Zion National Park guide · 1 min read
Mule Deer to Mountain Lions: Zion's Wildlife
Three great regions of the American West meet at Zion: the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Plateau all come together here and in the Kolob Canyons.
Add the canyon and mesa terrain, varied soils and patchy water, and you get room for an unusually wide mix of life. Close to 300 bird species and more than 75 kinds of mammals live in the park.
That life is spread across four zones: desert, riparian, woodland and coniferous forest. Desert conditions take hold on canyon bottoms and rocky ledges far from streams that run year-round. Moving from a dry ledge to a creekside thicket to a high stand of conifers, you pass through very different communities of plants and animals.
During daylight hours, mule deer rank among the animals you are most likely to see, sharing the scene with rock squirrels and pinyon jays. Two kinds of lizards, the whiptail and the collared, are frequent daytime sights as well. Mountain lions also live here but are rarely seen. Other mammals include bats, jackrabbits, chipmunks, kangaroo rats, beavers, porcupines, coyotes, gray foxes, ringtails and skunks.
Peregrine falcons are among the birds visitors often recognize, and the California condor is also on the park's bird list. Closer to the ground, rattlesnakes and many kinds of lizards are familiar species too.
The park holds almost nine hundred native plant species. Sacred datura is common along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and on the floor of Zion Canyon. Indian paintbrush, Utah penstemon and golden aster add color among sagebrush, prickly pear cactus and rabbitbrush, while milkvetch and prince's plume grow in pockets of selenium-rich soil.
