Need that "finishing touch" for your Southwest layout?

[SquirrelHollow]

How 'bout some sparring Elk?

[Bremner]

nice elk, but I livein the southwest, and have NEVER seen elk except in the forrest

[PAL_Houston]

I think that's pretty cool.

For me, I have the WS bear family, and I am trying to figure out what to do with them....I don't think bear have been seen in the wild in northern  Illinois in over a Century...

Deer, sure.

Elk, mmmm. mmmm, maybe they wandered down from Wisconsin?

[sirenwerks]

Some oryx or pronghorn antelope would work.  In grazing, startled, and leaping poses.

I wish someone would release some mountain goats, not necessarily named Rocky.

[C855B]

Elk, mmmm. mmmm, maybe they wandered down from Wisconsin?

Actually... there is a significant elk population around Flagstaff and the forested areas north of there. Pronghorn antelope is going to be tough to find until you get into northern Colorado and Wyoming, and then they're friggin' everywhere.

[Bremner]

Some oryx or pronghorn antelope would work.

while there are more oryx in Arizona than anywhere else in the world, they are all in the Phoenix zoo, they are endangered and from Saudi Arabia

[sirenwerks]

while there are more oryx in Arizona than anywhere else in the world, they are all in the Phoenix zoo, they are endangered and from Saudi Arabia

You and C855B need to travel east.  New Mexico's got both, though I doubt the two combined are more than the number of New Yorkers in Santa Fe.

[Bremner]

just learned that the state of NM released 93 gemsbok into the wild....

[robert3985]

I live in Utah, in a relatively rural area about 15 miles east of Ogden.  I've got muleys, elk, and moose sauntering through my property all the time.  The deer are especially fond of the apples on my apple tree in my front yard. 

This year, there was a bear and a mountain lion warning posted on several trails I ride my mountain bike on.

I've bagged foxes (stalking my cats) and several racoons (after I chased them out of my house...they come in through the cat-door!), and I hear coyotes howling all the time during the night.

I usually see the biggest elk while I'm at the local shooting range.  They always bring the shooting to a stop as everybody starts glassing them as they march along the ridgeline about 3/4 of a mile to the east of the 300 yard targets. 

Your models look really nice.  Got any that aren't "sparring"?...some cows too?  Definitely North American big game!

Cheers!
Bob Gilmore

[pnolan48]

You and C855B need to travel east.  New Mexico's got both, though I doubt the two combined are more than the number of New Yorkers in Santa Fe.

In the Valles Caldera near Los Alamos you cannot drive without spotting herds of elk. On some pleasant days, I would take that route back from Los Alamos to Albuquerque, and never fail to spot a grazing herd or two. I think the Los Angeles herd in Santa Fe far outnumbers the New York herd.

Change the color balance of the image in the starting post to a little more gray, and the vegetation would remind me of Alaska. Just a little more granite than sandstone, and a little more pebbly, but the same sparsity outside of the forests--Alaska is largely a desert.