My only shot of an Eastern Chipmunk; I don't spend much time back there anymore. I nabbed this little one in Vermont one stormy day. I am told that when I was very small - no more than three years old - an Eastern Chipmunk sat on my hand (in Quebec). That must have been my first wildlife encounter. This image was scanned from the original Fujichrome Velvia slide, October 2000.

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Tags:   Eastern Chipmunk Tamias striatus wildlife mammal animal rodent quick wild nature Smugglers Notch State Park Vermont USA United States Flickr'sBestCreatures

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Rodents are so comical; this shot always earns a laugh when I project it for audiences.

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Tags:   Richardson's Ground Squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii gopher wildlife mammal rodent pest portrait calling wild prairie nature Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada bokeh SpecAnimal

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When I realized my campsite in the Yukon's Ogilvie Mountains was populated by a lot of Northern Red-backed Voles, I spread some peanut butter on a log, set up my camera, and waited. Peanut butter is irresistable, its scent carries a long way, and your subject can't run off with it. Just make sure you don't attract bears (clean up when you have finished)!!! Scanned from the original Kodachrome 64 slide, August 1985.

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Tags:   Northern Red-backed Vole Clethrionomys rutilus wildlife mammal rodent vole wild nature wilderness mountains north Ogilvie Mountains Yukon Canada Kodachrome

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Little rodents are especially vulnerable at this time of year. Hungry after a many months in their dens, they emerge with the first warming days, looking for food. This coincides with the hawk migration, and they are looking for food, too!

Meanwhile, ground squirrels and prairie dogs must scamper across the snow to find open patches of grass; for some it will be their last scamper. About a decade ago we had several wet summers in succession, and the ground squirrel population plummeted. A biologist friend told me they were dying in their dens of pneumonia. As a result, I saw fewer hawks during those years. They will go where the food source happens to be.

2017 and 2018 were drought years in southwestern Saskatchewan. A prairie dog researcher from the University of Calgary told me that in 2018, a lot of prairie dogs were underweight by summer's end, and might not have enough body fat to survive the winter. They will produce smaller litters in such years. Last summer there was good rainfall, the rodents that evaded predation were happy and fat, and I expect to see large litters this year. Will there be rain? No one knows. In a way, the uncertainty makes wildlife photography here exciting; I can't predict how things will unfold. That forces me to simply get out and explore, and half the fun is not knowing what to expect.

Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2020 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Tags:   Richardson's Ground Squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii wildlife animal mammal rodent snow snowy den entrance peeking out alert watch for hawks! springtime spring cute wild prairie Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page Explored

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Black-tailed Prairie Dogs often greet each other with a "kiss" - which is really something else, of course. It may include identification of family members, bonding, learning what the other has been eating lately, and much more. How can we possibly know how other species experience the world? There may be clues, but for the most part we are guessing. It's hard not to read affection into gestures like this; it seems we can't avoid anthropomorphism. To us, they are cute. And who knows, maybe they find us cute, too (although I doubt it) .....

Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2016 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Tags:   Black-tailed Prairie Dog Cynomys ludovicianus wildlife animal mammal rodent four dogtown colony kiss greeting green grassy grass wild prairie Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page

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