Banff Wildlife Part 2

Here is the next installment of animal photos that I took on my trip to Banff in early April. It took me quite awhile before I saw my first elk, which I found rather frustrating. I went to Banff with the expectation that the place was literally crawling with elk, that they were wandering around town, next to the highway, on the golf course, everywhere. I was even more aggravated when I would spend my days driving all over the park, not a single elk to be seen, only to return at the end of the day to have someone tell me they saw one walking in front of our hotel.

One day I took a long walk on the golf course, where elk were often spotted, but I saw nothing but birds and squirrels. There appeared to be random sections of the course fenced off (I'm not a golfer), which I thought was odd until I realized they were protecting the greens from being grazed by elk and deer.

Elk Cervus canadensis

Finally one day, I was driving back to the hotel by a back road and there was this beautiful male elk with a great set of antlers. He had a female nearby, and they calmly grazed while I took photos with the remaining light of the day. I stayed well back and used my long lens. I could tell that they were far more skittish than the big horn sheep I had seen earlier. The male watched my movements and kept his antlers towards me at all times.

For the rest of the trip I often drove down that same road and saw the pair of elk grazing nearby each time I went. One day I brought along a friend to show her the pair as well, but alas, they were nowhere to be found. I was just about to turn around and drive away, when we saw the cars slow down and stop ahead of us (a good sign that they had seen some wildlife). We drove on a bit more and saw a whole herd of elk! There must have been 30 animals. They hung around the same area for the next few days and I saw them often.

The following picture is of a different pair of elk that I came across on one of the last days of our trip. My husband was along for the drive and he was able to see this pair as well. They were also wary and nervous around people, I managed to get a few photos before they disappeared into the forest.