Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Artiodactyla

Zoomed and cropped and not the best quality, unfortunately. I saw a number of these beautiful Pronghorns during a week's holiday to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park with dear friends from England, Linda and Tony, back in 2012. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park on 14 September 2012. We do get these way east and south of Calgary, but I've only ever seen them once or twice. I still can't believe that people can get a licence to kill these animals - for 'sport' "Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronghorn animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/ "The Pronghorn belongs in a Family (Antilocapridae) all by itself and has no other close, living relatives; it is not related at all to the "antelopes" of Africa. Pronghorns in Alberta are at the extreme northern limit of their range in North America, found in wide, flat, open areas where they can see their enemies from a long way off." ""Pronghorns are found in the prairie life zone of southeastern Alberta, where they are at the northern limit of their North American range. Pronghorn are classified as Sensitive in the General Status of Alberta Wild Species report. Sensitive populations are highly susceptible to extreme climatic conditions. Found mainly in the southeastern portion of the province. Cultivation of native prairie threatens habitat. Though it sometimes bears the name, the pronghorn is not a true antelope. True antelope have permanent, unbranched horns. The horns of the pronghorn are unique in that they are branched, or pronged, and they are not permanent. The outer sheath or "horn," composed mainly of hair, is shed every fall." From Alberta Fish & Wildlife. srd.alberta.ca/FishWildlife/WildSpecies/Mammals/WildCattleRelated/Pronghorn.aspx animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/

On the way back to Calgary after a birding day in the Sibbald, Harvie Heights and Exshaw areas of Kananaaskis on Sunday, 20 January 2013, we noticed this very distant herd of Elk crossing a field. Just before this photo, they had been walking in a dead straight line.

This was a really quick shot, which luckily came out OK. I pushed myself out the front door yesterday, as the forecast was for cloud and sun. I have done barely any walking for months - actually, all this year - and I'm supposed to do those 10,000 steps every day. After deciding to drive over to Carburn Park again, just in case the Clark's Grebe was still in the area, by the time I had eaten breakfast and got myself ready, the sky was overcast. By the time I reached Carburn, it was snowing and completely overcast. Decided I would still just walk around the small pond - my body was still feeling the effects of a long walk three days earlier, ha. Bumped into a fellow birder and we got talking and ended up walking round the large pond, too. I had just said something about deer in the park, turned around and there was a White-tailed Deer right behind us ; ) Then two more appeared from amongst the trees. Just managed to click in time to catch this sweet moment. No sign of the Clark's Grebe (same as the day before), so I feel really lucky to have seen this bird on Sunday - a bird that is not usually seen in Alberta. By the way, the wire netting you can see in the background is actually wrapped around a tree, in hopes of protecting it from local Beavers. These animals seem to be cutting down an awful lot of trees in our natural areas. It's -6C (21F) this morning and snowing. Forecast for this afternoon is -3C (27F) and ice pellets. Sounds like it might be a fun drive for my volunteer shift, ha. What just happened with Flickr? All I could get was a blank, white page and then I had to try three times to get Flickr to load at all. Anyone else have the same? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer www.hww.ca/en/species/mammals/white-tailed-deer.html

We saw a number of these beautiful Pronghorns during my recent week away with friends down to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We do get these way east and south of Calgary, but I've only ever seen them once or twice. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park on 14 September 2012. "Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronghorn animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/

We saw a number of these beautiful Pronghorns during my recent week away with friends down to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We do get these way east and south of Calgary, but I've only ever seen them once or twice. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park on 14 September 2012. "Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronghorn animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/

We saw a number of these beautiful Pronghorns during my recent week away with friends down to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We do get these way east and south of Calgary, but I've only ever seen them once or twice. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park on 14 September 2012. Uncropped, but awful quality : ) "Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronghorn animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/

On my short drive SW of the city a couple of days ago, I passed a fenced, hilly meadow where Buffalo were grazing (raised just for meat, presumably). Put my lens through the wire fence and snapped a few photos of this huge male. His winter coat will certainly need to be replaced with a brand new fur coat next winter. I'm pretty sure that this animal belongs to the Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch, which also raises Elk for meat. There are two living subspecies of wild bison in North America: the plains bison Bison bison bison and the wood bison Bison bison athabascae. "Two hundred years ago, the plains bison was by far the more common of the two subspecies. It was the dominant grazing animal of the interior plains of the continent, and it often occurred in large herds. A smaller population occurred east of the Mississippi. Today, there are comparatively few plains bison. A herd of about 600 is fenced in at Elk Island National Park, 64 km east of Edmonton. There are small numbers at Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan, Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. There are at least 25 herds of plains bison in national and state parks and wildlife refuges in the United States, numbering more than 10 000 animals. There are more than 140 000 in private collections and on a large number of commercial ranches in both Canada and the United States. The wood bison has always lived to the north of its prairie cousin. In historic times its range was centred in northern Alberta and the adjacent parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan. Herds made use of aspen parkland, the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the lowlands of the Peace and Slave rivers, and the coniferous forests and wetland meadows of the upper Mackenzie Valley. The wood bison was never as abundant as the plains bison, probably numbering no more than 170 000 at its peak. In April 1994, there were approximately 3 000 wood bison in Canada, most in five "free-roaming" herds, the largest of which consists of more than 2 000 animals in the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary near Fort Providence, Northwest Territories. The source herd of 350 animals for the recovery program is at Elk Island National Park. The total population is small enough that the wood bison is considered threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). The other large free-roaming herd of bison is in Wood Buffalo National Park, on the Northwest Territories–Alberta border, where there are about 2 000 animals, descendants of mixed plains and wood bison stock." www.hww.ca/en/species/mammals/north-american-bison.html

I swear this handsome guy poses deliberately each time I go to the Calgary Zoo and stop by the Mountain Sheep area : ) Looks almost as if he's slightly smiling, too. Of course, I prefer taking photos of these Mountain Sheep in the wild, but still take a quick shot when I'm at the Zoo, too. "The bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to 30 pounds (14 kg), while the sheep themselves weigh up to 300 pounds (140 kg). The population in North America peaked in the millions, and the bighorn sheep entered into the mythology of Native Americans. However, by 1900 the population had crashed to several thousand. Conservation efforts (in part by the Boy Scouts - more info on Wikipedia) have restored the population." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bighorn_sheep

Came across a group of five or six beautiful White-tailed Deer when I was walking through the woods at Carburn Park on February 2nd. This youngster was a curious little thing and so cute.