Yukon Wildlife Preserve & Takhini Hot Springs

Hi Blog!

Friday, June 3, 2016, was our last full day in Whitehorse. We had two more places we wanted to visit before heading on toward Fairbanks, Alaska. First up, the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. The Yukon Wildlife Preserve is a member of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. They are dedicated to helping injured or orphaned animals recuperate and eventually return to the wild.

Wood bison, found in the Yukon, are taller and shaggier than plains bison, with larger shoulder humps and long horns clear of hair. Wood bison evolved as a specific subspecies about five thousand years ago. During and after the last ice age, bison were among the most common large grazing animals in Beringia, the wide, grassy plains that covered parts of the Yukon, Alaska, and Siberia.

The mule deer was named for its huge ears. It is larger than a white-tailed deer and has a black tip on its tail. They range throughout western North America and live in a variety of habitats. The Yukon represents the northern edge of their range. Here the males are being kept separate from the females since the population is large enough at the moment.

Thinhorn sheep live only in the northwestern part of North America, in northwestern Canada and Alaska.  Thinhorns prefer to live at or above tree-line, where they can see danger approaching from a long distance. Thinhorn sheep are found all over the Yukon, wherever there is inaccessible, rugged, mountainous country. They differ from mountain goats in preferring more gentle mountains with more vegetation and tend to be found in grassy basins or on sun-soaked slopes, often at lower altitudes.

Both ewes and rams have curved horns, although ram's horns grow much larger. Horns grow for their entire lives. Rings form on the horns each winter when growth slows with limited access to food. These rings can be counted to determine the sheep's age. This guy has seen a few winters.

The muskox is an ancient herbivore with an ancestry that can be traced back 90,000 years in North America. During the last ice age, muskoxen roamed the ice-free Beringian steppes with the long extinct wooly mammoth, woolly rhino, and mastodon. Today’s tundra muskox, number between100,000 and 150,000 worldwide. Although it resembles a bison, the muskox is more closely related to sheep and goats. Its closest relative in North America is, in fact, the mountain goat.

Mountain goats aren't really goats at all. They are a kind of mountain antelope more closely related to the mountain antelopes of Europe and Asia, than to farmyard goats. They are found only in the northwestern mountains of North America, and the southern Yukon is the northern edge of their range. The Yukon's montain goat poulation is estimated at 1700, with more than half living in the Kluane National Park and adjacent Kluane Wildlife Sanctuary in the southwest Yukon.

The Yukon Wildlife Preserve is home to dozens of bird species many whom make their home in the marsh habitat, making this facility an important place for birds and bird migration. The birds love the high fences around the animal enclosures. This little blue bird tries hard to blend into the blue sky.

Most of the Yukon’s caribou are barren-ground caribou, like the Porcupine Caribou herd estimated at 123,000 animals, that migrates across the northern Yukon. The territory also has 20 small, isolated herds of woodland, or mountain caribou, totaling about 25,000 animals. Woodland caribou are found throughout the boreal forest and many herds are listed as species at risk in Canada. Both kinds of caribou survive mainly on lichens in winter, although they broaden their diets in summer to include a variety of grasses, sedges, willows, and mushrooms.

The Canada lynx is the only wild cat with a range that extends beyond the Arctic Circle. Lynx inhabit the entire Yukon with the exception of the arctic coastal plain. They occupy coniferous-deciduous forests of white spruce, lodgepole pine, aspen, and willow.

The arctic fox is the most northerly of the wild canids. It ranges from the subarctic regions to the high arctic. Arctic foxes have been spotted near the North Pole, making it the most northern-ranging of any land mammal. This guy is loosing his fluffy winter coats for a lighter summer version.

The hare is the single most important prey species in the territory. This widespread "rabbit" to most Yukoners and "bunny" to others is bafflingly abundant in peak years. Its range expands across North America inhabiting brushy forests from Alaska to Newfoundland, and south into the mountains of the eastern and western United States.

The elk is the second largest member of the deer family; only the moose is larger. Bull elk grow large antlers every year, which they use to spar with other bulls during the rut each fall. In the late winter, the antlers drop off and new antlers start to grow. When antlers are growing, they are covered in dark brown fuzz, called velvet. This protects and nourishes the soft antlers with blood and nutrients until they are fully grown. In August the antlers harden. The bulls will rub the velvet off and polish their antlers on tree trunks and shrubs. This guys proudly displays his growing rack.

From June 2014 to June 2015 alone the Preserve saw 68 individuals 42 were released and 3 remain in the continuing care of the Preserve. The majority of animals admitted for rehabilitation are sick, injured or orphaned due (either directly or indirectly) to humans. Here two eagles are being rehabilitated.

Surprise, surprise - look who we found hiding at the base of the elk viewing platform. It was one of the two elk fawns that were born this spring. The park ranger told us to look for them in the tall grass. We just didn't think to look straight down.

We had a great time walking about the preserve, but we were really looking forward to getting off our feet and having a good soak at the Takhini Hot Springs located just down the street from the Yukon Wildlife Preserve.

We thought we left the wildlife behind. This ground squirrel is auditioning for a job as life guard.

The hot springs were first discovered in 1899. Travelers and trappers would stop here on their way up and down the old Dawson Trail. Later a wagon road was constructed and a roadhouse was built and travelers would overnight on their way to Whitehorse. In 1942, Takhini Hot Springs was a favorite R&R location of Canadian and U.S. troops building the ALCAN Highway. In 1972, the old wooden pools were replaced with this concrete pool. The mineral content of the water cast an eerie green glow.

And so ends another adventure!