Wildlife in the USA

Every American state has its own animals – there are official state amphibians, birds, mammals, insect, reptiles... North Carolina has a state carnivorous plant. Wisconsin has a state bacterium. There’s maybe no better indication of the immense pride that many Americans take in their country’s diverse wildlife, and there sure is a lot of it to go around.

Between urban metropolises, the USA is blessed with vast expanses of natural splendour, from rocky desert landscapes to dense mangrove swamp to mountain chains and frozen wilderness far in the north. Not two hours from New York City you can see dolphins off Long Island, or bears in the Catskills, while urban terrain is also ideal habitat for many creatures – witness the thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats that swarm out from beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin every summer evening that draw almost as many spectators.

The best introduction to the wildlife of America, and perhaps as close as you’re going to get to guaranteed sightings, is through the country’s pioneering National Park system – almost 60 natural oases, some of them absolutely vast and almost untouched such as Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska. America’s national parks were created to protect wildlife and their habitats and for the most part they do a superb job of it. Who needs African safaris when you can track Alaska’s very own Big Five in Denali National Park: caribou, Dall sheep, moose, grizzly bears and wolves? Or admire the incredible animals of parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone, to see both black and grizzly bears, wolf packs, bison and elk? This is where the wild things are.

Why the emphasis on slowly? Because not all American wildlife is cute and cuddly, and not all visitors to the parks are as careful as they need to be either, unfortunately. The bottom line is that these are wild animals, and that fact needs to be respected. In parks where large carnivores such as bears and wolves roam at liberty you need to stick to marked hiking trails and prepare adequately, such as by packing a can of bear spray. If you’re camping, your food needs to be always securely stored well away from tents to ensure hungry bears don’t come a calling, endangering both you and themselves. Likewise, it’s only logical to give powerful mammals like bison, moose and elk their distance, and of course vehicles need to stick within the limits on park roads because you never know what might come sprinting out of the forest.

Happily, America’s wildlife is not confined to the parks. You can spot whales off Hawaiian islands and the rugged Pacific Coast; black bears, moose and even mountain lions on the famous Appalachian Trail; and beaver, white-tailed deer and moose in New England.

Wildlife spotting in America is a thrill for families, too, as sightings are combined with a host of other fun activities from walking to geyser watching, ranger-led talks to kayaking trips. National park vacations do tend to be best suited to older kids, given the amount of travel involved, but no one knows what you children are capable of better than you.

The best time of year for wolf watching in Yellowstone National Park is in the winter, when they can be more clearly seen against the snow and vegetation is thinner. Expert guides lead tracking expeditions in areas that packs are known to frequent, such as the Lamar Valley, known as ‘America’s Serengeti’.

Spring and autumn are the months when bears are most active in American national parks such as Denali in Alaska, Yellowstone and Yosemite. In autumn they are on the hunt as they prepare to hibernate, while in spring they have just woken up hungry. However if you want to see bears hunting for spawning salmon in the rivers of Alaska, the late summer through to autumn is best, which happily coincides with the main visitor season.

You can see whales off the coast all over America at any time of year. Hawaii is great in January and February, while June is good for Alaska, and June through October is the best time to see the mighty blue whale off California.