List of 15 Wild Mountain Animals with Pictures

Believe it or not, the planet isn’t flat. Yeah yeah, I know that we have all studied our geography classes well, and we all understand the world is round.

However, that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about cliffs and mountains, slopes and hills. We’re talking about elevation!

Mountain habitats vary dramatically from the base to the height of the mountains. Many animal species board the lower altitudes, but only the hardiest species will live year-round on top of the tree line, where the air is thinnest, and there aren’t any trees. Animals with pictures are the cutest thing that you will see.

There aren’t very many animals that live at high elevations. That’s because the higher you go, the thinner the air becomes, making it harder to breathe. In this top fifteen, we look at wild mountain animals with pictures that show what it takes to live at the top of the world.

Wild Mountain Animals with Pictures

1. Brown Bear

Brown bears have varying habitats, ranging from sea level to 18,000 feet. Many thrive in the northern mountain and forest regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. They have an average lifespan of 25 years, growing to a height of eight feet and a weight of 700 pounds.

Fun Facts

• You can find the largest brown bears in Alaska and the shores of British Columbia.
• The grizzly bear is a type of brown bear, and most of them are in Alaska.
• Compared to purely carnivorous polar bears, brown bears feed on meat, fruits, and flowers.
• Since male bears won’t attack and kill a cub of a female they mated with, female bears mate with as many males as they can.
• Bears have two layers of fur: one moisture-wicking and the other body-warming.

2. Alpine Chough

The Alpine Chough is a non-migratory bird that thrives in varying high altitudes. Recorded altitudes include 4,130 to 9,450 feet in Europe, 9,450 to 12,800 feet in Morocco, and 11,500 to 16,400 feet in the Himalayas.

There have also been observations of the birds nesting at 21,300 feet and following mountaineers to Everest at 26,900 feet.

Fun Facts

• Alpine Choughs can nest at altitudes higher than any other bird.
• There have been sightings of these birds diving to attack a Tibetan red fox.
• These birds keep their food behind pebbles, in fissures and cracks on the face of a mountain.
• Alpine Choughs can live up to 20 years.
• They are monogamous birds, and male and female pairs can stay together for life.

3. Beaver

The beaver is a sizeable semi-aquatic rodent known for its skill in building. It is a beautiful species in North America’s and Eurasia’s temperate mountain regions. A beaver can live for up to 12 years, although the oldest recorded age was of a pet beaver that lived for 30 years.

Fun Facts

• Beavers’ primary incisors, which they use as tools for cutting rigid objects, are orange.
• Beavers are one of nature’s few skilled animal builders that modify their habitat. They are known for building canals, lodges, and dams.
• They slap their tails on water to signal danger and frighten predators away.
• They are oxygen-breathing mammals but can stay submerged in water for up to eight minutes.
• The biggest rodent in North America is the beaver.

Related: 40 Cute and Different (Just-in) Beaver Pictures

4. Dhole

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Dholes are wild dogs that can grow as large as German shepherds. They have amber eyes, reddish-brown fur, and a dark, black tail. Their ears are upright and rounded, adding to the characteristics that make them resemble the red fox.

They are hypercarnivores living in scattered populations across southern and eastern Asian countries. They adapt to shrublands, forests, and high mountain grasslands.

Fun Facts

• Dholes are cooperative hunters, hunting in packs of at least three. They use various sounds, including squeaks, yaps, growls, whistles, and chatter, to signal one another.
• Their unique whistling vocalizations gave them the “whistling dogs” nickname.
• One pack has at least a single, dominant, and monogamous pair for breeding. However, females raise their offspring together in packs with more than a pair of breeders. Non-breeder members will support the breeders and their pups.
• A well-coordinated pack can hunt and kill prey 10 times larger than them.
• Dholes can stand on their front legs and urinate in that position.

5. Kiang

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The Kiangs are a species of wild ass residing in cold, arid mountains of China, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, and India. They thrive in elevations higher than 13,000 feet and where they do not compete with other livestock.

Fun Facts

• Kiangs are social animals living in groups of families that sometimes gather in temporary herds of hundreds of individuals.
• Temporary aggregations comprise either only young males or foals and their mothers. Older males can be territorial or solitary, sometimes dominating local female groups.
• Territorial males exhibit a threat display involving braying and flattening their ears. They either chase intruders away or bite and kick at them.
• Kiangs are typically quiet, but they make loud snorts when threatened.
• They defend themselves from wolves by forming a circle with their heads down to the center and kicking out violently.

6. Lammergeier

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Also called the bearded vulture, the Lammergeier is a large, old-world predatory bird found in the Middle East, Southern Europe, Northeastern China, and parts of Africa. The largest specimens can have a wingspan of 10 feet.

Occasionally, this bird descends to 980 to 1,970 feet. However, it is rarely seen below 3,300 feet in elevation. It thrives at various heights depending on the region: 6,600 feet in Europe, 14,800 feet in Africa, and 16,000 feet in central Asia.

Fun Facts

• Since it is a vulture, this bird is more of a scavenger, looking for and feeding on carrion.
• Instead of regurgitating to feed offspring, these birds carry and deliver food to their nest.
• There have been sightings of this bird flying at 24,000 feet. It habitually breaks bones by dropping them from incredible heights.
• In fact, this bird has an old name (ossifrage) that means “bone breaker.”
• Compared to other vultures, the Lammergeier sometimes preys on live animals. There have been observations of the bird flying with a tortoise only to drop them and break their hard shells.

7. Polar Bear

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Polar Bear is mostly found in the areas of the Arctic and Antarctic region. About 4700 polar bears are known to reside in Alaska as well.

8. Caribou

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Caribou, or reindeer, are enormous hoofed animals found in North America, northern Europe, and Asia. Alaska also has reindeer, but they were imported from northern Asia as early as the 19th century.

While Caribou thrive in the arctic tundras or northern forests, they also live in mountain tundras.

Fun Facts

• An adult Caribou can consume 12 pounds of food daily.
• During the winter season, a huge reindeer population migrates south and can travel an average of 1,600 miles over a year. This data presents one of the Earth’s largest animal migrations.
• Indigenous northern tribes like hunting caribou.
• Caribou use their large, hollowed hooves to forage.
• The term “caribou” is mainly used to refer to wild specimens, while domesticated populations are called “reindeer.”

9. Dall Sheep

Dall sheep exist in hilly and snowy mountainous regions of North America. They like to live in rugged terrain and inclined steep land. In their rocky habitat, they are ready to elude human activities and predators.

Fun Facts

• Dall sheep have horns that grow fastest in the summer. Its growth exhibits ring patterns that can help determine a specimen’s age.
• The sheep’s woolen coats are either white, black, or a mixture of both. It conveniently conceals them in the snow or among rocks.
• This species’ main threats are humans, bears, wolves, and golden eagles.
• Dall sheep are dimorphic, which means the rams exhibit different characteristics from ewes.
• The species’ complicated social framework shows rams crowding away from ewes and lambs, except during the mating season.

10. American Dipper

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As its name suggests, the American dipper is native to the western mountainous regions of North and Central America. It inhabits the mountainous regions from Alaska to Panama.

Fun Facts

• While it thrives in mountainous regions, this bird feeds on aquatic insects and larvae at the bottom of rocky, fast-moving streams.
• Also known as the water ouzel, the American dipper is an aquatic songbird. It rhythmically bobs its tail while flitting among midstream logs and rocks.
• This bird can build dome-shaped nests larger than soccer balls.
• American dippers shed their tail and wing feathers late in the summer.
• These birds have nictitating eyelids, which are extra eyelids that aid their vision underwater.

11. Snowy Owl

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Snowy owls are originally from Arctic regions in Eurasia and North America. Females have flecks of black plumage while males are essentially all white. Today, snowy owls thrive in tundra ecosystems, which start at elevations between 11,000 and 11,500 feet from sea level.

Fun Facts

• Snowy owls have powerful wings that span an average of 4.5 feet. These wings help them silently accelerate and sneak up on prey.
• These predatory birds can swallow a small prey whole.
• Pure white snowy owls are typically males, while those with dark feather colorations are females.
• Unlike most owls, snowy owls are not nocturnal; they hunt in daylight.
• Some owlets start with dark feathers that turn white as they age.

12. Northern Hawk Owls

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Northern hawk owls are irregularly highly variable and distributed throughout the boreal forest. The Hawk Owls live mostly in coniferous forests mixed with deciduous species or open coniferous forests such as poplar, larch, birch, and willow.

Fun Facts

• The Northern Hawk Owl gets its name from its physical attributes. Its shape and flight pattern resemble that of a hawk, and it also has a long pointed tail.
• This bird makes screeching and whistling sounds, but they create a distinct “ki-ki-ki” sound when threatened or alarmed.
• They are pretty tame and usually stay put whenever people approach them.
• Compared to other owls, the hawk owl has a relatively flat head.
• Like the snowy owl, the hawk owl hunts in the daytime.

13. Snow Bunting

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There are small hidden populations on some high cliff tops south of the Arctic region, comprising of the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border the Cairngorms in central Scotland, and also Cape Breton Highlands. The snow bunting is the most arctic recorded passerine in the world.

Fun Facts

• Compared to most passerines, the Snow Bunting has adapted to the harsh environment with its feathered tarsi. As such, they can winter far to the north, unlike other passerines.
• We collectively call a flock of snow buntings a “drift.”
• When snow buntings travel to the south, they inform people that winter is coming. When they return to the north, they also let people know of the coming of spring.
• Snow buntings assume their place in the ecosystem as consumers of seeds, leaf buds, and arthropods. Meanwhile, they are natural prey to snowy owls and arctic foxes.
• While the species has minimal concern for conservation, its population trend is decreasing.

14. Mountain Goats

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Mountain goats are found throughout the Coastal Mountains of the Cook Inlet and along the southeastern region of Panhandle. The Rocky Mountain goat is the sole illustration in North America of the goat-like ungulates.

Fun Facts

• Like other goats, Mountain Goats have the same gender names: males are billies, females are nannies, and babies are kids.
• Mountain goats have sharp pointy horns that can grow up to a foot long.
• These goats can leap an astounding 12 feet while they traverse rocky cliffs. In fact, they are one of the few mammals that thrive in high altitudes.
• Mountain Goats have bodies adapted to the quick navigation and traversal of uneven, rocky terrains.

Related: Funny Goat Pictures

15. Himalayan Monal Pheasant

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The Himalayan Monal is regionally known as Impeyan Monal, Danphe, or Impeyan Pheasant and is also the national bird of Nepal. It is a high-altitude bird found in the Himalayas, covering a wide range expanding from Afghanistan to Tibet.

While they live in areas situated at an altitude of 16,000 feet, they migrate to lower areas up to 6,500 feet.

Fun Facts

• The large bird named Kevin from Disney’s “Up” has drawn inspiration from Sacramento Zoo’s Himalayan Monal pheasants.
• Males exhibit a wide range of color combinations, mostly with bright green, blue, purple, red, and orange.
• Females and chicks are usually brown, with blue rings around their eyes and black and white stripes scattered all around their feathers.
• Aside from being the national bird of Nepal, the Himalayan monal is also the symbolic state bird for Uttarakhand in India and Kashmir.
• Compared to some pheasant species, the Himalayan monal is relatively larger.

16. Musk Deer

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Musk deer propagate along the middle altitudes of Alaska’s montane taiga. While these areas do not exceed 5,250 feet from sea level, the region still has a relatively high elevation.

Fun Facts

• They are great importance for the perfume manufacturers as the musk found in the scent gland of male deer is used to create perfumes.
• Unlike other deer species, the male musk deer does not grow and possess antlers.
• In addition, musk deer are pretty small, usually growing only to the size of a medium dog.
• While they do not have antlers, these deer have extra-long canine teeth. Another distinguishing characteristic is that they do not have a visible tail.

When Should You Visit the Mountains To See These Animals?

So these are these amazing wildlife animals with pictures that you would love to see once in your lifetime!

So if you’re fascinated with mountain range life and aiming to go off to the great mountains, this summer, then create these wild mountain animals with pictures a part of info as your handy guide to grasp the traits of mountain range animals.

Yes, I do know the list is sort of exciting and it’s driving you completely, however, wait, the most effective time to go to the mountains is from March to June and Sept to Nov.