Friday, 26 July 2013

Alberta Trip - Animal Sightings

While on the our recent trip to Alberta, Jason and I saw the following (most while in a car):
- thousands of Colombian Ground Squirrels who would chirp warnings way too often
- a Coyote acting a little strangely on the far side of a field 
- bunch of Bighorn Sheep up on a cliff at the side of the road
- one Black Bear, though it is was brown in colour 
- Red Squirrels that are tiny and cute
- lots of Magpies which I really like
- a Little Brown Bat on the road during a hike, it was probably sick
- Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels that are easily mistaken as chipmunks but are really fat
- herd of Bison at Waterton Lakes in their Bison Paddock Loop Road
- a couple of Mule Deer, including some with a fawn or two
- Chipmunks but hard to tell which of the five or so types that are native to Alberta
- mother Grizzly Bear and two tiny cubs, SO CUTE! (The best sighting ever!)
- big waddling Porcupine
- so many Elk (or Wapiti), including one with an epic set of antlers
- some White-tailed Deer, a few with decent antlers too

Sadly, Jason and I didn't see these animals, but I have seen them in Alberta during my other trips there:
- Bald Eagle (saw two once while driving to Canmore with Anne)
- Moose (pretty sure there was at least one sighting when I went to Alberta as a kid)
- Wolf (once saw one running along the side of the road, I was in a Greyhound bus)
- Mountain Goat (we missed Greg's sharp eyes, who spotted when Teri, him, and I went to Banff a couple of years ago)

Thankfully, we did not see these animals, but were warned by various nature parks about them:
- Black Widow Spider
- Cougar, though we saw some warning signs about one on a hike we did
- Rattlesnake
- Scorpion, though Jason says he saw one on the road while driving but I missed it

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