This male mule deer was making its way through the forest, pauses long enough for me to get its picture. Still a few months to go before the snow melts from the valley and fresh green food starts growing. Always have to be on the move, being careful not to run into predators. Life can be little easier in the winter if he comes across one or two other males, always better to have more eyes looking out for danger.
Red Fox
Red fox's body length can be long as 90 cm, not including the long bushy tail, which can be as long as half a meter. The thick long red tail with the white tip helps with balance, it's used to communicate with other foxes and on cold days, like the one I saw this female on, it acts like a warm cover when napping.
Bighorn Sheep
How time flies, the 8th annual slideshow is coming up on Saturday, January 27. From 7 to 9 pm at the Cave and Basin NHS, for $4.90 per person. Each year is different, the weather and the amount of visitors to the parks played a big role in 2017, creating different opportunities for landscape, flora and fauna photography. If you're able to, come join me as I look back at some of the favourite moments from 2017 and the stories that go with them.
Mule Deer
It's not safe for animals to be on the road, but this mule deer decided to take a chance. The snow was deep off the road and there was no traffic. I watched from a distance as he go on the road and then decided to walk for a while on it before get off the road.
Bighorn Sheep
It was a cold afternoon and this male was doing lot of work moving snow aside to get at the dead grass. The dead grass does not have much value but during the winter there are not lot of options.
Grizzly
Bears do not hibernate, but they do go for a long deep sleep during the winter months. They go into what is called torpor state. During hibernation a animal will sleep through the winter, it will not wake up when there is loud noise or even when they are moved or touched. In torpor state the animal can wake up quickly and easily. Bears heart rate is very low like those animals hibernating, but unlike those in hibernation, bears body temperature is high. No matter if the animals go into hibernation or into torpor state, both need to store body fat in the fall, which will get used up while sleeping, thus saving the muscles. This big guy went to sleep toward the end of November or early December, but if anyone by mistake come across its den, it will quickly wake up and will not be happy. Kind of like when someone goes for my chocolate.
White-tailed Deer
Nature never stops being amazing. In this case how this white-tailed deer blends in with its winter surroundings. Only way I was able to locate it quickly, I saw it cross the road and it was waiting for its young. It was surrounded by willow shrubs holding the fresh fallen snow.
Grizzly
Sometimes my favourite pictures are those where the subject is not in the clear. That's the case with this picture, a large male grizzly sniffing for food, stops and looks in my direction. I had to be quick, the camera was not in my hands. Just as I got couple of pictures, his head was down, further obscured, went about his business.
Red Fox
Red foxes can be found across Canada. Their litter size varies from one to ten pubs, born between March and May. The pubs are not able to see until they are two weeks old. When they are month old, the pups are weaned off milk and start enjoying pre-chewed food. Around the age of seven months the young foxes should be able to hunt for themselves and leave their parents to look for a home to call their own. Sometimes searching and travelling for 250 km. This female fox was searching for food along the road when I spotted her.
Coyote
I came across this female coyote by the side of the road. I stopped my car and watched her, she crossed the road and was listening for preys under the snow. She then moved forward and started looking toward another coyote, possibly her mate. It's then i decided to take her picture. She had beautiful eyes, I will have to one day get closer pictures of a coyote, to better see those eyes.
Moose
Toward the end of rut season I came across this bull moose. He was near a female, who was with her calf. I was in my car, all three looked toward me, I parked the car on the side of the road and watched them. They stopped looking toward me and went back to their normal behaviour. I got few pictures before another car stopped near mine, they rolled down their windows and loud excited voices came out. Just like that the three moose were gone.
Grizzly
I was never into following celebrities until I had spent few years in Banff. After considerable amount of time outdoor, seeing the various stars roaming the landscape, I was captivated. One of those star is this grizzly crossing the road and getting the VIP treatment. Just to the front and beside me was the ever alert Human Wildlife Conflict colleague. Who was aware of any approaching train, stopping all road vehicles and keeping everyone quite while informing them about the celebrity we were watching. The goal was simple, to let the grizzly cross the road as quick as possible without being distracted. Now if I can only build up enough nerve to ask for an autograph from these celebrities.
Moose
The ever protective mother kept an eye on me, always making sure her calf was safe. She had nothing to worry about, I was about 50 meters away and had no plans to get any closer. The view was clear and my lens was easily able to reach the two moose.
Short-tailed Weasel
I was hiking among the larch trees in the fall colours. I moved away from the trees to get a different look and perhaps a pictures of the fall colours. That's when I heard and saw this short-tailed weasel moving around among the rocks and snow. The next several minutes I spent taking picture of this little one. At that time more then likely just weeks away from changing into its winter colours of while with black tail tip.
Elk
With the elk rut season coming to an end, it was interesting to see the male challengers were taking every steps to avoid fighting with the defending bull. Only when the challenger though he could take on a defender there would be a battle. First step would be to listen to the defending bull's bugle, which indicates size and strength of the defender. If the challenging bull was not deterred from the bugling, then he would locate the defender and size him out. If the challenger still felt confident, there might be bluff charge or two, both bulls walking side by side with each showing the other how big they were, this can go on for several minutes. If neither bull moves off, the next step would be to fight each other, this can last few seconds to several minutes. From my experience, in most cases the defender is the winner, even more so the larger the harem a defending bull has. Because there is a good reason why a certain bull has a large harem, the females decide which male to seek out for mating from the bugling. A weaker bull not only has tougher time defending but also keeping his harem together.
Grizzly
It's late October and the bears have started to go to sleep for the winter months. It starts with the young bears and the mothers with the cubs and in the end will be the big males. The last one normally will go off to sleep early December.
Mule Deer
Snow falls and snow melts, until cooler temperature stays, the snow will not stick around the valley's bottom. These two fawns were still finding something good to eat, from the grass to the leaves on the shrubs.
Moose
It's not always a bad thing when the plans you had for your days off get changed at the last minute. In this case it was the location where the hike was going to take place. On the way to the alternative hike, a mother moose and two calves were spotted. Most often a female moose will have one calf, but not uncommon for a cow to give birth to twins. For the cow there are big challenges trying to get one calf to survive through its first year, with twins even harder. Finding food is not the problem, but dealing with harsh winter and predators is. Moose populations and nutrition play a role if a cow will have twins. With better foraging area and lesser moose population, the chances are increased birth will be given to twins. On the day the picture was taken, the twins were busy eating and staying close to their ever protective mom.
Elk
Two elk bulls fighting to decide who will mate. Normally these fights last a minute or so, sometimes seconds. But in this case they went on for several minutes, both getting tired and foaming at their mouth. Finally it was over, the one on the left was the challenger and in the end the loser of this battle.
Mountain Goats
When returning from Jasper we came across three mountain goats along the road. They were busy licking minerals and eating grass. All together there were three goats, two adults and a one year old. In about two months they will be high up on the mountain, where they will spend their winter.
