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Mar 25, 2024 · Rangers at the visitor centers can tell you where wildlife have been seen recently. Wild animals, especially females with young, are unpredictable and dangerous. Keep a safe distance from all wildlife. Each year a number of park visitors are injured by wildlife when approaching too closely. Approaching on foot within 100 yards (91 m) of bears ...
- Mammals
Yellowstone is home to the largest concentration of mammals...
- Birds
As with all park wildlife, visitors should keep at least 25...
- Reptiles
Reptiles are not well studied in Yellowstone National Park....
- Wildlife Watching
To protect yourself and the animals you come to watch,...
- Animals
Pets are not allowed on most trails in the park. Pets are...
- Mammals
Explore the incredible animals that call Yorkshire Wildlife Park, home! Filter by Group. Mammals. Reptiles. Birds. Amphibians. Invertebrates. Filter by Land. Atlantic Forest.
Mar 22, 2022 · Mammals. Acadia National Park is home to around 40 species of mammals. Bats may only be seen at night in Acadia, but they shine a light on the many challenges animals face due to environmental threats such as climate change. Bats in Acadia National Park have declined over 80% and are a major focus of park research activities.
- Overview
- 1. Congaree National Park, South Carolina
- 2. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
- 3. Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
- 4. Pinnacles National Park, California
- 5. Acadia National Park, Maine
- 6. Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
- 7. Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
- 8. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
- 9. Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
From a New Mexico bat cave to a Florida archipelago teeming with coral and sharks, here’s where the wild things are.
Visitors hike amid the rocks and hoodoo formations of Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon National Park. The Utah park’s unique geography supports a range of lizards, small mammals, and other wildlife.
The chance to spot a bear, bison, or bald eagle in the wild is one of the major reasons travelers visit the United States’ 63 national parks. You might assume that a megafauna mecca like Yellowstone National Park would offer the best odds of seeing multiple animals.
But a recent report from vacation rental site Casago crunched each park’s total number of species and its size, resulting in surprising news about which parks offer the best wildlife viewing. Hint: To see the highest number of critters, think small, as in places rife with tiny insects or flocks of migrating birds. Here’s where to see the widest variety of animals, from spiders to raptors to bears.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 362
Life of all kinds, from tiny synchronous fireflies to 160-foot-tall loblolly pines, crowds this park’s bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem 18 miles from Columbia, South Carolina’s capital. Congaree is also laced with rivers and lakes that sustain its astonishing biodiversity.
(See fireflies magically light up this national park.)
Paddling the Cedar Creek Canoe Trail is a great way to look for wildlife, says Billy Easterbrooks, owner of Carolina Outdoor Adventures, one of a handful of companies leading kayak or canoe trips in the park. “Most commonly you see what we call the creepy-crawlies,” he says, including fishing spiders with leg spans wider than your palm and red-bellied water snakes. Other residents you might encounter: barred owls, river otters, pileated woodpeckers, and, sometimes, alligators gliding on the water.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 317
Located 20 miles southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a mixed ecosystem of oak-hickory forest, meadows, and wetlands sheltering a variety of animals. From the boardwalk at Beaver Marsh, watch for water-loving mammals (river otters, muskrats, beavers) or snapping turtles that can weigh as much as 55 pounds each. “It’s neat to see the old-timers covered in moss,” says Gene Stepanik, a naturalist and longtime park volunteer.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 286
“The poster child for Carlsbad Caverns is the Brazilian free-tailed bat,” says bat biologist Debbie Buecher. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of the furry, big-eared creatures roost in these honeycombed limestone caves in southeastern New Mexico, attracting crowds at sunset with their spectacular outflight. “But it’s just as exciting to come just before dawn and watch the bats come back,” she says, noting that the bats tuck their wings and execute speedy dives back into the caverns.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 255
Driven to the brink of extinction in the 1980s, the mighty California condor now soars again over this landscape of twisty volcanic peaks in central California. Intense recovery efforts, including a captive breeding program and the establishment of two distinctive wild-flying populations, have brought the population of the largest birds in North America from just 22 in in 1982 to 347 condors today.
Eighty-nine of the birds are thought to live in and around Pinnacles. “If you have binoculars, you have a good chance of seeing condors flying over the ridge behind the main campground in the mornings and evenings,” says Alacia Welch, manager of the Pinnacles Condor Program.
Other Pinnacles standouts include golden eagles, peregrine falcons, an exceptionally high density of prairie falcons, and more than 400 species of bees.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 242
The Atlantic Ocean meets the cliff-lined Maine coast at this popular park on Mount Desert Island, providing habitat for wildlife with feet and flippers. From the shore or a sea kayak (try Castine Kayak Adventures or Coastal Kayaking Tours), scan the water for the dorsal fins of harbor porpoises and the sleek heads of harbor and gray seals.
(From blueberries to birdwatching, here’s what locals love about Maine.)
On land, you might spot beavers, snowshoe hares, or, if you’re lucky, a mink or bobcat. In between, in the intertidal zone, tide pools hold translucent anemones, sea urchins, snails, and sea stars. Acadia also draws loons and songbirds and, come fall, rangers and volunteers conduct an annual hawk watch from Cadillac Mountain, Acadia’s highest point.
Left: Grasslands in Maine’s Acadia National Park lure birds and insects.
Right: White-tailed deer are a common sight at Acadia National Park; visitors also might spot minks or snowshoe hares.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 235
This park at the edge of South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest may be best known for its unique boxwork cave geology. But wildlife-watchers also come for the herds of American bison, elk, and pronghorns grazing above on the mixed-grass prairie.
(Learn why South Dakota holds so many ‘maze caves.’)
Wind Cave is part of an ecosystem restoration and species recovery program that’s been going since the early 20th century. Populations of all three ungulates have rebounded since then, and in 2007, biologists also returned the critically endangered black-footed ferret to the grasslands. Drive the 3.7-mile Bison Flats Road or hike the steep, challenging Boland Ridge Trail for the best chance to see animals.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 223
Contrary to its name, water makes up 99 percent of this park located on and around a seven-island archipelago some 70 miles off the coast of Florida. Travelers must catch a seaplane or ferry from Key West to get to this remote part of the Florida Keys, but they’re rewarded with excellent coral reef and seagrass habitats.
The part of the park’s name that does make sense: Five species of threatened or endangered sea turtles (tortugas in Spanish) nest here; visitors might see them swimming or on the sandy beaches.
Book a snorkeling or scuba diving excursion to explore the reefs, where green sea turtles, nurse sharks, barracudas, and decorator crabs live amid elkhorn and staghorn corals. Divers can also access the Windjammer wreck site, where an iron-hulled ship that sank in 1907 provides a home for marine life.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 219
In western Colorado, the 2,722 vertical feet between this sparsley visited park’s canyon rim and the Gunnison River below support multiple wildlife habitats. Experienced climbers and hikers who venture into the inner canyon find collared lizards and mule deer near the rim and bighorn sheep scampering along the middle of the cliffs. Trails are extremely steep, covered with poison ivy, and require a wilderness permit to use.
Number of species per 100 square kilometer: 217
In central Kentucky, this park holds the longest known underground cave system in the world. Mammoth’s 426 miles of caverns are home to 160 species, from animals that merely visit (think bats) to those that can’t live anywhere else. Long-legged cave crickets pick their way up the walls; eerily eyeless white cave fish swim the underground waterways; and black-spotted orange cave salamanders lurk under rocks.
News about Colorado, wolf activity, gray wolf
News about Yellowstone National Park, Idaho Falls, bison
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Wildlife Prairie Park. Our Park has been referred to as a jewel in the North American Midwest. We have also been listed as a top 10 destination to visit in Illinois. Located just outside of Peoria, IL, this 1,800-acre zoological park is home to 60 different species and over 180 animals that are or were all native to the area.
