Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Even knowing something was there – because the mustangs all had alerted – it took a while for me to locate these two coyotes on the snowy hillside of bachelor ridge in Spring Creek Basin. They’re hunted mercilessly in this part of the country, but I enjoy seeing them. They’re no threat to the wily mustangs. 🙂

Here’s to peace.

Hippity hoppity! This little cottontail held its ground as a band trailed through a wide arroyo on a summer evening, and that made it a perfect subject for a bunny portrait. 🙂

Howdy, handsome! My, what excellent horns you have!

Some of the horses kept looking over a hill, and I thought another band might be there. Nope, just these awesome creatures!

I was just walking along when …

This pronghorn buck was napping when I crested a little hill and saw him. He stood up, and I stood still. Apparently, he didn’t detect a threat, so he laid back down.

Note: All the little red bits are blooms of claret cup cacti, which seem particularly spectacular – and prolific – this year.

These photos all are significantly cropped. Pronghorns are much warier of intrusions by two-legged intruders than the mustangs. 🙂

Interesting trivia:

They’re the fastest North American land mammal – actually, the fastest in the entire Western Hemisphere, according to Wikipedia.

Wyomingites call pronghorns “speed goats.”

Pronghorns are not antelope, which is why it’s correct to call them pronghorns (pronghorn/pronghorns for plural animals? that’s one I’m not sure about).

Pronghorns prefer crawling under fences to jumping over them, which is why wildlife-friendly fencing that takes elk calves and deer fawns into consideration also considers this knowledge about pronghorn behavior – stringing the lowest wire strand at least 18 inches off the ground.

Pronghorns aren’t currently hunted in Disappointment Valley because their population is low (likely *because of* previous hunting). They seem to be working toward recovery because while they’re infrequently seen, they ARE seen.

Visit Wikipedia for more information about these cool mammals.

A fantastic book (thanks, David Temple!) is Built for Speed: A Year in the Life of Pronghorn.

This cracks me up so much there are hardly words for it. That’s Peter (Petra?) Cottontail in his/her arroyo-wall den in the wilds of Spring Creek Basin.

There’s probably 2 feet of arroyo wall above the den, and there’s probably another 4 or 5 feet below the bottom of the pic to the bottom of the arroyo. (The long lens is great for photographing mustangs at a distance but not so handy at capturing smaller critters closer at hand!) Pretty clever and pretty safe, really, though I don’t know if the bunny is the original excavator.

In addition to Peter (Petra), Jack (rabbits) abounds (har) in our little slice of heavenly planet.