Sep 21 2024
Mammoth Cave National Park is best known for the immense labyrinth hidden beneath the rolling hills of central Kentucky, but its wildlife extends far beyond bats hanging from cave ceilings. Above ground, forests, ponds, sinkholes, streams, and the Green and Nolin rivers support white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, foxes, beavers, owls, salamanders, turtles, snakes, and …
Sep 21 2024
Few places in North America offer a more extraordinary opportunity to see wild brown bears than Lake Clark National Park. Along the remote Cook Inlet coast of Alaska, bears gather in salt marshes, tidal flats, rivers, and streams where an abundance of natural food allows surprisingly large numbers of animals to live within the same …
Sep 21 2024
The plants of Kenai Fjords National Park grow in one of Alaska’s most dramatic environments. Glaciers descend from the Harding Icefield, steep mountains rise almost directly from the sea, and heavy Pacific precipitation nourishes lush coastal forests only a short distance from barren ice and rock. This remarkable variation in elevation, moisture, exposure, and glacial …
Sep 21 2024
The wildlife of Kenai Fjords National Park is as dramatic and varied as the landscape itself. Humpback whales feed in cold coastal waters, orcas patrol the fjords, sea otters float among kelp beds, harbor seals rest on glacial ice, mountain goats cling to precipitous cliffs, and black bears wander through the forests surrounding Exit Glacier. …
Sep 21 2024
Whale watching is one of the most memorable ways to experience Kenai Fjords National Park. From the harbor town of Seward, boats travel into Resurrection Bay and along Alaska’s rugged Gulf of Alaska coastline, passing forested mountains, rocky islands, seabird colonies, tidewater glaciers, and waters used by an impressive variety of marine mammals. Humpback whales …
Sep 19 2024
The brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve are among the most famous wild animals in North America. Each summer, bears gather along salmon-rich rivers, roam coastal sedge meadows, dig for clams on tidal flats, and move through an enormous Alaska wilderness where food remains abundant and human development is limited. About 2,200 brown …
Sep 18 2024
The wildlife of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is unlike that of almost any other national park in the United States. Thousands of miles of open Pacific Ocean isolated the Hawaiian Islands from continental ecosystems, allowing the animals that successfully reached these remote volcanic islands to evolve in remarkable ways. Native birds dominate the park’s wildlife …
Sep 15 2024
Wildlife in Guadalupe Mountains National Park is remarkably diverse for a landscape that can appear, at first glance, to be an enormous expanse of dry West Texas desert. Black bears roam high-elevation forests, mountain lions move silently through canyons and desert slopes, mule deer browse near springs, elk inhabit the mountains, and hundreds of bird …
Sep 14 2024
Great Sand Dunes National Park may be famous for enormous mountains of sand, but the dunes are only one part of a remarkably varied ecosystem. Elk graze across the broad San Luis Valley, mule deer wander through wooded foothills, black bears forage along mountain streams, bighorn sheep move across rocky slopes, and mountain lions travel …
Sep 14 2024
High on the cold, rocky slopes of Great Basin National Park grow some of the oldest individual trees on Earth. Great Basin bristlecone pines have survived for thousands of years in places where winter storms are fierce, soils are poor, moisture is scarce, and the growing season may last only a few weeks. Instead of …
