Sunday, March 16, 2008

Glacier Animal Identification VI



First let me say that these animals are most certainly wild and should never be directly approached. Always respect the animal's space.



While their name is misleading as they are part of the antelope rather than the goat family, the Mountain Goat is the certainly deserving of the mountain part of their name. They pretty much ignore other lifeforms and go about their business knowing that they could climb straight up a near by cliff and get out of harms way if needed. All the rest of the animals seem to know this too so they don't bother. Some eagles are a threat to the babies and the nannies will defend against such attacks. Here are a group of goats by the trail waiting out the wind:



When they are not getting blown around in the wind they seem to be fond of posing for pictures. This one even cooperated in trying to make the ledge look as precarious as it could:



Baby mountain goats are quite possibly the cutest creatures in Glacier (Rebekah has told me this).



Much of our time in Glacier is spent documenting baby mountain goats and their cuteness.







We have much much more, but really you just have to see them in person.

Update:The videos do not show up even though they show when previewing them in the editor. I assume this is a temporary issue that Blogger will figure out soon.

Glacier Animal Identification V



Bighorn Sheep are pretty much sheep with big horns. Their bodies are pretty big too, but they tend to be pretty docile creatures. They can get away for most any predator by using their excellent climbing skills and the rocky terrain.



We have some other pictures of bighorn but they are not on this computer, so we will post them later.