Winter Wildlife Videos: Elk and Coyote

These mid February days are cold and sunny under bright blue skies. It is so cold that the snow squeaks under your boots and the freezing wind forces animals to seek sheltered places in the sun.

I put up some wildlife cameras up top in the woods this winter. I don’t bait animals into the camera: that causes too many problems for animals and people. I found wildlife trails where animals move through the woods and found, by trial and error, where to put the cameras on these trails.

I have pasted together some of the clips of elk and coyotes I captured and have posted them here.

You can see a couple of the elk in this video trying to figure out the camera. They tilt their heads back and smell the area (do they catch my scent at the camera?) and swiveling those amazingly large ears to hear any threat nearby. Eventually they move on and you can see them browsing the trees and shrubs nearby. These are cow elk. I wonder if any bulls will wander by this winter?

This video shows a couple of big healthy coyotes moving quickly on their way along the trail shown from the perspective of two different cameras. A yellow hound ran by shortly after and then returned the way it had come. I hope the dog does not harass the elk and other wildlife up there.

February wildlife encounters are far more rare than encounters in July, but the wildlife cams show that the woods still tell a story – even if only as a short vignette.

All photos, videos and writing copyright J.A.Siderius 2014.