Other Animals
BearHead Photography has many images to showcase his expansive portfolio on mammals of North America and around the globe, and here are his wild pictures of river otters, weasels, asian elephants, pine marten, monkey, lizard, badger, and porcupines.
Tiny Forest
Most of the times when I’ve seen an ermine it’s in the middle of a large meadow with nothing but snow. It was that way at first with this one, but eventually it made its way to a few trees. I so badly wanted to capture it with something other than just snow, and this was my chance. It took a while, but it finally stopped and looked at a place where the branches were in the snow!
Curious Weasel
Just seeing an ermine is a treat, but a treat that normally only lasts a few seconds. They are also barely a foot long with their tail, so you need to be close to them. This ermine was a curious one and it came to check me out and allowed me to get a few shots off before it bounded away again.
Going for It
Ermine are little weasels that turn white in the winter. They are very quick and hard to keep up with. This ermine was really moving around a lot, and really went for it with this jump over the snow drifts.
White Surroundings
Finding an ermine in the winter is not an easy task. Finding a small white animal in a land of snow is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Fortunately, this little guy came out of his hole right when we were going by and my friend spotted him. When he first saw us it just stood there to try and figure out what we were.
Quills
It's amazing how few porcupines I see for how much of the year I spend in the woods. While on a trail this porcupine came out and was not going to move because of me. It was nice to finally see a clear view of a porcupine.
Forest Marten
Pine marten are a very hard animal to photograph. I have seen many in my life, but most sightings only last a couple seconds and then they disappear. After running a while, this marten climbed a tree and looked back at me in the forest. I was so excited that it climbed a tree and gave me a second to capture a photo!
Winter Badger
Badgers in the snow stick out pretty bad, because they are a dark animal. It's not often that they are found in the winter. This one was walking around carefully through the bushes, attempting to blend in.
Snow Ghost
Finding a snow shoe hare in the snow is extremely difficult. I would see them in the dark with my headlights, but never in the day time. They have the perfect camouflage and don’t move if they don’t have to. My wife somehow spotted this hare coming down from a hike, and I was so thrilled to finally get to photograph one!
Playing Marten
Finding a pine marten is very difficult, and getting it to stay still long enough for a photo is even more difficult. This marten was bouncing around and would not stay still, and I finally got a photo of it as it jumped my direction.
Tree Marten
Pine marten are a larger weasel, but very hard to find. When walking through the woods, it is very difficult to spot a marten because they blend in so well. I had seen this weasel on the ground, before it got in the tree, which is how I was able to find it in the tree.
Between Trees
I’ve seen a number of pine marten in my years in the field, but the vast majority of them are very brief sightings. They are so fast and disappear so quickly. I thought I had lost this marten, when all of a sudden I saw it between two trees looking my direction!
Look Back
Though pine martens are a weasel, they are quite big. It’s often hard to tell just how big because they never seem to stop moving. As this marten was climbing up a tree, it paused for a moment and I got to really see just how large it was.
A Curious Look
An ermine is definitely not a large animal. When it is on all fours, it is only a couple inches tall. It was curious about us humans trying to photograph it, so it came closer and stood up to investigate us a little.
Full Extension
Ermines are so light weight that they hardly sink into a fresh snow. Instead of running on the snow, they jump over the snow. Here the ermine is completely stretched out as it begins to jump.
Snow Jumper
Trying to photograph an ermine is very difficult because they move so fast across the snow. We sink it very deep, and it just glides across the top of the snow. Having it jump when it was at eye level with me laying in the snow really made for a great moment, and something I had been trying to get for years.
Flying Ermine
This part of the creek was around four feet wide. Too far for an ermine to easily jump across. After looking good for the first part of the jump, it started to fall. It spread out its legs to try and glide the rest of the way across the creek.
Mouthful
During the summer, the collared pika has to gather and store food for the winter. They don't hibernate, but stay underneath the snow all winter and eat their supply of grasses and greenery. It takes hundreds of trips like these to survive all winter.
Winter Pika
During the winter it is rare to see a pika. During the summer and fall they collect leaves, grass, and other greenery to survive under the rocks and snow all winter. It was surprising to see this pika in the heart of the winter in Yellowstone.
Curious Marten
Finding pine martens is very difficult, but getting shot of them is even harder. They never stay in the same place, and can move so fast. Thankfully, this marten was curious of us and kept looking at us to try and figure us out.
In the Open
Photographing a pine marten is fun and extremely challenging! They never seem to stop moving, and are often in the trees, not on the ground. This marten came down to get a better look at something, before going right back up into the trees.
Snow Shadows
I saw this coyote off in the distance, and then I saw the shadows from the snow bank above it. As it moved closer to the large shadow, its own shadow got longer and longer. I really liked the minimalist look to the snow and the shadows with the coyote.
Porcupine Tree
Porcupines are very interesting animal. They are not large, cannot move fast, and spend lots of their time in trees. They go into the trees to eat, and for protection. This porcupine was not happy I had found it, so I moved on quickly after taking this photo.
The Little Things
All over Denali are ground squirrels. Bears will even chase these animals to have a snack. As night was beginning to come, this squirrel was checking the area to make sure no predators were around.
Sockeye Migration
The salmon migration is one of the great migrations on earth. Millions and millions of salmon return to the stream they were born in to reproduce. It is hard actually to find a location where they school up into the hundreds though. Seeing all these sockeye salmon from a cliff was an amazing sight!