Waterton wildlife: 3 animals you can spot in Waterton Lakes National Park

See them for yourself

Ready to experience Waterton's incredible wildlife without the stress of navigating unfamiliar mountain roads? Our Waterton & Its Wildlife sightseeing tour (offered in the morning or evening) puts you in a comfortable seat with a knowledgeable guide, while we handle everything else. We'll pick you up and drop you off right at the Waterton Lake Lodge Resort (101 Clematis Ave).

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Waterton Lakes National Park is one of Canada's most wildlife-rich corners. The park's unique geography (where the prairies meet the mountains) creates a diverse habitat that supports an extraordinary range of species year-round. Whether you're a first-time visitor or a seasoned naturalist, the wildlife here has a way of leaving you spellbound.

Meet the locals: Waterton bears, sheep, and elk

Here's a closer look at three incredible species you might encounter in the park. At Waterton Tours, our guides know what to look for and where the best wildlife habitats are, helping you spot animals safely while sharing fascinating insights about their behaviour, ecology, and the unique role they play in the park.

2. Bighorn sheep

Few sights in the Canadian Rockies stop people in their tracks like a bighorn ram. Males can weigh up to 350 lbs, with their iconic horns tipping the scales at up to 30 lbs. That’s nearly 10% of their total body weight and roughly equal to the weight of all their internal bones combined!

Bighorns have a four-part stomach that absorbs water so efficiently, they can go long periods without drinking. They graze on grasses, clover, and sedges, switching to willow and sage in cooler months, and holly and cactus in desert regions.

Social structure is strict: females stay with the mother herd for life, while males band into bachelor herds and wander until they find their crew. During mating season, the strongest ram earns the most mating opportunities. Sadly, bighorn populations have dropped from an estimated 150,000–200,000 prior to 1800 down to around 80,000 today, making every sighting that much more meaningful.

3. Elk (Wapiti)

Waterton is home to all four types of elk: the full-antlered bull, the spike or yearling bull with a small rack just coming in, calves, and cows (females with no antlers). Bulls can weigh up to 700 lbs, cows around 500 lbs, and calves as little as 35 lbs at birth.

Calves are born in May and June, arriving spotted and completely scentless. For their first few weeks of life, they remain almost motionless while their mother feeds nearby. Elk are grazers with a four-chamber stomach. The first chamber stores food while the others handle digestion, letting them fuel up fast and process it later.

Bull elk antlers are shed and fully regrown every single year, making them one of the fastest-growing tissues in the animal kingdom. Growing antlers are covered in velvet, which peels away in late summer, leaving fully hardened bone by September (up to 40 lbs worth of it!).