deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) - photo at the Sevilleta LTER web page. The deer mouse is a carrier of Hanta virus, which causes a deadly disease, so you probably wouldn't want one as a pet.
northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) - photo at the Association of Alberta Agricultural Fieldmen. You aren't likely to spot a pocket gopher since it very rarely comes out of its burrow. You can sometimes spot the "tubes" of dirt that it creates in the winter when it burrows beneath the snow.
pika (Ochotona princeps) - photo and info care of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the image to see a larger image.
A pika carrying alpine avens
This photo taken by David Dahms illustrates an excellent example of plant-herbivore coevolution. Alpine avens contains a large quantity of chemicals that discourage herbivory. However, these chemicals leak out of the vegetation once it has been harvested. Thus, the pika harvests the foliage in mid to late summer, but doesn't begin eating this material in earnest until winter, after the nasty-tasting chemicals have leached out. During the interm, these same chemicals may discourage other organisms from consuming the pika's winter pile of food. Click here for more wildlife photography by David Dahms:
http://www.paragon-press.com
Big Mammals:
Elk
(cervis canadensis)
"Missing" fauna:
Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) - grizzly bear photos at the Grizzly Discovery Center web page. Grizzly bears are extinct in Colorado, but can still be found in some areas of the Rockies.
Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) - photos at Estes Park On-line. The Bighorn sheep are extinct at Niwot Ridge, but can still be found in other alpine areas, such as Rocky Mountain National Park.
Boreal toad (Bufo boreas) - photo at the web site of Beverly Keifer of the Sierra Club. The Boreal toad is extinct at Niwot Ridge and in many other places in Colorado. It can still be found at some ponds above 8,000 ft., but it is on the Colorado Endangered Species list.
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