2012 December Wildlife

A white-tail buck in Custer State Park.

The weekend after my birthday in early December, I decided to treat myself to a two and a half day photo getaway in Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park.  I love to find and shoot wildlife photos.  This post is a few shots that I happened to get my camera lens on over the weekend.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and enjoy!

Wind Cave National Park Coyote.

Snow started falling late in the day on Saturday.  There was no wind and big flakes.  Here is a white-tail I happened to catch around the Center Lake campgrounds when the first snowflakes started falling.

A nice 6X6 elk bull at Wind Cave National Park the next morning.

A grand old bull bison of Wind Cave National Park.

The fresh snowfall allowed me to see big cat sign on both Saturday and Sunday morning.  This set of tracks is either from a very large bobcat or a younger cougar on Saturday morning in Custer State Park on Lame Johnny Road. I saw bigger tracks on Sunday morning near Center Lake that were definitely mountain lion.

Custer State Park buck in the shadow of the pines.

I drove through the Badlands on my way back home.  I saw a nice group of Bighorns near the Pinnacles area.

A mule deer buck near the yellow mounds area of Badlands National Park.