Banff Wildlife Part 1

Big Horn Sheep Ovis Canadensis

I saw a lot of wildlife while in Banff. This was the first animal I saw, and I must admit that I didn't even know what it was. I thought it was a mountain goat. There was a group of them standing in the middle of the road. Later I learned that mountain goats tend to stay way up high on cliffs and do not venture down onto the road.

Young Big Horn Sheep

I saw these sheep a number of times. There was a beautiful road near the town of Banff that lead to Lake Minnewanka that I was compelled to drive down every few days. It was even more amazing since spring had slowly been arriving during the two weeks I was there and I could see changes every time I went.

I often saw them standing on the road and licking it. I don't know why they were doing this. Some animals need to eat small stones to help with their digestion, or perhaps they were licking salt off the road, I don't know. I'm not even sure that they salt the roads in Banff National Park. Salt would have a negative environmental impact on the surrounding lakes that the park management would want to avoid, they might just sand the roads there.

What you don't see in these pictures are the 6 or 7 other cars and the crowd of people that had also pulled off the road to look. The sheep ignored all of us, although at points I could tell they were bothered that people were coming so close and they would move off a little ways. I actually saw a father put his 8 year old daughter right in front of the large male so he could take a picture! During my stay I was wondering if our society's move to a more urban lifestyle has caused us to lose some of our common sense, but that's material for another post.

All of my photos were taken from the car window, the sheep were very close and I was using my longer zoom lens. At one point, the sheep were not moving off the road and I actually had to drive my car around them. I could have reached out my window and touched them (if I happened to be lacking in common sense). They were very used to people and cars.

Female Big Horn Sheep