On the way to hike in Lost Creek Wilderness I kept my eye out for wildlife, per usual, and within a few miles of the house I already spotted a coyote and three moose. The coyote was unusually com...
On the way to hike in Lost Creek Wilderness I kept my eye out for wildlife, per usual, and within a few miles of the house I already spotted a coyote and three moose. The coyote was unusually comfortable, but I was still in my neighborhood so he's relatively accustomed to people – but most coyotes around my area run away at first sight of humans. He trotted by my car as I quickly snapped some shots in the difficult light. It was lightly snowing and very cloudy, so I didn't try to take many shots before driving along. Not much further down the road I spotted two moose in the distance on private land. I kept the shots of these two brief given that I still needed to drive an hour to meet my friend and these moose were so far away on private property. Not even a mile later I saw one of the strangest moose behaviors that I've ever seen. She was also on private land and a long ways away. The falling snow, low light and distance made it tough to see, but I realized her tongue was hanging out in a dead-limp manner much like an animal that's been anesthetized. I was worried after she continued to stand there with her tongue hanging out like that for several minutes. Eventually, she pulled the tongue back into her mouth and I couldn't see any visible injury. But, a moment later the tongue was back out. She was in some sort of stress, I believe, so I decided to move it along. Very curious if she's ok or if there was a pressing issue that she was having. Later on the long drive I saw some nice deer by the roadside, too. No other animals on the hike as the heavy snow picked up steam and the camera didn't come out once.
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