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When visitors come to Banff it is always the Bear, Moose and Elk that they are eager to see. I always just let them know to keep on the lookout out for the smaller animals that are just as magnificent to encounter.

As a jogger I am often out and about at odd times of the day and night.  When the need to stride strikes, I head out.  I know that I am taking more of a risk in the early morning hours and right around dusk, since this is the time when our local wildlife are most active therefore I prepare myself for a safe outing where I make lots of noise using my keys and always take well traveled routs. At 5PM on a bright tuesday afternoon I wasn't my regular consciences self.  I left my house at the base of Tunnel Mountain.

Best times to see wildlife are early in the morning and later in the evening.  By following those simple rules you will improve your chances of seeing wildlife dramatically.  Following terrain and looking for lush vegetation areas will help you find ungulates like deer and elk.  Knowing that bears like dandelions and other flowers will also help you find the best areas to spot them too.  Despite all this though, often it may just come down to being luck.  You being in the right place at the right time. 

Living in Banff for almost 4 years, you would think I would be used to the transition from winter to summer. Yet every year I am still blown away by how much the area changes and goes from being a beautiful white winter wonderland to a mesmerizing blend of colors from the greens to blues to browns. It is like stepping into another world.

I have been living in Banff for 8 months and had not yet seen any bears as they had all been hibernating over the winter. Once summer had started I decided to go on The Glacier Trail tour with Discover Banff Tours as I had heard that many bear sightings had been made on this tour. My mum was visiting from Australia at the time and she also wanted to see a bear whilst here, making it the highlight of her holiday in Canada. 

My name is Hugh and as one of the guides at Discover Banff Tours, I have the privilege of taking visitors out on tours and sharing this wonderful place with them.  On tour, there are often plenty of questions about wildlife and a common question is "Do you have bald eagles here?"  My answer is "yes".  On the Banff tour the other day, we spotted a bald eagle perched on a snag (old dead tree) between the first and second Vermilion Lakes, on the west side of town.

Living in the Banff has special challenges sometimes, after all the town is surrounded by National Park.  The animals don’t know what is inside the Park and what is outside.  They also don’t necessarily know the townsite from wilderness. So when you live in Banff sometimes your encounters with wildlife can be unusual.
 

My name is Lyndsay and I moved to Banff from England many years ago. The animals here in Canada are very different, of course, from those we get in England and I continue to be both amazed and fascinated by some of these critters.

Just the other day I read a great article about the Beaver. Now, the Beaver is known to build dams but I had no idea just how big they could get. This article was about a Beaver dam that can be seen from space and it’s right here in Alberta.

It’s always at springtime that I get a little bit excited to think about what wildlife will show themselves to me this year.

One of the things that I have never been able to get used to since I moved to Banff 12 years ago is how cold the water in the streams, rivers and lakes is.  The water in Lake Louise is just 4 Celsius even in the middle of summer. Places like Lake Minnewanka and forty mile creek are about the same.  So even on the hottest days in Banff, I haven’t been able to train myself to actually take a “swim” in a lake.  Normally what I do is just do a quick plunge and scamper out of the water as fast as I can.  That’s enough!