Indigenous critters - predator and prey - Alberta prairies

[WesternGuy]

I went out one day last week looking for snowy owls - didn't find any (maybe they have gone north), but I did happen across these guys - a couple of urban coyotes and a gopher. The coyotes we see year around, but the gophers, well they usually are gone by September and don't reappear until April or May, so this one is rushing the season a bit. She was very skittish and I had to use my car as a blind - turn off the engine, turnoff the music, roll down the window and wait - took about 10 minutes before she re-emerged enough to get a few images (I say "she" because it has been established that it is usually the females that emerge first from the burrows after winter and the males don't usually emerge for at least another month after that.) Their biggest predators are raptors and coyotes (man also, but I usually think only in terms of "natural" predators, i.e., other wildlife - don't think of man as wildlife (but that is just me)).

Gopher


Urban coyotes


Cheers,

WesternGuy

[Eric D]

Nice catch light on the eye on that first shot!

[ksbryan0]

Nice shots WG. We just noticed the first gophers out yesterday as well. Have also seen more coyotes that normal lately, and they are in great shape considering the winter we've had. Obviously they've found something to keep them in good condition.

[Singletracklovr]

Coyote's my favorite subject. Love it.

[WesternGuy]

Eric, Ken and Bob, thanks for the kind comments. There were actually four coyotes in this area...I am not sure what had happened just before I arrived, but one of them was headed north away from these two (they were headed south) at a very high speed - maybe a little conflict(?) and the third one was standing a ways away watching whatever was happening. I watched for a while and these two just wandered off and left the third one by itself, so I am wondering if this is a mated pair and the male was chasing the competition away. Regardless, they are very wary critters and getting any shots of them is a bonus in my part of the country.

Regards,

WesternGuy