After spending a few exciting days being immersed in beauty, wonder, and wildlife in Glacier National Park, we drove a few hours south to Kalispell for our next adventure. And what an adventure it was! I met up with other photographers to shoot wildlife at Triple D Ranch, a photography and cinemetography ranch, home to around 30 species. These animals are not domesticated, but are habituated to specific handlers who use food, attention, and lures to engage them in activity that displays their natural athletic abilities and habits. Let me be clear. This ranch is not a zoo. These animals are not circus animals. They are kept in their natural habitats and are cared for by specific handlers, but they are wild to anyone who is not their handler. The handlers do a great job of educating photographers on safety and facilitating the action to ensure everyone’s safety. The ranch is not open to the general public. It isn’t a place a family can drop in and see the animals. That’s because it isnt a zoo. The ranch is home to many species native to Montana and surrounding areas but also to a few endangered species such as the siberian tiger and snow leopard.
I settled into a nice rhythm of waking up early, before sunrise, shooting til mid-late morning, then returning to my hotel room to review my pictures. As much as I enjoy the actual process of photographing wildlife, I have to say I may equally enjoy reviewing the pictures! Each picture is a memory and tells a story, so I get to relive the experience every time I view them.
The species I photographed were: grizzly bear, adult mountain lion and cub, snow leopard cub, siberian lynx cub, skunk, pine marten, adult wolf, adult coyote and pup, siberian tiger, canadian lynx. I will probably never in my lifetime have an opportunity to photograph a siberian tiger in Siberia! Or a snow leopard cub in Asia. So this experience was nothing other than amazing for me. I never knew how athletic a canadian lynx is and I never knew how much personality a grizzly bear could have! Certainly observing wildlife is way better than watching tv or playing on the computer.
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