The first out-of-the-ordinary sighting came last October as Cat Urbigkit herded sheep.
A swift fox appeared amid the brush. The longtime Sublette County writer and rancher had seen the species once before, but this marked the first such sighting near her home in Big Sandy country south of Pinedale along the western flank of the Wind River Range.
“Western Wyoming is a great place for stuff like that,” Urbigkit told WyoFile.
“The more you pay attention, the more you’re going to see.”
There’s plenty of truth to the adage. But western Wyoming folks can look with intention for swift foxes and never catch a glimpse of one. The smaller cousin of the more common red fox is largely absent from the sagebrush-studded western half of the state — the fringe of the species range, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Urbigkit’s run of unusual furred and feathered sightings kept on.
On the phone with her husband, Jim, one day, the photographer, former newspaper reporter and statehouse candidate was alerted to an “interesting” bird in the yard around the time of the swift fox sighting.
They were chukars, another first by their Green River basin abode.
“By the first week of November, they started coming to hang out in the yard,” Urbigkit said. “There were about 30 of them and they were in two groups, but I’ve got these nine that come into the yard almost every day.”
The sighting, again, can be classified as odd. Chukar, a nonnative partridge species, are well distributed on the east side of the Wind River Range and even down by Flaming Gorge Reservoir, but they’re uncommon to absent along the higher, colder, less cheatgrass-infested west side of the mighty mountain range — though Urbigkit later learned of off-and-on sightings in the nearby Prospect Mountains.
The finale of the string of uncommon critter sightings came just the other week.
Cat and Jim Urbigkit were headed home when they spotted a herd of deer in the highway right-of-way.
“One of those butts is not right,” Urbigkit recalled thinking.
They turned around and snapped some pics. Sure enough, a whitetail deer, or perhaps a hybrid, was hanging tight with a herd of mule deer.
Whitetails are found in the Green and New Fork river bottoms, but Urbigkit had never seen the species intermingle with mule deer. Tension dominated the interaction. Repeatedly, the whitetail doe was aggressively “raring up.”
The muleys, meanwhile, wanted to “stay the hell away.”
“They weren’t happy about it,” Urbigkit said. “She would start [raring], and they would move away. They weren’t comfortable with the way that she behaved.”
It’s a safe bet that Urbigkit will be on the lookout for other unexpected critters. The new sightings, like the swift fox, are cause for joy.
“I was pretty thrilled,” she said.
If Wyoming loves wildlife so much how come you treat animals so badly! Poaching bears and wolves, torturing and killing a young wolf, and 3 or your “cowboys” harassing a poor ill moose!!!! This is what you call love? I also know that your good ole boys set fire to wolf pups in dens. Wildlife is something that used to dray people to Wyoming. But, is has dropped lately with all of the killing and torturing happening. I used to come to Wyoming with friends and or family every fall, but, it turns our stomachs to see and hear all about the horrors wildlife has to suffer in Wyoming. The good ole boys can’t wait to kill grizzly bears and wolves legal or not. Our trips have stopped and, as a teacher, I have visited with students re their feelings about the killing cult in Wyoming. My hope is that others will also read all of the things on social media that Wyoming residents brag about when killing animals and will avoid that environment!
I lived in Wyoming (& Montana) for a time and the country, along with the people never leave you. I get WyoFile in my mail just to see what is going on in my “adopted home-state”. This was a great post! As a kid, we hunted Chukar in my native state of Illinois. I left a part of myself in travels to “Wyo”, and took some of it with me. Thanks Mike for a great byline! Thanks also to Cat Urbigkit for her super photos.
More Cat Urbigkit.
Since you have Cat Urbigkit on the line, why not ask her about those vicious livestock guard dogs that she’s so proud of? While supposedly used for protection of sheep and other livestock, these dogs run loose on public lands and are a grave menace to other people, pets and the beloved wildlife that Urbigkit has photographed for this article. Someday, one of those bred to kill dogs is going to maim or kill someone.
Nancy. It is up to YOU to protect your self if you feel threatened by a dog or any other animal. Carry protection and if needed use it to defend yourself. No use complaining.
Do you have authentication to this statement? Such as names, pictures?
Chukar and whitetail are not so new. Swift fox? Yes.
The world is a better and more wonder-full place because of Cat Urbigkit.
Better place? Unless you try to communicate with her via social media. If Cat disagrees with you, she’ll delete your comments and block you. Very childess and not quite the open aired WyoFile way
Agreed
Thanks Cat!
It’s a joy/relief to read your entertaining story about wild animals!
Mating season must be here for the Mink who were chasing each other with abandon along the snowy river banks. Dozens of Red-winged Blackbirds are singing in the Cottonwoods now. Redtailed Hawks have returned too. Loving the springtime in the Rockies! Reet
I am so blessed and happy to live in this wind blown, chilly, open, wildlife dominated, under developed, strong willed, FREE state of WYOMING. To appreciate how much wildlife surrounds us try this. Find a wind free hillside with a water source nearby. Settle in with a comfortable chair, wool blanket, thermos of coffee and good set of binoculars. Include a pocket of patience. And watch the magic unfold.
Hmm, kind of surprised to see Urbigkit on the pages of WyoFile. She was quite the WyoFile hater on Cowboy State Daily. Please don’t tell us that she’s migrating here…
Cat is awesome in her photographic documentation, and she lives on a migration trail that has included humans. Species change. I never saw Red Fox until I was in high school, maybe a tad younger. There were no raccoons either. A few whitetail popped up in the 80s I think. My dad talked about a willow grouse on the river when he was young, what was that, perhaps ruffed grouse lived at lower elevations. My dad never saw a mule deer until he was 16, in 1931, and this morning there are mule deer around my house on their path north. Things change.
Thanks to Cat for sharing and you all for publishing. A refreshing story in these times. Great photos of the Swift Fox.
I loved these pics.
thanks
Great photos