Winter in Montana: Part 3
Here is how we got to get all these pictures: Triple D Game Farm Stephen Oachs (link), Scott Bourne, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, they all know about Triple D Game Farm. Scott Bourne wrote in his book that he discovered Triple D Game Farm in the mid-80s! Part 1 and part 2 showed you some of the animals and the great pictures you can take at Triple D, but this post will explain how it works. Each day starts the same way, you meet at the Triple D ranch, you have coffee and pastry and look at the board. Depending of the weather, lights and the animals, Triple D lists what species you will be able to photograph that day. They choose the location, based on the size of the animals (a mountain lion needs a bigger space than a fox). Triple D rents sites...
Winter in Montana: Part 2
The second part of the series is going to focus on the “big cats” (and some horses) [link to part 1]. We were lucky and we got to photograph a mountain lion, a snow leopard and my favorite: the amur leopard. The mountain lion (a.k.a. cougar or puma) is a big cat. Its thinner profile makes it a very dangerous predator. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia or Uncia uncia) is a beautiful animal. The total estimated population is 4,080–6,590. It is classified as globally Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is extremely rare, the last data I could find states that only 14–20 adults and 5–6 cubs were counted in a census in 2007 [link]. It is classified as Critically...