Wednesday Wildlife

A Rare Sighting

On July 18, 2007, I was returning from Upper Waterdog Lake near the Continental Divide to Lower Waterdog Lake.  Leaving the trail, I found myself in a small field of boulders.  After pausing to rest and drink some water, I decided to wait quietly and see if I could capture a few photos of chipmunks or other wildlife.  Apparently, I wasn't alone in my quest for the small rodent.  Shortly after I attached a telephoto lens to my camera, my peripheral vision picked up an odd motion, a silky smooth movement somewhat like flowing water.  Quickly raising the camera, I was able to snap only one photo before the creature disappeared from view.  It was an American marten (Martes americana), a slender-bodied weasel about the size of a mink.  Certainly a fortuitous sighting of this elusive creature.

So what was our common prey?  Perhaps this chipmunk, which came out of hiding a short time later.  Out of the 23 species of western chipmunks, five are found in Colorado.  I believe this one is a Least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus), the smallest and most widespread chipmunk species in North America.  But some of the chipmunk species are difficult to distinguish, and it may be that this is a Colorado chipmunk (N. quadrivittatus) or an Uinta chipmunk (N. umbrinus), although the former's range is not supposed to extend as high as the approximately 11,450' of elevation where I was located.

Note:  Click on any photo to enlarge.