Animals of North America
Photographs Copyright 1995-2008 by Tom Dempsey. I last modified
this page on March 5, 2010.
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Large Mammals
Bear
Below left: Polar bear in the Alaska Zoo,
Anchorage. One of the easiest places to see polar bears in the
wild is not in Alaska, but in Churchill, Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Canada.
Above right: Polar Bear "Arctic Shadow", cast bronze with white marbled
patinia, by Jacques + Mary Regat. University of Alaska Museum of the
North, Fairbanks.
Below: brown bear (called a grizzly
in the Lower 48) in the Alaska
Zoo, Anchorage. The easiest place to see brown bears in the wild is Denali National Park Road.
The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is an omnivorous mammal of the order
carnivora, found across northern Eurasia (including Russia and
Scandinavia) and North America.
Above right: reclining brown bear (called a grizzly in the Lower 48) in
the Alaska Zoo, Anchorage.
Below right: A bear paw print frozen in sand, in Montana, in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA.
Wild Moose
Above: Wild bull moose in Riley Creek Campground, near the entrance
of
Denali National Park, Alaska.
Left: Wild female moose with calf, in Eagle River Campground, on the Glenn
Highway, Milepost 11.6 from Anchorage.
Left: Female moose with two calves at Eagle Creek Campground, on
the Glenn Highway, Milepost 11.6 from Anchorage. (I have cropped
out the trailers in the campground.)
Above right: Moose calf on the run, on the Glenn Highway, Milepost 11.6
from Anchorage.
Elk
Female elk (or wapiti), in The Whistlers Campground, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
Deer
Left: A deer in Glacier National Park.
Below right: A fawn (a baby deer with white spots for camouflage) crosses the road in Glacier National Park, Montana.
Below: Wild caribou in
Denali National Park, Alaska. In North America, what we call "reindeer"
are domesticated caribou, but the terms are opposite in
Northern Europe, where "reindeer" refers to the wild animal. Caribou
have been domesticated in Europe for milk, meat, hides
and labor for about 7000 years, a history of domestication longer than
the horse.
Musk ox
Left: The Musk Ox Farm near Palmer is fun to visit
(at Glenn Highway milepost 50, open in the summer from 10-6pm). A
musk ox (ovibos moschatus), is not an ox, and has no
musk glands.
Instead, it is a relative of sheep and goats. 3000 musk ox live in
Alaska and 100,000 more live worldwide in the far north. Due to their
habit of huddling together
in a circle (with calves in the center) when threatened, they nearly
went
extinct after the invention of guns.
Below: You can also see musk ox in Anchorage at the Alaska Zoo.
Below: a young musk ox.
Above: Three young musk oxen graze at the Musk Ox Farm, Palmer.
Mountain Goats
Left: Mountain goat, Bearhat Mountain, Hidden Lake. Glacier
National Park,
Montana.
Left: A Mountain goat with baby. Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Below: Mountain goat at a salt lick.
Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Baby mountain goat, Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Left: A Mountain goat lifts his hoof. Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Below: A Mountain goat opens his mouth. Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Below: Mountain Goat and Mount Daniel, near Robin
Lake in Alpine
Lakes
Wilderness
Area, Washington.
A mountain goat above Hidden Lake, Glacier
National Park,
Montana.
Left: Mountain goat amid colorful rock shards above Hidden Lake.
Glacier National Park,
Montana.
Below: A male mountain goat, seen on the
Exit Glacier hike in Kenai Fjords National Park. Marmots are members of
the genus Marmota, in the rodent family Sciuridae (squirrels).
Bighorn Sheep:
Below right: Wild rocky mountain bighorn
sheep at Radium Hot
Springs, Kootenay
National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep frequent a salt lick in Jasper National
Park on the Yellowhead Highway a few miles north of Jasper, Alberta,
Canada
Dall Sheep
Below: A dall sheep ram in the Alaska Zoo, apparently nose to nose with
a young sheep.
Dogs
Below: Working husky sled dog
demonstration in Denali National Park, Alaska. Since
most of the park is designated wilderness, sled dogs are the most
ecologically practical way for rangers to patrol the park in the winter.
Sea Mammals
Below: A steller sea lion plays with a firehose at the
Alaska Sealife Center, Seward, Alaska.
Above: A woman reaches out to touch the glass while a Steller
Sea Lion plays with a firehose at the Alaska Sealife Center,
Seward. See also my image of wild Steller Sea Lions in Kenai
Fjords National Park.
Above: A friendly wild gray whale gently noses up to greet humans boating
on San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California, Mexico.
Small Mammals
A Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, in Glacier National Park, Montana.
A chipmunk
inquires for handouts, in Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho.
Please lets keep wild animals wild by not feeding them. "
Chipmunk"
is the common name for any small squirrel-like rodent species of the
genus Tamias in the family Sciuridae. Around 25 species fall under this
name, mainly in North America, although one species is native to
Eurasia.
Below right: Two marmots in Glacier National Park, Montana.
Below: Marmots are members of the genus Marmota, in the rodent family
Sciuridae (squirrels). Mount Edith Cavell, Jasper National Park,
Alberta, Canada.
Above: a marmot (a large rodent) grazes on lush
vegetation at Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
Birds
Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata)
in captivity at the
Alaska Sealife Center,
Seward, Alaska:
Below right: A ptarmigan on the Carthew Pass traverse in Waterton Lakes NP, CANADA.
Below: a wild ptarmigan (a type of grouse)
in Denali National Park, Alaska.
Below: A sandhill crane on its nest in
the Alaska Zoo, Anchorage, Alaska. A
good place to see wild sandill cranes is Creamers Field in Fairbanks (more images upon request).
Above: The Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca
) is a powerful arctic
predator (shown here captive in the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage),
active during the daytime, from dawn to dusk. It is a
large, white owl with a rounded head, yellow eyes and
black bill, and heavily feathered feet.
According to www.owlpages.com: "A distinctive white
Owl, their overall plumage is variably barred or speckled with thin,
black, horizontal bars or spots. Females and juveniles are more heavily
marked than males - adult males may be almost pure white, although they
have up to three tail bands. Adult females are distinctly barred
throughout, and have from four to six tail bands. Immatures are very
heavily barred throughout, and dark spotting may codominate or dominate
the overall plumage. Intensity of dark spotting varies with the sex of
the immatures, females being the darkest. Juveniles are uniformly brown
with scattered white tips of down.
"The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by
Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish Swedish naturalist who developed binomial
nomenclature to classify and organise plants and animals. The name
"scandiacas" is a Latinised word referring to Scandinavia, as the Owl
was first observed in the northern parts of Europe. Some other names
for the Snowy Owl are Snow Owl, Arctic Owl, Great White Owl, Ghost Owl,
Ermine Owl, Tundra Ghost, Ookpik, Scandinavian Nightbird, White Terror
of the North, and Highland Tundra Owl. It is the official bird of
Quebec. Distribution is circumpolar - Arctic regions of the old and new
worlds."
Below: A gull claims the Lewis and Clark statue at Seaside, Oregon.
Animals of North America
Copyright 1995-2008 by Tom
Dempsey. Photographs may not be copied without permission.
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Left: A Great
Blue Heron rests
in the forest on Fidalgo
Island,
in Deception Pass State
Park, Washington.