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High
Altitude Wildlife
At
first, high altitude areas look barren. It is like an optical
illusion, some of the animals hide very well. Once you learn
the trick of it though, you see animals everywhere!
 Of course there are areas that are so high that
almost nothing lives there, but altitudes from 6-10,000 feet
have a lot of wildlife, and are areas that are frequented
by hunters in the fall, and camera wielding tourists at other
times.
Common animals
in the area where we live are elk, deer (white tails and muleys),
antelope, bunnies (cottontails), jackrabbits, prairie dogs,
ground squirrels, gray squirrels, ferrets of two types, foxes,
coyotes, badgers, rattlesnakes, hawks, falcons, golden
and bald eagles, and a range of other birds.
 Most of the animals are easily visible through
the activities of daily life. Just between home and town (an
average 1 hour drive over 60 miles), we see almost all of
the animals listed. Some of them we see regularly as roadkill,
unfortunately, and I must confess to having been responsible
for my share of it. I never fail to cringe when I hit something
on the highway though, even if it is a nuisance animal like
a coyote (which, incidentally, have an unparalleled gamey
smell when you get close to one!).
 We live
in hunting territory. This means you won't find people who
are overly squeamish about hunting antelope, elk, or deer
for food. Personally, I feel that you ought not kill it unless
you are going to eat it, and I have cut up my share of
deer and antelope on the kitchen table.
Those who prefer
to hunt animals with a camera will find plenty, at least at
the altitudes we live at, to make it worth their while. In
fact, some animals make a bit of a nuisance of themselves,
eating the shrubbery and leaving droppings in the yard - they
wander with equal ease across the sage hills and up and down
the streets of town. The top photo on this page is a professional
photo. The others were taken by my 17 year old son, or myself,
right in our own yard, or nearby. The deer in the neighbor's
yard is one of a set of triplets born two years ago. The mother
bore another set of triplets the following spring, and with
both sets, made a daily round from one end of town to the
other, then back again, grazing on the tastiest bits of shrubbery
along the route. We are watching to see if she produces triplets
again this spring.
 The
antelope photo was shot from the front seat of my Nissan.
We passed the antelope, turned around, and drove back to pull
over on the opposite side of the highway from him. I rolled
down the window and made the shot while he stood there waiting
patiently. Since I was in the car, I was still part of the
car and no threat to him, even though we were very close.
This kind of opportunity happens far more often than I am
able to take advantage of.
We have seen snowy
owls in the headlights of the car at night, and we have surprised
bald eagles scavenging on the highway. We have blocked badger
holes with boulders before camping, and caught crawdads in
the river which we brought home to cook. And we've kept the
kids in after dusk through three different periods when a
mountain lion wandered into town.
Most of the pages
of this site are sparse in photos, but this one just had to
have a few more, because wildlife is so plentiful in this
area that appears so barren at first.
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High
Altitude Library
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David's Remarks:
I took the photo of the rabbit on this page in our front yard. He stayed absolutely still while I took the picture, not five feet away! It wasn't until I turned to go back inside that he bolted.
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