More Animal Encounters
My last post, hosted at Go Explore Nature, talked about my unforgettable animal encounter in Yosemite. Along that theme I’d like to share a few shots of other animal encounters we had. Here was a deer who had decided that leaves and berries just hadn’t filled her up enough. Her nose led her into the maze of tent cabins where we were staying, hoping that someone had left some scraps in an open bear box. She sniffed and wandered about a few minutes until finally her nose guided her outside our view. My oldest, of course, wanted to follow her. We, of course, had to convince him to keep plenty of distance.
Though they look gentle and timid, these deer can get spooked easily and have powerful hooves. A park ranger had earlier let us know that in Yosemite’s history as a national park no one has been killed by either a bear or mountain lion, even though they do live in close proximity. The only reported death was by a stag, who was being fed potato chips by a young child. The bag fell to the ground and spooked the stag.
For the most part, the deer were quite comfortable to forage near roads even with onlookers passing nearby.
In one open meadow we were treated to seeing several deer grazing in the same area. One deer, however, was being chased out of the meadow by another young buck. Man they can run fast! Unfortunately the territory the buck was defending bordered a fairly well-used road. The deer was forced to hurdle a fence and wander around the road until he could try to sneak in again when the buck wasn’t looking. Perhaps the amount of onlookers made cars slow down to see what the spectacle was about. At any rate the deer was given free roam of the street when needed, and eventually darted past all the other deer and into the back reaches of the meadow.
This post is part of Photo Fridays, hosted by Debbie at Delicious Baby. Check out her site for more travel photos.
Great pic of the deer & Yosemite Falls! It makes me sad that people don’t realize they need to keep their distance from and respect wildlife. “Do not feed the animals” isn’t a guideline, people!
Family vacations traveling through Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Canada brought many animal encounters for me growing up.
Wild birds eating out of my hand, being “this” close to a moose, whistling marmots climbing up my legs for Cherrios…
They are still some of the best memories I have from my childhood (and helped to solidify my love of nature as an adult.)
Your boys are SO lucky to have this exposure.
Great pics. The reaction of a small child to an unexpected wildlife encounter is always so precious!