In case the titles of these posts are too subtle for you, we are using lines from The Yukon Song, which was recited by Calvin and Hobbes.
But that is a digression. What I want to talk about are The Big Five. If you were to avail yourself of Dr Google, and type in ‘the big five animals’ it brings up the conventional line about the 5 animals that people try to see when they go on safari in Africa. That’s us next February. But I would like to argue that there is another ‘Big Five’ for the north woods of North America:
Brown bear, moose, horse, elk, and bison. No I have NOT lost my mind. The first two are iconic. We spend the morning straining our eyes looking for grizzlies in the Chilkat River north of Haines. Nope. We did see a small grouping of young eagles that may not have gotten the memo that it is a bit early to be loitering there. No pic, it was in a road construction zone, no stops. We spent the drive to Haines Junction with eyes peeled as well.
Then! Our first moose:
The views are gobsmackingly beautiful. Colors are turning and the foliage is golden yellow, orange, deep burgundy with shots of green from the spruce trees. There is early snow on the mountains. And those mountains? RIGHT IN YOUR FACE. No foothills here.
Back to the big 5. So on the way out of Haines Junction we see this sign:
Horses?
Turns out there is a stable wild horse population here. A herd of 20-30 horses roam the area around the Takhini and Ibex River valleys west of Whitehorse. The guy at the museum showed me pics he took. There is a herd of elk in the area as well.
And now the bison. Around 160,000 years ago Steppe Bison migrated across Beringia (new word, look it up, it’s the area of eastern Russia, Alaska, Yukon and the land that was between it, which allowed for free migration across the continents. Over 89% of the mammal bones found in the Dawson area are from Steppe Bison. So prolific. The Yukon population died out 400 years ago. But the DNA survives in southern parts of North America.
Today, there are 2 types of bison: Wood Bison and Plains Bison. Yukon has the Wood Bison. The Wood Bison is the largest land mammal on the continent: a large male can weigh upwards of 2,200 lbs (1,000kg). They nearly died out due to over hunting and habitat loss and were actually thought to be extinct until a small herd was found in The Northwest Territories. Through a combined effort of government and private ranchers starting in 1980, the population was reintroduced in Yukon, and has grown back and is now a healthy herd. So we are in hopes here too.
At our Air BnB the owners say there have been some frequent bear sightings lately. So I remain hopeful for that as well as maybe a bull moose.
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