Images of Badlands National Park Wildlife – central South Dakota, taken in July 2017.

Badlands National Park provided me limitless photographic opportunities, as the light changed throughout the day each scene became something different than it had been earlier. This I expected; what surprised me was the abundance of wildlife in what seemed to be a desolate uninhabitable region. Prairie Dogs were everywhere and I had heard that there were Bison in the park but the large number of Bighorn Sheep stunned me. Now if you have followed my exploits over the years you might remember that I listed Bighorn Sheep as my “white whale” as I had no luck photographing them. That changed last year in Rocky Mountain National Park when I caught a glimpse of several on a hillside…from a long way away. Well I’ve now gotten plenty of close ups as they freely roam the Badlands in large numbers.

A second surprise were the owls; another animal on my “gotta get” list. These particular owls are Burrowing Owls and interestingly enough they prefer to stand on their dens in broad daylight so that they can see any predators that might be in the area. Although they are not easy to locate this made my effort to find them a little simpler.

I caught two other notable acts in this park; a fawn suckling its mother and, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, a pair of Bull Bison butting heads in a battle for herd supremacy.

Not bad for a place called “Badlands”…