Bear cruising the beach

          I found an old piece of drift wood and jammed it a couple feet down into a clay riverbed about 10ft from shore. I wired the camera up to the piece of driftwood, and after 5 minutes of tinkering to get the perfect camera angle, I left the camera to do it's work. Hopefully some of these photographs demonstrate not only ways to document a species, but new methods, angles, and ideas for observing and photographing wildlife.
           There were plenty of tracks along the bank to suggest heavy animal traffic, but unfortunately I could only leave the camera out at this location for 5 days. I was hoping for a passing wolf pack, as the tracks showed they had been at this site a week prior, but I was happy with this picture of a big bear wandering by.
           Leaving a remote camera outside always poses a serious risk for the owner. Cases can leak, people can steal them, and animals can destroy them or carry them off among other things. It an especially large risk to leave a camera dangling above the water, were a passing beaver or a curious moose could easily swat it down, but always the believer in "All or nothing" I decided to take the risk in the attempt to get the shot I want. This picture was taken in Wyoming.

Wolf on the cat scat

         This collared wolf paused by the camera, located on a high traffic ridge trail, at 2:00 am to smell a cougar scat left only a week earlier. I didn't expect this this canine to take any interest in feline scat-but wildlife always has a few surprises. Look at the size of the hind legs and paws on this guy! This picture was snapped by my remote camera in western Wyoming.

Elk

A few elk wondered by this mountain trail along with a few other animals (will be posted soon). Mountain trails, especially directly above or below trails, in my experience serve as high traffic areas for wildlife.