Just a simple prairie dog doing his prairie dog thing in the Badlands of South Dakota. These guys always look like they’re about to start dancing.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 360mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1600 of a second

Used to be that seeing a coyote was at least somewhat of a rare sighting, but these days they seem to be everywhere. There was even one spotted on the roof of a bar here in Queens last year. I photographed this wily beast while hiking up Box Springs Mountain Park near Moreno Valley, California. The setting seemed a tad more coyote-like than the rooftop of a New York bar.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/5000th of a second

Here’s another look at an America bison. I mentioned in my last bison post that their iconic shape makes them great subjects for wide, environmental shots. They also make for interesting close ups, with their distinctive horns, large eyes and overall furry-ness.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/4000th of a second

Black bears are very good climbers and this young cinnamon black bear appeared to be having a good old time climbing through the trees in a northern Minnesota forest.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/400th of a second

Here’s another one from the American west. This time South Dakota’s Badlands. The sun had long since set, but there was still just a bit of light in the sky when I came upon this bison on the horizon. There wasn’t enough light, however, for a silhouette, so I used flash to illuminate the bison and the foreground grass, while exposing for the night time sky. I used a very high ISO and slow shutter. If I hadn’t, the background would have been black.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 6400, f/2.8 at 1/13th of a second.

I like slowing the shutter speed down every now and again and panning to get more of an abstract look — especially when trying to convey motion. For this shot, I went even slower than usual at only 1/10th of a second. As I’ve mentioned before, pronghorn are second only to the cheetah as the fastest land mammal in the world. This herd of them was photographed last fall in Yellowstone National Park.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/10th of a second

Sea otters are most commonly spotted while in the water, but occasionally I have been able to photograph them while on land. This one was resting at the shoreline early in the morning and I was able to get a few close up portraits, highlighting the thick fur coat.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/800th of a second

These two mountain goat kids had been playing with each other for quite a while, unmindful of any adult supervision. Eventually, they looked up to see that mom and company had moved further up the mountain. I caught them hurrying to catch up as the sun dipped below the clouds near the top of Mount Evans in Colorado last summer.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 32mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/800th of a second

This little black bear cub stopped to give himself a quick cleaning before continuing up the tree. As I’ve mentioned before, black bears can either be black, blonde, or cinnamon (like this guy), and many shades in-between.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/640th of a second

The Carolina anole is one of those animals — and there are lots of them — that goes by more than one name, including, in this case, the green anole, American anole and red-throated anole. It is also sometimes called the American chameleon, which is odd because it isn’t a chameleon at all, but it does have the chameleon-like ability to change colors. And in this shot, the little guy is giving me a chameleon-like stare down. This is another one from Fourth of July weekend down in Florida, this time at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/250th of a second