For many wildlife photographers there comes a time when the quest to add this or that species to one’s image bank gives way to something more exciting: the desire to tell a story about an animal’s life. While there are no recipes for capturing animal behavior, the search for food and social interactions present some of the best opportunities for getting beyond zoology textbook photography. The following images, taken between February 2010 and February 2011, each tell us something about the animal’s life beyond its size, shape, and general appearance. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did.

Feeding & Predation

Animals spend much of their time looking for food and are often busy foraging or hunting when observed in the field. This has pros and cons. On the one hand, they may not interrupt what they’re doing to pose for you; on the other hand, they may not interrupt what they’re doing to run away from you, either.

On one such occasion, I spent twenty minutes with a foraging opossum one winter evening. It was eagerly digging up grubs from under the dead grass and barely acknowledged my presence. The result was a series of intimate portraits showing its face covered in mud and grass. Who knew a small marsupial could look so ferocious?

Opossum foraging in a muddy field at the John Heinz NWR

Rodents – even very large ones – are challenging subjects. Aquatic rodents in particular always seem to be swimming from place to place with most of their bodies submerged, which isn’t hugely exciting. But when this juvenile beaver came ashore to snack on rose hip one September morning I thought I might walk away with something special. Its hands were manipulating the branch and fruit with simian-like dexterity, which wasn’t only fun to watch but also told me something about rodents I hadn’t really appreciated before.

American Beaver feeding at Seawall Pond, Acadia National Park

If you’re looking for precision and grace of hunting style, great blue herons are tough to beat. The graceful curves of their elegant bodies make the stupendous punch of their strike seem so effortless. This one pulled a good-sized carp from the icy slush.

Great Blue Heron catching a carp at the John Heinz NWR

Yet for all their power, great blues aren’t always top-of-the-food-chain predators. This one touched down in waist-deep water to start its evening hunt when it became the hunted. Having lost its footing, it desperately tried to take off again, but to no avail. After a few minutes of struggling against the snapping turtle’s dead weight, shock settled in and the young heron’s fate was sealed.

Great Blue Heron falling prey to a Snapping Turtle at the John Heinz NWR

Social Interactions

Showing social interactions may be the most pleasurable aspect of wildlife photography. Reproductive and grooming behaviors are usually the most visible social behaviors. Young animals like fox cubs also spend a lot of their time playing with one another, but observing this usually requires finding a den.

I caught this male northern flicker delivering food to his mate at the nest last summer. The nest was located in a dead tree at the water’s edge where nearby reeds provided concealment. I used a 400mm lens to keep my distance. I prefer the intimacy of shorter focal lengths, but I don’t like to disturb nesting birds, so the long lens came in handy.

Mr. & Mrs. Flicker at the John Heinz NWR

I was hoping to photograph rutting white-tailed deer in Valley Forge Park one autumn morning when a pair of fawns wandered out of the woods to graze. I was crouched in just the right spot when the boy fawn received a good scrubbing from his sister. Cute poisoning!

White-tailed fawn grooming her brother at Valley Forge NHP

The Bombay Hook vixen known as Chloe situated her den under the roots of a downed tree not far from the refuge road last May, which meant it was possible to photograph her young cubs without disturbing them. Here one cub is showing the other who’s boss.

Fox cubs at Bombay Hook NWR