Montana

Cute Alert ! Be warned there is a lot of cuteness in those pictures. I spent the last couple days in Montana, near Glacier National Park, photographing wildlife. The babies are born and they are so cute. It was fantastic to see them up close. It was a really short trip and I’m already back in California.

The year is almost over and it’s time to look back at my work for 2013. From a pure statistical perspective, 2013 has been my most productive year ever. Probably due to the fact that I have traveled the most (76 days of travel and 7 countries). All the images presented here are available for licensing or as fine art prints.

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...

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...

My wife and I went to Kalispell, MT in the middle of the Winter. The only reason I could convince my wife to spend about a week in Montana in Winter  where highs never really got over 22F/-6C, was a chance to watch and take pictures of “winter cats” (lynx, bobcat). But in addition to the cats, we had the opportunity to see a coyote, a few wolves, and a few foxes. Let’s focus on the “smaller cats” first. We got to watch a Canadian Lynx and a Canadian Lynx kitten. They were  really cute with their furry tufts on their ears, their long legs and wide paws. The kitten’s paws were white, as if it was wearing mittens to walk in the snow. It was really hard not to try to take it home with us. Then we saw a feisty bobcat....