Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Larry Taylor's Image

Larry Taylor (USA) shows an ermine clambering between rocks, with its white fur framed by the black crevice.

Larry saw a flash of white against a canyon in Yellowstone National Park. It was an ermine pursuing prey, “rocketing up the crack in the cliff wall with incredible speed, darting in and out of the shadows”.

Larry watched as the ermine leapt towards a bushy-tailed woodrat but missed its mark and fell into the snow. Unperturbed, it raced back up the rock wall to try again.

Ermines need to feed many times a day in winter as they don’t build large fat stores like other mammals do. Intelligent and versatile hunters, they will eat a variety of rodents, rabbits, frogs, birds and eggs.

Behind the lens

Larry Taylor

Larry Taylor

USA

Nothing has so defined Larry’s life as his fascination with the natural world. Professionally, it carried him to a doctoral degree in biology and a career as a biology professor. Personally, it manifested in his lifelong passion for wildlife photography, where his goal is to seek out and capture the unique, beautiful and captivating scenes in nature. Nowadays he blends his professional teaching experience with his personal love for photography by working as a photography guide in some of the wildest spaces left on the planet.

Image details

  • Canon EOS R5
  • 600mm f4 lens
  • 1/1000 at f7.1  •   ISO 640
  • Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
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