We set up a wildlife camera at the park, hoping to get pictures of a mountain lion or something equally exciting. We've found bobcat tracks and kit fox/coyote tracks so far, and some scat. There are lots of mule deer (will post those later!) and we've found bighorn sheep tracks and scat on the northern end of the park--that's the current camera location!
This was taken at the group site, a mile north of the visitor center. We don't get to see kit fox very often and it's usually during the night check around the Neck or the Point. Kit fox are nocturnal and eat small rodents and cottontail rabbits. I've found slides where park staff have had to trap them in the campground and release them elsewhere, because they were begging campers for food. These little guys (and girls) are so cute, the Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country says they look like cartoon characters with their big ears, small bodies and long tails. Campers like to feed them because they are so cute...but they can't be dependent on human food...one, because it's bad for them and two, because when humans aren't around (like now, in the winter) they have a hard time getting back into the routine of feeding themselves. Same with birds, deer (though I did see a mule deer stealing something from a cooler at a campsite in Arches National Park once), chipmunks and all the other cute creatures we like to feed.
It's good to be back in the blogging world....and I will TRY MY BEST to keep it going!
No comments:
Post a Comment