Cannundrums

I went through my photos of mammals and set aside about 145 of what I thought were my best ones. Then I went through those and settled on 68 of them. I looked at such things as: (1) quality of the photo (lighting and focus); (2) artistic elements, like scenery, other animals and how the particular mammal is presented; and (3) I sought for breadth and tried to avoid more than two or three of any particular species, even though I may have had more photos of a particular species I felt were better than photos of other species I've selected.

I've always been fascinated by bats, but I've only seen bats that I could photograph a few times.

These East African epauletted fruit bats were found in a tree outside a souvenir shop in Kenya, hidden by outer green foliage.

These flying foxes near Kandy, Sri Lanka, were flying by the hundreds or thousands. We originally thought they were birds.

Roosting fly foxes in Sri Lanka.

A few small mammal photos are included.

A desert cottontail was found in Badlands NP in South Dakota.

A Eurasian red squirrel in Ala Archa NP in Kyrgyzstan.

American red squirrel found wild in the Yukon Animal Preserve outside Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Black-tailed prairie dogs in Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota.

Raccoon at Merritt Island NWR in Florida. The only raccoons I'd ever seen before were at night in residential neighborhoods or outside a restaurant on a mountain begging for food. This racoon was foraging during the day, miles away from human habitation. I was more excited to see this than the alligators I saw a short distance away. Because of that, it is included despite not being perfectly focused.

A ruddy mongoose in Udawalawe NP in Sri Lanka.

A few are of mammals that live entirely or mostly in water.

A humpback whale fin disappearing below the water in the Bay of Fundy, outside Saint Andrew's, New Brunswick, Canada.

Manatee, under water, in Crystal River, Florida.

California sea lions in the harbor in Newport, Oregon.

Steller sea lions on an island in the Gulf of Alaska in Kenai Fjords NP.

Harbor seals lying on floating ice near Northwestern Glacier in Kenai Fjords NP.

A hippo, completely out of water, strangely enough, in Masai Mara, Kenya, Africa.

These hippos, in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, with elephants behind them.

Monkeys are always fun to encounter and photograph.

Japanese macaque in Iwatayama Monkey Park on Mt. Arshiyama in Kyoto, Japan.

Barbary macaque in the Cedar Forest near Azrou, Morocco.

Common toque macaque on Sigiriya Rock, Sri Lanka.

Pale-fronted toque macaque in a jackfruit tree at Peradeniya Botanical Gardens outside Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Gray-footed chacma baboons in Hwange NP, Zimbabwe.

A younger gray-footed chacma baboon in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Tufted gray langur in Pollonaruwa, Sri Lanka.

Tufted gray langur in Yala NP, Sri Lanka.

Southern purple-faced langur in Galle, Sri Lanka.

There is a huge variety of deer, antelope, sheep, goats and horses. Here are a few of my favorites.

The endangered black-faced impala drink at a waterhole in Etosha NP, Namibia.

A black-faced impala buck, also at Etosha.

Common impala females in Hwange NP, Zimbabwe.

Axis deer, including a good sized buck, in Udawalawe NP, Sri Lanka.

Thomson's gazelle in Masai Mara, Kenya.

Springbok in Etosha NP.

Springbok in Etosha NP with a zebra in the background.

Red lechwe, an animal I'd never heard of until I saw it, in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.

Southern reedbuck in the Okavango Delta.

Amazingly beautiful bush buck in Hwange NP.

Pronghorn in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, outside Badlands NP, in South Dakota.

White-tailed deer in Custer State Park, South Dakota.

Coke's hartebeest in Serengeti NP, Tanzania.

Gemsbok in Etosha NP. A springbok and zebra in the background.

Common waterbuck in Hwange NP.

Blue wildebeest in Etosha NP.

A majestic Zambezi kudu male with females in Etosha NP.

Rocky Mountain elk at Hardware Ranch in northern Utah.

Mountain goat on Mt. Evans, in Colorado.

This memorializes one of the most remarkable photography sessions of my life. Near Rocky Reach Dam on the Columbia River in Washington I watched a group of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep head-butting each other like battering rams. The light was perfect, the leaves were changing color, and these big beautiful rams were all grouped together.