A photographer who has spent over 20 years documenting California's Yosemite Park has pulled together an incredible collection of wildlife photos for a new book.
PetaPixel spoke to photographer Robb Hirsch who worked with author Beth Pratt for the book titled Yosemite Wildlife.
"Everybody knows and recognizes Yosemite for its landscape of iconic, towering granite faces and impressive waterfalls, but the wildlife is often overlooked," Hirsch says over email.
"Nonetheless, Yosemite boasts an incredible diversity of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects due in part to the huge elevation range (2,000 ft to 13,000 ft) and numerous habitats available.
"They may not always be as noticeable and charismatic as the megafauna in the northern national parks (wolves, grizzlies, elk, moose), but with a little patience and observation, an abundance of fascinating wildlife reveals its presence in Yosemite."
Hirsch says he has captured 197 species in Yosemite, but for the book, only 129 animals made it in.
"Although not very glamorous, one of the most remarkable wildlife experiences and resulting images were of the rare, federally listed, hugely threatened, Yosemite toad," Hirsch says.
"They breed in shallow pools only a few inches deep, created from spring snow runoff, in the Yosemite high country. Males compete in these pools for access to females by wrestling and trying to push the other toad's head under the water.
"One of my favorite images in the book is of a toad on another's back holding it in a full headlock. Observing and photographing this behavior from only a few feet away was the ultimate wild kingdom encounter on a small scale."
Another image that Hirsch had to work hard to get was a rare and elusive fisher, a member of the weasel family, which is rarely spotted in the wild.
"To capture images for the book, I worked closely with National Park Service biologists to set up remote camera traps in areas of fisher activity," Hirsch explains.
"It took several months of checking, moving, and resetting the traps before we were finally successful. For the nighttime images, an infrared camera and IR flashes were used to avoid disturbing them. We were thrilled to capture quality images of these rarely seen, amazing animals."
Hirsch officially signed on to do the book in December 2021. "From that date, my sole photographic focus was wildlife images for the book."
But he adds, "I have been photographing wildlife (and landscapes) in Yosemite for over 20 years with books as one of the goals, and about half of the images in Yosemite Wildlife are from that older period. So, it's fair to say I've been working on this project for 20+ years."
Yosemite is far bigger than people realize; it is almost 1,200 square miles, about the size of Rhode Island. Visitors tend to stick to Yosemite Valley for the waterfalls and granite cliffs. But Hirsch says that is just a tiny fraction of the park's area and that 95 percent of Yosemite is designated wilderness.
"It is both incredibly enjoyable and rewarding to explore this vast backcountry of canyons, rivers, lakes, and meadows, photographing the landscapes and wildlife to bring awareness, appreciation, and importance of these natural places."
"I'm extremely proud of Yosemite Wildlife, and I'm also very happy the project is completed," Hirsch says.
"For the past couple of years, whenever I would see a bird fly by or a lizard perched on a rock, my first reaction was always 'is this a species I need an image of for the book?, then take appropriate action.
"I enjoyed that challenge and quest, but I'm also happy now not to have that pressure and to pursue whatever subjects attract my attention at the time."
Hirsch's photos in Yosemite Wildlife: The Wonder of Animal Life in California's Sierra Nevada is accompanied by extensive writing from wildlife advocate and conservation leader Beth Pratt. It is available on Amazon.