are common in the area – in fact they are so abundant as to present a
problem; second, they are called 'Nutria-Rats'. Lovely!
One occasion when crowds of people did not spoil our enjoyment of wildlife
spotting was on the Big Sur coast when we encountered a living floor of
massive elephant seals piled on top of one another. In fact, we were glad that
we were not alone in their presence. Suppose we had got trapped under one
of their blubbery bodies? With no other humans around who would post our
flat bodies home to our grieving families (in a cartoon style)? Besides, some
of the people there were volunteers explaining the habits of the seals, an
unexpected but welcome resource in the middle of nowhere.
Surprisingly these were not the biggest animals we saw in the wild,
though they were the ugliest. In Monterey we had our semi planned encounter
with three humpback whales while on a boat trip. The lack of certainty about
whether we would see anything during the excursion made for an exciting
'spot', although the experience would have been much better if we had piloted
the boat and found the huge mammals by ourselves. Had we but been rich
enough, and skilled enough, to do so!
The most abundant sources of wildlife were, inevitably, the national parks.
Mule deer in Yosemite, alligators in the everglades, etc. We had hoped to
encounter critters in Death Valley - though perhaps this was optimistic given
the harsh reality of the environment there. In particular, and quite sadistically,
we were very keen to see ducks that had become encased in salt crystals