One day in September 2018, as Beth Pratt was hiking in California’s Yosemite National Park, she encountered pile after pile of fresh scat along a creek flowing out of Kuna Lake. She knew it was only a matter of time until she ran into a black bear.
When she finally saw the bear perched on a boulder, Pratt felt like she had just bumped into a neighbor. The bear simply sniffed in her direction, then ambled on its way.
Pratt has lots of stories like this; she’s spent three decades observing wildlife in Yosemite. Her deep understanding of the park’s inhabitants is captured in her new book, Yosemite Wildlife. In this loving ode to the place she calls “her North Star,” readers get a close-up look at the furry, scaled, feathered and chitinous creatures a casual tourist might not ever see.
Yosemite Wildlife is not an encyclopedia à la Sibley Field Guides, nor is it just another decorative coffee-table tome. Pratt, who is the California director for the advocacy group the National Wildlife Federation, uses storytelling to paint intimate profiles of Yosemite’s dwellers. She and photographer and co-author Robb Hirsch give every creature due reverence by highlighting its innate beauty — bears have gentle, googly eyes; coyotes are “songsters” of the Sierras; bat echolocation “is the music of starshine.” But each page also carries a grim warning: These are all species we stand to lose if we don’t safeguard the spaces they call home.
Published in October, the book arrived with perfect timing just as the Trump administration rolled back more public-land protections, including cutting staff and funding for the National Park Service. High Country News spoke with Pratt about the magic of animal encounters, and how nourishing an appreciation for the natural world might be the key to spurring action to protect it.
(The interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
High Country News: What sparked the idea for the book?
Beth Pratt: The idea for this book came when I moved to California from Massachusetts and had my first trip to Yosemite (in 1992). It was snowing — it was like one of those rom-com movies where everything lines up perfectly. But my suitor was not Tom Hanks; it was a coyote. I had never seen a coyote in the wild, and it was just such a magical moment.
I started to go to libraries and learn about the park’s wildlife. I stumbled upon my bible, Joseph Grinnell and Tracy Storer’s 1924 book, (Animal Life in Yosemite), but then discovered nothing had been written since. I couldn’t believe it. (It) was a good book, but it is 100 years old. It was time to tell again the story of Yosemite’s wildlife.
HCN: How has Yosemite’s wildlife changed since then?
BP: When Grinnell did his survey, you could see pika down at 7,000 feet. Now, 9,000 to 10,000 feet is about the lowest you’re going to see them. Climate (change) is impacting them.
You’re seeing animals move into new habitats because of our actions. Here’s a great example: ravens, hardly seen in the Grinnell survey. They’re everywhere now. Why? Our trash. They’re following our food. But they’re also opportunists; they’re finding other food sources that maybe they normally didn’t prey on. One example is the Yosemite toad. Our endemic high-elevation toad is struggling. Some of that’s climate, some of that’s habitat loss, but some of that is ravens and other corvids preying on Yosemite toads, exploiting that food source.
One of the reasons to write this (now) is we can see what’s changed. That comparison becomes really important for us in the future, or even in the present day, to know what’s changed and how we can better protect this wildlife.
HCN: How did you choose which animals to feature?
BP: The question I tried to answer for each is, what is uniquely Yosemite?
One thing was giving more space to animals that were endemic. Then there are some common animals, because I wanted to focus on what was their story in Yosemite.
Bears are a great example. The bear is a good story of how we learned to not blame the wildlife in the parks for problems, but our own actions. Instead of penalizing bears for getting into our trash, it’s our responsibility in these special places to protect the wildlife and do things that don’t put them in situations where they can get into trouble. You can’t blame the bears for being bears. I mean, if you’re going to leave a loaf of bread in your car, you can’t blame the bear for wanting it. That’s easy pickings.
HCN: How did you do the research for your book?
BP: Reading through decades and decades of nature notes, field journals, observation cards. And then spending a lot of time in the archives, a lot of time surveying the literature to make sure that we were representing the science of over 100 years.
I got out there and had so many field days of observation, taking notes … two or three days a week in the summer, just sitting there for hours watching the animals. I think what makes this book special is, it wasn’t just a couple years — it was 30 years of observing the wildlife so that I really could share and get people to know the wildlife like I did.
Also, I’m a volunteer researcher for the National Park Service in Yosemite. I went out on bear patrols. I’ve gone out birding with some of the researchers. I went out and looked at turtles. I record all my observations, and that helps other scientists as well in the park. You’re actually spending time with people who do the research.
What I started to do about 10 to 15 years ago was not just take notes on the wildlife, but (also) get pretty serious about looking at snowpack conditions, temperature. I take a lot of comparison photos because what I’ve really gotten interested in, especially with the high-elevation animals in the summer, is how are the climactic conditions impacting their behavior?
HCN: Your book captures the quiet splendor of Yosemite’s fauna, but I think most visitors only see the more crowded parts of the park and not much wildlife.
BP: I think if people come with the expectation they’re going to be inundated with wildlife sightings, it isn’t the case. The wildlife is not there like a Disneyland ride.
This points to another thing I get at in the book: Even in these best-protected places on the planet, our human presence is impacting wildlife. I hope this gets people to think differently about how to behave — how it is a special place where we should tread lightly.
I think that also gets back to getting people to care about wildlife even if you’re not going to see them. These stories are important to inspire protection. Though people may not ever see a Mount Lyell salamander, they know it’s there if they read this book. A person climbing Half Dome may take more care with how they behave, knowing that a sensitive animal is up there.
Learning about wildlife behavior also is what has enabled me to have these magical sightings. I know when (pikas) are going for their haystack, (they) take the same route pretty much almost every time. Once you learn that, you can look for them on that route. I call it reading the wildlife weather.
Yosemite Wildlife
By Beth Pratt and Robb Hirsch
434 pages, hardcover: $60
Yosemite Conservancy, 2025.
HCN: Your book comes at a time when the federal government is dismantling public-land protections and land-management agencies — basically, a lot of what your book stands for. How do you feel about the current discourse surrounding national parks?
BP: Right now, I’m scared. I am 56 years old and have never seen anything like this assault on our public lands or the natural world.
I think (the book) comes at a great time, because for me, it’s a call to action. Hopefully, this book will show what is really special about places like Yosemite and why we need to protect them. The alternative, which I don’t want, is it’s going to be a chronicle of what we’ve lost.
