Wildlife Watching Tips

The best times of day to see wildlife

Banff National Park is blessed with abundent wildlife and one of the thrills of visiting this area is seeing them.  It's not always easy to see wildlife here but you can improve your chances by looking at certain times of the day.  Most animals, particularly larger ones, are very timid.  They will avoid human encounters as much as possible which makes spotting them a challenge.

Wolf seen early morning on our Johnston Canyon Icewalk in January 2010

Animals are smart.  They know when areas are busy with human activity and when they are not.  They will modify their own movement to avoid people, making it hard for us to see them.  by avoiding the times of day that are busiest in any given area you will increase your chances of seeing many different kinds of animals, especially those really exciting large ones.

Before sunrise and sunset are when you will have the best chances.  This is when most visitors and traffic to the area will be minimal, and animals will feel more likely to travel without disruption.  What this means for you is ensureing you are on the road prior to traffic starting to pick up in the morning, and still out there looking once everyone has decided to head home for dinner.

In the winter, getting out early means headin out at or before about 8:30am.  Sunrise is quite late in the winter so you can still sleep in a bit and catch wildlife on your holiday.  The end of the day is usually getting dark by 4:30 to 5pm.  Wildlife getting active again around that time of day too.

In the summer, the sunrise is early, so you'll have to be an early riser too.  Getting out of your hotel by by 8:30 am is the latest I would recommend in the morning.  This will get you out before most of the hussle and bustle but if you can be earlier its even better.  In the evening most visitors settle down by about 6pm, and the sun sets around 10.  Anwhere inbetween there and you will have better chances to see things than mid day.

Of course we offer tours through out the year that you can join to improve your chances to see animals.  In winter the Discover Banff & its Wildlife tour has great success seeing animals on the outskirts of Banff.  In the summer our most popular tour, The Evening Wildlife Safari has great success too.

If you are driving in your own vehicle you can also get great tips for wildlife viewing, local trivia, and historical info by renting a GyPSy Guide.

On our next blog we'll talk a little bit more about where your best chances to see animals are in winter.