Author: Alex

Wildlife Watch: Lost Dutchman State Park

Wildlife Watch: Lost Dutchman State Park

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We did a lot of hiking and exploring while we were in the Lost Dutchman area and we saw a lot of wildlife!

We didn’t have to go far to see Wiley Coyote. This coyote was hanging around our campground. We heard a pack of them howling during the nights, but this one was not in a pack and was attacking cats (and maybe Roadrunners). The Camp Host told us the coyotes in that area will try to eat any food left out on the picnic tables even if it’s just for a few minutes.

We also saw a lot of Gamble’s Quail . They are VERY noisy!!! We didn’t get a picture of any because they wouldn’t hold still. They ran in flocks of five or more and were constantly moving.

We saw several Cactus Wrens too. Cactus Wrens like to build their nests in Palo Verde trees, Cholla, and Saguaro cacti. The Cactus Wren is Arizona’s State Bird. Cactus Wrens will stand on their nest of twigs and mud chirping loudly to let others know that this tree/cactus is claimed, so they’re hard to miss. Somehow, we didn’t get any pictures of them though.

While we were at Tonto National Monument, we saw these snake heads. We don’t know what kinds of snakes they are, but we think one is poisonous and the other one isn’t. Either way, that’s a lot of teeth!

We also saw a Gila Monster replica at Tonto National Monument. The Ranger warned us about how the Gila monster is poisonous. We looked all over the place, but we never got to see a real one.

We did see a bunch of these little lizards everywere.

And…we saw some big spiders (this one was in the bathroom).

The coolest thing we saw was a White-nosed Coati! We found this White-nosed Coati while we were on a scenic drive. I think White-nosed Coati’s look similar to a Red Panda except they have gray short fur. They actually belong to the raccoon family. You can see how long their claws are! They use their tail to help balance and climb. The one in the picture was really curious about us. We stopped and backed up in the car and watched it as it just watched us for a while.

We saw a lot of Jackrabbits. They blend in well with their surroundings and are really quiet so you have to look carefully to find them.

There were also bat houses in the state park we stayed in. We never saw bats going in or out of one, but we did see bats in the area.

Those are the animals we saw at this time! Hopefully we’ll find more down the road!!!

Wildlife Watch Grand Canyon

Wildlife Watch Grand Canyon

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One of my favorite things about being outside is seeing all of the animals. Here are some of the wild animals we saw while visiting the Grand Canyon National Park.

I’ll start with the squirrels because we saw so many of them. We saw 3 different species of squirrels.

Abert’s squirrel (we didn’t get a picture of one of these, but this is what they look like),

Golden mantled squirrel (we saw these everywhere!),

and the common tree squirrel. There were signs all over warning about how dangerous the squirrels are. They have fleas that carry the plague and squirrels are known to bite. A squirrel bite can get infected fast. One of the Rangers told us that out of all of the animals at GCNP, squirrels are the most dangerous because they beg for food or water and will sometimes bite.

The squirrels at GCNP are NOT afraid of humans. You can see how close the squirrel in the picture above gets to a group of humans.

Outside of the Grand Canyon Market Place we saw a herd of elk munching on the grass and leaves scattered through the trees. When it is hunting season, the elk go to Grand Canyon NP for shelter because hunting is not allowed at the National Park. Pretty smart of the elk!

We saw about 7 females and 1 male at the market place. One of the female elk was on the sidewalk close to us, on our side of the fence. She was just walking and eating grass and leaves and didn’t seem to mind the humans gathering to watch.

This male elk (buck) had one side of his antlers messed up. One side pointed downward and wasn’t as big as the other side.  We saw a lot of elk at GCNP, but didn’t get to take pictures of the others.

When we walked the rim trail, we saw a tarantula with its front two legs disconnected from its body. The unattached legs were twitching on the ground. It was kind of cool to watch!

At Hermits Rest we saw a snake which we believe was a baby California king snake in a hole on the side of a statue.

There were a ton of different kinds of birds at GCNP. We didn’t get pictures of very many of them. It’s hard to get a good picture of something that doesn’t hold still for long. My brother took the picture of the bird above.

Those are the animals we saw at Grand Canyon National Park, maybe we will find more down the road.