Continuing in my MT/WY theme, this post is devoted to the different mammals we saw on our recent trip out west. I was surprised by the overall diversity; we ended the trip with more than 20 species of mammals.
It didn't take long to find some photogenic rodents; these COLUMBIAN GROUND SQUIRRELS at Glacier National Park were rather used to humans:
In Yellowstone National Park, UINITA GROUND SQUIRRELS were very common; here are three at the entrance of a burrow:
Continuing with the rodent theme, I tentatively identified these as LEAST CHIPMUNKS although I wouldn't be surprised if there were YELLOW-PINE CHIPMUNKS included:
We saw several RED SQUIRRELS on the trip as well:
Another new mammal was the WHITE-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG which favors sagebrush. We saw these in southern Wyoming:
We didn't see many carnivores but the one we did see was rather impressive! This BLACK BEAR was hunting ground squirrels in Glacier National Park right in front of us:
We saw MOUNTAIN GOATS several times on our trip but always through a spotting scope. We weren't ever up on the distant rock faces so all my pictures of goats were distant:
This clump of fur actually belongs to a MOOSE we spotted while driving. It was a bit too close and obscured to get a IDable photo though!
We saw BIGHORN SHEEP several places as well. These resting way up on a hillside were in Glacier National Park:
