Yesterday along the Bow Parkway, there were quite a few signs indicating "area closed due to wildlife feeding on carcasses." The printed signs had a graphic of a wolf, cougar and bear.
We have yet to see mountain lion or wolves, but did come close twice. One morning while driving to a trailhead, we stopped off the highway where a couple was watching with tripod and camera...they had just seen a wolf cross the valley and head into the forest! Another afternoon we saw a coyote while walking the dogs near camp no wolf, but a worker at the campground booth watched a wolf saunter by the dump station within a half hour of my driving past there! We are going to linger in Banff and perhaps will see these animals. Today we walked a paved road near the Vermillion lakes, a very important wetland to Banff, and the place you will see the most diversity of birds, both resident and migrating. This area is below the highway where the couple walking had seen the wolf. Along the road here we saw fresh grizzly scat and learned that the bear was eating dandelions along the road yesterday. We saw lots of ground squirrels, ducks, geese, loons and osprey near the lakes. All counted for our 7 days in Canada, we have tallied the following wildlife sightings: 1 Grizzly, 1 Black Bear, 1 Coyote, 15 Elk, 4 Deer, 12 Turkeys, 1 Grouse, 51 Squirrels, 49 Ducks, 2 Loons, 1 Gopher, 3 Osprey, 2 Chipmunks, 21 Ravens, 5 Marmots, 38 fish, 14 Canada Geese, 2 Mice, 3 Hawks, 1 turtle, 1 Ptarmigan, and 1 Great Blue Heron. We'll keep looking for those wolves and wild cats....and stay tuned....as we
plan to enjoy Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway, and Jasper to our north in the coming weeks