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.

Glacier Animal Identification IV

The largest squirrel you will see in Glacier is not the illegally fed Columbian Ground Squirrel. It is instead the largest of North American ground squirrels, the Hoary Marmot.

 

Named for their speckled gray color, the gargantuan rodents enjoy life on the talus slopes.

 

As you can see by how close we took our photos, they are pretty much oblivious to humans. We did not intentionally approach that closely to them, they just popped out of the bushes right in front of us and went about their business. The one in the first two pictures might have been leading us away from its little baby marmot which, because of the mother's great distraction skills, we didn't notice in time to get in the picture.

 

They have a distinctive whistle that can often be heard when hiking near the tree line.

 

While they may not qualify as Rodents of Unusual Size, they are certainly Squirrels of Unusual Size.

More Deer

We went to Glacier again this last weekend and were pleasantly surprised to have Going-to-the-Sun road opened up most of the way for the first time this season while we were there. It was beautiful as usual, but we were unable to get pictures of any newly identified critters. There were a lot of our deer friends sporting their fresh new summer coats.

 

 

Glacier Animal Identification III

Seeing as it is Easter time, I thought the next animal to be highlighted in our series would be the Pika. In the same order as rabbits, these little mountain fur balls industriously chop and dry hay during the warm months, then stow it in the talus slopes they call home. In the winter they nibble on their hay and I suppose catch up on their reading. While hiking in Glacier, you will hear their distinctive chirp long before seeing one. A sound clip of their call can be found here. We caught up with the fellow pictured here while hiking the Highline Trail from Logan Pass headed to the Granite Park Chalet. It only stood still for one photo, then scurried off. We did see some of its drying hay bales, but I didn't take any pictures of those :(.

The full picture is available here.

Glacier Animal Identification II

Continuing with the animals we have identified in Glacier, we have deer. The first time we went to Glacier we were totally amazed by the exciting creatures unique to the alpine habitat. We had just spent the day with mountain goats wandering around mere feet from us and were about to head down from Logan Pass when we were asked by a couple to take their picture. They seemed excited to be in the park and they lady told us that they had just "seen a deer from their car".  A whole live deer? from your car!?! They have those here? No, no, I just smiled my head and nodded wondering what her reaction would be to a smiling mountain goat walking the trail with her (hopefully they did eventually get out of their car). All that to say, yes, they are just deer, but deer are still really cool to see.

First we have the mule deer (at least we are pretty sure that's what it is). Apparently they like to patrol the trails in the summer.

 

Back up the same trail we encountered an antler-adorned whitetail deer.

 

The whitetail has a much different color and thicker coat in the winter.

 

They are clearly named by the very whitetail which they flare as an alarm when startled.

 

In the last picture the lookout deer (we are guessing the mother) decided we were a danger (even though there was a fast flowing creek between us). The child deer was seemingly not responding quickly enough, causing this response from the mother:

Glacier Animal Checklist

Rebekah and I just got back from visiting Glacier for the first time in the spring. While there wasn't enough snow low enough for us to go Cross Country skiing, we still saw some spectacular mountains and fun wildlife. This inspired me to start a series here on the blog with all the animals we have seen and identified in Glacier. At first I was going to do it in one post, but there is too much to cover, so you will get several.

To start it off, we have the ubiquitous greeter of all park goers and universally loved food source for all carnivores bigger than it, the Colombian Ground Squirrel.

 

They are always alert and looking for attention or the nearest predator, whichever comes first.

 

Oh and a bonus picture so you can see the tail.