Your favorite wildlife sighting of 2020

I don’t know if “favorite” is really the right word, but this rattlesnake bit my dog, setting off a chain of events I’ll never forget. She’s ok BTW.

I saw this little guy at a local park, crossing the trail; the only reason that I noticed him at all was because he was on a warm, sandy spot.  I almost stepped on him while I was running; I had passed him by two strides before I noticed that he was there…so I stopped and waited for him to finish crossing.  As soon as he made it to the dry leaves on the side of the trail, he vanished.

Bighorn sheep on New Army Pass while finishing up the SoSHR.   I’d not seen bighorn sheep up close before despite backpacking in their habitat multiple times.

Much too close encounter at the Grand Canyon South Rim during rutting season…

My sister came across these guys chillin’ while on safari, after her Mt. Kilimanjaro Summit last January…

We weren’t backpacking, but that wasn’t a qualifier for this thread, so I’ll post my 2020 favorite – mama and baby moose as seen from our van in Denali National Park. Kind of glad we weren’t walking on the road right then!

I saw this little guy in person too but the camera caught it best.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDXMfw-HGDD/?igshid=1najpqnf6gm0w

A moose along the Echo trail just before dusk. Favorite because of my dog’s reaction. He’s a great fan of whitetail deer and his response to seeing the moose, almost black against the pines crowding the edge of the trail, was incredibly excited. He barked, moaned and articulated sounds I’ve never heard from him before or since. I imagined he was saying, “A deer! A huge deer! OMG, look at that massive black deer! Do you see it? Do you see it?” A friend from Alaska was with us and remarked how much darker and smaller he was than those near his place.

I ran into the entire “Waterfall” Roosevelt elk herd on Afognak Island this July (well, the cows and calves anyway, the bulls were on the next mountain over). Just over 100 animals, with approximately a 30% calf rate. That’s very high. At 2:34 in this video:

Come to think of it, our spring survey in Uyak Bay was chockablock with critters:

We also had a pretty cool orca encounter last spring on our way into the harbor:

Wow, some great sightings here. Thanks, all.

@granolagirlak – Karen, yep, any sighting counts. The badger we saw was from the car.

@kattt – Was hoping you would post something – you’re the BPL wildlife sighting expert!

A few more favorites.

This is a wild Alaskan boy facing off with a semi tame mink over a fish.

https://youtu.be/Mb9AEPZIEmM

Hopefully the video link works. It was a fun birthday party/ice fishing day for my adopted nephew.

The picture is blurry but that is the fattest bear I’ve ever seen in person.

Sadly I did not get a picture of the 3 grizzlies on my front porch in October.

And since I don’t think I remember a thread like this in previous years, here is the crown jewel of wildlife sightings – a wolverine in Wrangell-St Elias NP in 2017.  It literally ran by where I was packing up camp one morning.  When it noticed me is scrambled up the talus wall in the background at lighting speed.

I know it’s a bad photo, but it was a once in a lifetime sighting.

a family of foxes playing on black’s mountain (Rancho San Antonio).. alas no camera. I don’t know why, but other the common: birds, lizards, trout, domestic horses, deer, coyotes, and mosquitoes, I didn’t see any other wildlife on our trips this year :(

Best picture from Brooks Camp in Alaska a number of years ago

Wow, my wildlife pictures are most of the times more grainy (too much digital zoom) and sometimes a little shaky. Here is one from this summer.

Fun pictures everybody. It’s especially cool to see the badgers. I’ve never seen one before.

I had a great sighting of a red fox and her pups but couldn’t get a good picture. And saw tons of pronghorn in Wyoming. Wish I was as quick with the picture as you guys.

No pics, but had multiple bobcat sightings (my first), including some kittens, at a local wildlife refuge this summer. Not the first time, but ran into a rattlesnake in the Trinity Alps (which I enjoyed – I love snakes and rattlesnakes helpfully tend to warn you of their presence). My least favorite encounter was the mystery creature that pawed at my tent in the night in the Pasayten Wilderness. From my paddleboard on the Willamette River watched a mama merganser fight off a weasel that was going after her ducklings. Kit fox just the other day in Death Valley.