18 replies to this topic

[Skiing#1]

Today I was skiing and saw one squirrel ran across a ski trail. It was cool. Of course, I rode the chairlift and have been seen many snow footprints (most deer and rabbits).

Have you see any animals (rabbit, squirrel, mouse, rat, deer, moose) on the ski slope?

[Lift Dinosaur]

Skiing#1, on 05 March 2012 - 06:55 PM, said:

Today I was skiing and saw one squirrel ran across a ski trail. It was cool. Of course, I rode the chairlift and have been seen many snow footprints (most deer and rabbits).

Have you see any animals (rabbit, squirrel, mouse, rat, deer, moose) on the ski slope?

Most of those animals had already been eaten!!!
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[Peter Pitcher]

I saw an elephant once but it was late at night, I had been drinking and it might have been a moose

[Peter]

One day when I was at Big Sky, they had to close a run because there was a moose chilling on it.

[CH3skier]

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[Wampafodder]

We seem to have had an excessive amount of cougars this year.

[DonaldMReif]

I've seen a lot of squirrels and chipmunks both on trails and when riding chairlifts, all over.

Here's one chipmunk in Breckenridge on a trail near Lift 6.

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[mthornton]

Years ago at Blackcomb, in the spring we had a bear that liked to chase skiers... but only Japanese skiers who happened to wear very bright metallic neon ski-suits. Very excited Japanese skiers!

At Pano we have too many damn bears (mostly hibernate in winter), but also lots of Moose, Elk, Cougar, Wolf, Lynx (in pairs), Bobcat, Wolverine, Fishers and Martins. In summer the bears (including grizz) are a real pain in the ass. My favorite was a skier report about a bear (it was in spring), which turned out to be a bull-moose (uh, time for new glasses). One time in May, we watched a full-grown bull-moose patiently kicking perfect steps up a steep ice slope, for several hundred meters before it traversed off on a bench. It was bullet-proof ice!

Bighorn sheep love to eat Portland-cement, straight out of the bag. Apparently it tastes good.

Ski areas in BC can be a superb haven for wildlife. They get a reprieve from the dense bush & instead find hundreds of acres of excellent grass, berries and millions of bunnies to eat. Lots of small streams & shade. No hunters. But occasionally conflicts with people happen, which always ends sadly..

[Bogong]

If you spend a week skiing at most Australian resorts you are likely to see a wombat on the ski runs. They tend to hibernate, but emerge to stretch their (short) legs for a day every month or so.

[Bogong]

Sometimes you also see kangaroos, but sensibly, they usually migrate away from the snow country in winter.

[Lift Dinosaur]

Bogong- I was waiting for your reply from 'Down Under'.
Cute little buggers, those wombats!
Dino

[Emax]

We get quite a few customers that qualify as animals...

[aug]

Bogong, on 06 March 2012 - 08:56 PM, said:

If you spend a week skiing at most Australian resorts you are likely to see a wombat on the ski runs. They tend to hibernate, but emerge to stretch their (short) legs for a day every month or so.

"Nice Marmot."

[Bogong]

I had to look up what a marmot was!

Needless to say, wombats are not rodents, they are a marsupial that can grow to over three feet long. As they are mainly muscle, are very heavy and strong and if a car hits them at speed, the car is often a write off.

They are quite common but mostly solitary. They eat roots, berries, fungi, etc and live in a burrow network deep underground. Each wombat burrow has several entrances and covers a wide area. If a carnivore like a dog, a fox or a quoll (a type of marsupial cat) goes down a wombat hole, the wombat will crush them against the roof of a tunnel, killing them instantly.

Skiers and mountain cattlemen lost in blizzards have crawled into wombat holes and used the shelter to survive the night. Wombats seem to tolerate this intrusion as long as the person is very quiet and unaggressive.

[2milehi]

The Marmot is pretty common in the US Rocky Mountains

[aug]

"Nice Marmot" is a line from the movie The Big Lebowski. when The dude sees a ferret he comments " Nice Marmot" That is why I commented the way I did about the Wombat.

[teachme]

Everything mthornton said for BC and Alberta resorts +1. Best for me was having a mommy bear and cub grazing early sping shoots I guess (or salt???) on the side of the road at Louse one spring day. Problem was my car was parked on the other side of the bear....

[liftmech]

I've seen bears at both Baker and Copper. We had to close Gabls' (chair 5 liftline) at Baker due to a sow who was quite protective of her territory one spring.

[Bogong]

How could I forget Tasmanian Devils?
... and yes, they are every bit as psycho as depicted on the Warner Bros cartoons.


This one is fairly sedate as it's in scavenging mode, but they will literally attack anything!

Devil footage starts at 0.50 (after a few pretty scenic shots).

This post has been edited by Bogong: 13 March 2012 - 07:21 AM