Jasper, Alberta One of my favourite things about Jasper is the wildlife. Jasper has a more relaxed atmosphere and less tourists than Banff and Lake Louise and this might be one of the reasons the animals feel comfortable close to the village. We always see big horn sheep or elk close to the downtown streets and our latest visit mid-February was no exception.

Elk Jasper

Elk in sunset in Jasper

Elk Jasper

A small herd of elk feeding Elk Jasper

We spotted the herd of elk about 100 meters away from the road and I pulled out my camera. The pictures are taken just outside the village of Jasper, you can see the power lines in the background on some of the pictures. While I was trying to get some nice pictures of the elk (trying to avoid getting the power line in picture, I was obviously only partially successful) I suddenly heard a howl as two coyotes came close to the herd.

The two coyotes didn’t have a chance to take down any of the healthy elk and after watching the elk for a while decided to move on. The elk clearly noticed the coyotes, but didn’t see them as a threat and continued feeding. The coyotes kept a safe distance to the road so this is the closest I could push it with my telephoto lens (only 300 mm).

Coyotes Jasper VillageHowling coyotes

Coyotes Jasper

Two coyotes are closely watching the elk herd

Coyotes Jasper

The coyotes realise they don’t have a chance against the elk and move on

Elk Jasper

The elk is keeping an eye on the coyotes 

Should you have any recommendations for a new (reasonably priced!) telephoto lens for my little Olympus OM-D EM-1 I would love to hear about it.

Comments are much appreciated! Thanks for reading.

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