This is my first post using my new 19 inch flat panel monitor, so these pictures look a lot bigger and clearer on my end but probably the same on yours. I highly recommend picking one up for yourself when they're on sale again.

This fuzzy guy looks more like the squirrels at WashU, but in fact it is a yellow-bellied marmot. They're about the same size as a raccoon, but they won't eat your garbage or wash their food off in your swimming pool. Later in the week we saw two of them fighting with each other, and they made the same hissing noises as the raccoons outside my window in Florida.

Elk were incredibly plentiful in Rocky Mountain National Park, to the point where they are considering allowing hunters to come in and thin out the herd. But for now, the elk own the park. One night we drove past a guy washing his driveway surrounded by a whole herd of elk munching on his lawn. Here the traffic is stopped so one can cross the road.

This isn't a rare exotic animal, but just a single quacking duckling. Here it can be seen in its wild state rather than advertising for insurance companies or starring in Vin Diesel kids movies.

Posted by: Brian at August 3, 2005 1:51 PM