BC is one of my favorite places to visit. I think they have more wildlife then we do, and some species we don't have.

If I could afford the move I'd buy a place near Prince Rupert and spend my final years fishing the Ocean, and photographing BC wildlfe.

When Snowshoe Hare population is high it is not uncommon to see hundreds on a nights drive through bush country.

They used to cyle about every ten years from very few to millions. Then disease would wipe them out and it would start all over again.

The last population peak I saw was in the 1980s. Since then land development and habitat fragmentation has limited their ability to reach such high populations.

Yes they are huge, That bull in the photo was standing down slope from the pavement and yet was at eye level with me sitting in my pickup.
As tall as a horse but twice the weight.

It made me uncomfortatble driving that close to them but they were so used to the traffic they barely gave us a glance. Yet they are totally wild, hundreds of miles from the nearest fence.

I found the only Martin photo that I have.

This photo was captured by a game camera about two hundred yards from my house.
I see their tracks in my yard from time to time but they are very wary and good at staying hidden.

I also have photos of a Woodland Caribou that I was not able to locate.

And I don't have any photos of the smaller animals like Meadow Vole, Deer Mice, and Shrews even though there are lots around and I see them from time to time, just never when I'm holding a camera.

But I do have lots of photos of Whitetai Deer, they come through my yard almost every day.

There are Moutain Goats in the province, in the Mountains, go figure. But I've never seen one, anwhere.

I did have some photos of Weasle, take with film camera's years ago. I think they were lost when the house burned down.

Pine Martin close to my home.

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Whitetail Deer.

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There are also Woodland Bison in the province but I've only seen them in the NWT six hundred miles to the north, which is where I photographed this bug bull.

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I do enjoy sharing the photos more then taking them to be honest. :)

LOL No silly birds!
Bite your tongue! LOL
Birds are awesome, so colorful and so busy!
They are my favorite kind of wildlife, but other types are cool in their own way.

Seriously though, birds are wildlife too. And all wild things are interesting to me. Including mushrooms and insects.

Some more of the critters that populate this province.

There are tons of Beaver around, to the point they inhabit every available water body, including farm ponds.

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And tons of gophers (Richardson's Ground Squirrel), in the southern half of the province.


We don't have ground squirrels in the north but we do have Chipmunks.

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And Red Squirrels, some call them Pine Squirrels. But no Gray Squirrels here.

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As everywhere else there are plenty of Coyote,

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As mentioned before we have an over population of Timber Wolves.

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Along with a healthy population of Red Fox, including Silver and Cross Fox color variations as posted before.

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And Mink. We also have Pine Martin but I only have trail cam photos of them which I wasn't able to locate tonight.

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There are also good numbers of Elk,

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As well as decent numbers of Mule Deer along with this rare albino individual.

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These are some but not all of the animals that inhabit Alberta.
All photographed in the wild, by me.

There are still a few species I have not captured on camera, such as our Western Jumping Mouse. A critter that some call Kangaroo Mouse because they can jump several times their body length in one bound.

Others I have only blurry photos of. I'll try to post the best shots I have of each species.

We used to have a lot of Moose but numbers are way down in the north. The result of increased hunting pressure and an over abundant Wolf population.

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There are still good populations of Big Horn Sheep in the mountains along the western border of the province.

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And a healthy population of Pronghorn Antalope in the southern parts of the province.


We have both Black and Grizzly bears here in the north, and a high percentage of blacks are color phase bears, like this Chocolete Brown phase Balck Bear.


We have three species of rabbit, like ths Cottontail,


And this White Tailed Jack Rabbit.

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In the North of the province we have only Snowshoe Hare, like this one.

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We have a healthy population of Otter.

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And a low population of Fisher.

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There are Wolverine around, but there never has been a lot of them.

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I allowed him some dignity and didn't post the final series from that moment. :)

I was warm and comfortable in my truck. LOL yeah i know, that's sorta cheeting. But any blind is a good blind if it works.

In my defence I am mobility impared so shooting from the truck allows me a lot more oppertunities.

I also turned my fishing boat into a floating blind, but haven't tried it yet.

When I was growing up there were no Fox's in the area, they had been wiped out by that government back in the 1950s in an effort to stop a Rabies epidemic.

Our government being the experts they think they are spread poison baits everywhere which may have contributed to the end of the epidemic or maybe not, no one really knows.

What we do know for sure is it did eliminate all Fox, most of the Wolves, all of the Marten and most of the Fisher.

Around about 1970 a few Foxes moved in from surrounding areas and now we have a normal population of them again.
The ones that came in brought with them a high percentage, relatively speaking, of the dark color phase gene.
This is the gene responsible for Silver and Cross color variants.

A cross Fox is actually the mid point between the Silver, full on recessive gene variant and the Reds. No recessive gene effect apparent.

The Cross variants can range in color almost black, with a tan saddle to the one I am posting photos of today, a very pale individual called a superior Cross.

Cross Fox

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Cross Fox

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Pouncing on a Mouse.

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Pouncing on a Mouse

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Pouncing on a Mouse.

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Toilet inspection

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Toilet inspection.

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This will do.

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Cross Fox crossing thin ice.

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Thank you

Thank you.

I start doing bird photography around 1970, with a Kodak Pocket Instamatic. LOL, not what one one consider a wildlife camera but it was what I could afford back then.

I have made several posts of bird photographs, this one for example.

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-760202-1.html

Thank you

You could be right about that. All I know for sure is that this one is a model 26 and the manufactures place shows a date of 1952.