Animals in the Field

A life long dream came true this summer when I came across wild horses in the Chilcotin. First time I didn't have a camera. Wandering around in the bush we came almost face to face with a stallion and his mare and foal. A lovely sight. We also saw a herd of 8-12 drinking and grazing near a small lake. These three we were lucky enough to see several times as they seemed to like a grassy meadow that this rough logging road went right through. There is a stallion and two mares. There are some documentaries about horses in the Chilcotin. People living there still lose the occasional horse to the wild herds.
This was a problem. Walking up an access road that goes to the block we need to survey we ran across these tracks. It had rained the day before and these tracks were so fresh they were still damp in the middle as you can see from the photo. Some investigating revealed another set of tracks and another. One big set and 2 small. A mother cougar and her babies! We left pretty quick. I wasn't hugely concerned as where we parked the truck we got snorted at by some wild horses and I don't think they would have been so relaxed if a huge kitty and her brood were close by. Some research into tracking that evening showed that the tracks were really fresh as it was warm out and they would have dried out fast and they hadn't had a chance to do that yet. When we went back the next day I made sure I had my machete and I sang lots.