Christmas cougar

When I was just getting started in wildlife biology, after I finished my BS at Colorado State University in the mid-90's, I was lucky enough to work for a Utah State University grad student's project in south-central Utah studying the population dynamic's and effects of resident cougar populations on the elk and mule deer populations. The Utah Division of Wildlife was also interested in trying to get a better assessment of the true population size of the cougar in Utah and figure out if their harvest quotas for the secretive Rocky Mountain carnivore was appropriate. I was lucky enough to witness the capture of several adult cougars, as well as a few cubs. This young animal was a male born sometime the previous year. We have all heard about the plight of the cougar, or puma or mountain lion as they are also referred to in the Eastern United States, but what many people don't realize is that they have one of the largest overall geographic ranges of any mammal in the world. The cougar is found all the way from Alaska to South America, and many parts in between. It was a tremendous treat to work on this magnificent animal, definitely a gem in my biological fieldwork career. This young male has just been tranquilized, and is soon to be sound asleep for a while. we worked the animal up, put a radio collar on it to track it's movements and then released it unharmed. I posted this image because I felt it had sort of a Christmas feel to it. Iused the orginal version of the Canon Elan camera with a Tokina 400/5.6 telephoto lens to capture this image on Fujichrome 100 film. The good ole days!

Red eft

Eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) have three stages of life: the aquatic larva or tadpole, the red eft (terrestrial adult stage), and the aquatic adult. The larva possesses gills and does not leave the pond environment where it was hatched. Larvae are brown-green in color, and shed their gills when they transform into the terrestrial red eft. The red eft is bright orange-red in color, with darker red spots outlined in black. An eastern newt can have as many as 21 of these spots. The pattern of these spots differs among the subspecies. After two or three years, the red eft begins to transform into the aquatic adult. The adult's skin is olive green, but retains the eft's characteristic outlined red spots. It has a larger and wider tail and characteristically slimy skin. At home in coniferous and deciduous forests, eastern newts need a moist environment with either a temporary or permanent water source, and thrive best in a muddy environment.

During the eft stage, they may travel far from their original location. Red efts may often be seen in a forest after a rainstorm. Wild eastern newts eat a variety of foods such as insects, small mollusks and crustaceans, young amphibians and frog eggs. I took this image in spring 2006 on my Dad's farm in south-central Virginia on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I used a Nikon D200 and Sigma 150mm HSM EX macro lens, handheld with a little fill-flash from my Nikon SB800.

Moose on the loose in Maine!

I am finally getting around to looking at some of the 3,000+ images from a trip I took this Fall to Maine. Of course we saw the obligatory moose (Alces alces), so I figured I would post a cute one of this mother cow with her calf from this year. They spent at least 40 minutes feeding at the edge of Sandy Stream Pond in Baxter State Park, within 6 feet of myself and several other lucky folks! Quite a treat for this southern photographer! My Dad almost had one come right up to him.