“… Half Dome, as beautiful as it is to look at and as geologically significant as it is, should also be viewed as somebody’s home.”

From the Preface

“What a gift to all who love Yosemite! This beautiful book unpacks the complex ecology of this beloved place, revealing the diverse, colorful—and unexpected— animals that call Yosemite home. While myriad books have covered Yosemite, this is the first that takes us on a journey through its ecosystems. And it’s a vivid trip too, equal parts inspiration and science, written by a remarkable conservation leader clearly in love with this place.”

Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources

Continuing a Legacy for Yosemite’s Wildlife

In 1992, I visited Yosemite National Park for the first time. I wandered through Yosemite Valley in the middle of a snowstorm, made a snowman in a meadow, did snow angels under the watch of El Captain, and gazed in amazement at a coyote who strolled by and stopped to consider me for a moment.

Never before had I seen a coyote in the wild. And never had I seen such grandeur, in size and in spirit, like the Yosemite landscape. “Yosemite claimed me,” as the actor and environmentalist Robert Redford once said.

And on that day, the book Yosemite Wildlife was born. I recorded the experience in my journal and from that moment, I began to write a book on Yosemite's amazing wildlife. In 1993, I created a handmade book and have been working on this goal ever since.

For more than thirty years, I’ve explored Yosemite, observing and studying its wildlife, and spent countless hours in its library, archives, and museum. I’ve read through decades of Yosemite Nature Notes, interviewed park rangers, scientists, educators, Indigenous people, and park community members. I even did social media polls. My favorite is the one I posted on the Yosemite rock climbing page, asking the climbers what wildlife they encountered on the big walls. The answers, which I detail in my Rock Stars chapter, may surprise you!

Most important to me, however, was continuing the incredible legacy of Joseph Grinnell and Tracy Irwin Storer, who published their seminal and pioneering work, Animal Life in the Yosemite in 1924. Their book quickly became my “bible” early on, and it surprised me that no other book solely focused on the park’s wildlife had been published since then. My mission for most of my adult life has been to correct this oversight.

Draft after draft of Yosemite Wildlife evolved over the years. My more than full-time day job of wildlife conservation often limited my ability to work on the book. But I never gave up. And finally in 2019, I was ready to start looking for a publisher. I had enough content and had developed the scope of the book. There was interest, but for this book to live up to its promise—and the legacy of Grinnell and Storer—it had to be the right fit.

For the decades I had been working on Yosemite Wildlife, my plan had been to use an array of photographers for the images in the book. Yet in 2021, I reached out to Robb Hirsch to ask him if he would be the photographic partner for the book. Robb had asked me to write an essay on the pika for his book, and I was captivated by his photography-I thought his images would be the perfect fit . Robb is an amazing photographer and has been taking photos in Yosemite for decades—his book The Nature of Yosemite is not to be missed!

I was delighted Robb accepted my offer—his photography truly elevates the work. As I write in the introduction to Yosemite Wildlife, “Biologist by training, naturalist by heart, and photographer by passion, Hirsch has an intimate relationship with the natural world. He possesses an almost preternatural ability to find and frame wildlife that extends beyond mere portraiture, giving us insight into the animals and the landscapes in which they live.” Check out his website to see more! Yet even with Robb’s extensive body of work, and also the few years in the field he had to secure custom images for this book once he became involved, it was impossible for him to obtain all the images on my species list. My thanks to all the other photographers and artists who helped ensure we had an image for each animal.

Also in 2021, the Yosemite Conservancy read my proposal and gave an enthusiastic YES to the book. I cannot express enough gratitude to the Yosemite Conservancy for not just investing in this book, but also investing and trusting in my vision. Their commitment to making this a book of a lifetime allowed for us to feature custom photos from Robb and archival material never before published. They also gave me the space to be able to tell fully the story of the park’s remarkable wildlife and the stories of the people entwined with the park’s wildlife—inspiring scientists, naturalists, Indigenous people, park rangers, artists, and writers. Because of the Yosemite Conservancy’s trust and investment, this book will be a fitting legacy for Grinnell and Storer’s landmark work.

And now, in 2025, after decades of work, my dream has been fulfilled. To see these pages come to life from those first journal entries in 1992 is such an incredible feeling. My goal even back then was to leave a legacy for Yosemite wildlife-now, more than ever, with both global biodiversity and our national parks at risk, this is so important.

As I wrote in my journal in 1992 after that first visit to Yosemite: "I would not trade anything for the sight of that coyote." Little did that coyote know what he inspired!

Beth Pratt, Midpines, California, 2025