the group’s leader. "But when I turned around, half the group had walked back to the truck. It was too intense for them to see calves right after birth and then see one killed. But it gets them in better touch with this whole predator-prey relationship."

It’s that kind of wild relationship that Fischer’s clients are able to experience first-hand in tours with Fischer Outdoor Discoveries, the business that he and his wife, Carol, started last year.

The business specializes in taking small groups - eight to 12 people - on extended tours to view wildlife, especially large carnivores, in their natural habitat. Fischer Outdoor Discoveries offers two regular annual tours to Montana’s national parks, one to Yellowstone and one to Glacier. In addition, the Fischers offer one special tour each year to an exotic location. This year’s special trip will be a 12-day African safari in Botswana to watch wildlife, with a focus on large carnivores - lions, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs.

Besides the scheduled tours, the Fischers also conduct customized trips for families, businesses and other groups.

The Fischers are perhaps uniquely qualified to guide wildlife-viewing tours in Montana.

Before he retired last year, Hank Fischer was the regional director of the conservation organization, Defenders of Wildlife, for 25 years. In that capacity he was a leader in the 10-year effort to reintroduce wolves in Yellowstone, developed a plan to restore grizzly bears to the Bitterroot-Selway Wilderness Area, and was a respected advocate for grizzlies, wolves and other endangered species.

Among his many achievements, Hank initiated a program to compensate landowners for livestock lost to wolves and grizzlies. He may be best known, however, for his numerous articles and several books, including the "Paddler’s Guide to Montana" and "Montana Wildlife Viewing Guide," which he co-authored with Carol.

In addition to floating virtually every stream in the state while researching "Paddler’s Guide to Montana," and scouring the state’s back roads and backcountry while researching "Montana Wildlife Viewing Guide," Hank and Carol have spent their lives tromping and canoeing the mountains, prairies and rivers of the state with fly rods, shotguns, rifles and bows in hand.

Carol has worked as a fly-fishing guide, and been on the boards of the Montana Natural History Center, Rock Creek Advisory Council and Missoula City Parks and Recreation. She has a master’s degree in recreation and resource management from the University of Montana.

Hank, who has a master’s degree in environmental studies from UM, chronicled the fight to restore wolves to Yellowstone in his book "Wolf Wars." Besides his new tour business, Hank also works part-time for the National Wildlife Federation.

After spending so many years working for protection of grizzlies and wolves, Hank said, he sees his new business as a validation of that effort, and a demonstration of the economic value of large predators to the state.

"It’s so neat to be in Yellowstone and see wolves," he said. "Seven years ago they weren’t even there at all. And already they’re such an integral part of the ecosystem. They’re right in the rhythm of things. They’re influencing the elk herds and leaving meat for scavengers. They’re having a profound influence in the park."

"After 25 years working for a conservation organization," he added, "I was pondering what to do with the rest of my life. I decided I wanted to spend more time outdoors."

"It’s all telephones and computers," said Carol of the bureaucratic routine of conservation work.

Hank had done some guiding for other nature-tour businesses, and also guided conservation groups as part of his job with Defenders of Wildlife, he said.

"Finally, I scratched my head and said, ‘Why do it for someone else?’ " he said. "Part of the fun of an adventure is the planning. Over the course of my work, I met a lot of people. That’s part of the way we’re finding clients."

"I realized," Hank added, "there are many, many people who want to see wolves and bears in the wild. And I do too. It’s kind of a merging of interests. It’s clearly a viable way to make a living in this country."

After a year in the planning stages, Fischer Outdoor Discoveries conducted its first tours to Yellowstone and Glacier parks, and some customized trips, last year.

"The whole motivation in this," said Hank, " is that if there’s one place in the world I want to be in June, it’s Yellowstone Park when the wolves and bears are active, and the elk calves are being born."

Because of their extensive outdoor experience in Montana, Hank said, "when we go to look for bears and wolves, I can almost guarantee folks that we’re going to see them, if we’re out for a week."

"It’s incredible what you can see in the way of large predators in Yellowstone and Glacier," he added. "The thing is, there are special places to go, and you have to go at the right time. The approach we take in wildlife viewing in Yellowstone is like hunting. We have places we go that we know are good. We generally go out at dawn and sit and wait. You have to be patient.

"And going as a group helps too. Ten sets of eyes can see so much more, once you train them to use binoculars and spotting scopes. It’s like bowhunting. Most people on our trips are from out of the region. And when I tell them we’re going to sit here for a couple of hours, they start drumming their fingers. But over time, they get into the rhythm of it. And they start seeing more and noticing more than they ever would have. People say they never really appreciated nature that way."

Through their background in conservation, the Fischers have had an opportunity to meet and work with a variety of wildlife experts - researchers, wildlife biologists, conservation professionals, agency resource managers and others. Those connections give the Fischers an advantage in their new business, they said.

"What’s different in our trips from other nature tour businesses," said Carol, "is that we generally try to hook up with specialists."

For example, on the Yellowstone Park tour last year, the Fischers’ group spent a day with Jim Halfpenny, a wildlife biologist and an expert on animal tracks who wrote a book on the subject. This year the Yellowstone tour will feature a wildlife photo workshop with National Geographic photographer Dan Hartman.

The annual Glacier Park tour includes a visit to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, guided by tribal cultural expert and historian Curly Bear Wagner on a buffalo jump tour, and accompanied by tribal wildlife biologists to look for recently introduced swift foxes.

The Fischers will be joined on their Botswana safari in November by their friend Megan Parker, a UM PhD candidate, who will be there researching the region’s wild dog population. Members of the tour group will be able to join her in the field and benefit from her wildlife expertise.

Their concept of offering special trips to exotic locations each year is a way to fulfill their own wanderlust, Hank said.

"We have some ideas of places we really want to go," he said. "The trick is that we have people, friends or people we’ve met, that can serve as guides. We do the logistics, figure out who’s going, and then line up experts to lead the trip. We’ve always wanted to travel more. We really have an interest in rivers and floating. We’ll probably do specialty trips with those. We really like Alaska. We’re starting small. We don’t want this to consume us. But we want to do specialty trips every year to someplace we’re interested in going. We might go to Kodiak Island to see grizzlies. We’re thinking of going to India to watch tigers, or to see polar bears in Churchill."

And there’s so much to see just in Montana, Hank added.

"We like to go to Freezeout Lake in the spring to watch snow geese," he said. "And we like to go to eastern Montana to watch sage grouse dancing on their leks."

Glacier and Yellowstone parks make ideal annual destinations for their trips, he added.

"They’re terrific classrooms for conservation," said Hank. "Yellowstone has examples of nearly every major program for wolves and bears, and examples of nearly every major controversy that’s come up involving wildlife, like the bison and elk herds."

An area of expertise that he can offer clients, he said, is his unique perspective on how those controversies can be resolved.

Glacier offers its own special rewards for tourists interested in an educational experience, according to Hank.

"The Glacier trip is more than a wildlife trip," he said, "compared to Yellowstone, which is mostly all about wildlife. Glacier is geared to people who want to do more hiking, and have more of a backcountry experience. We also try and build a more cultural experience in the trip. The part that’s most rewarding to me personally is the Blackfeet Reservation tour with Curly Bear Wagner."

Although they put a lot of time and work into developing a Web site (www.fischeroutdoor.com) and brochures to promote their business, the Fischers said, they’ve attracted most of their customers so far through word of mouth. And this year’s scheduled trips are already nearly full.

"That’s the part that’s surprised me," Hank said. "It’s interesting how much our marketing is word of mouth. We haven’t done any advertising at all. Clients we take on trips tell their friends. Some of the people we took on the Glacier trip last year signed up for the Yellowstone trip this year."

The aspect of their business that Hank and Carol like best, they said, is meeting interesting people and making new friends.

"That’s the part I liked about guiding fly-fishers," said Carol. "They were usually very interesting people who wanted to be out there on the river."

The people they tend to get on their trips, Hank said, are well educated and inquisitive, with a love of nature and adventure - much like their hosts.

Reporter Daryl Gadbow can be reached at 523-5264 or at dgadbow@missoulian.com.

For more information go to www.fischeroutdoor.com