Meet Archie

Meet Archie

Meet Archie

1 minute read – 

Say hello to a new member of the Preserve’s family, a red fox. This is Archie.

He came to the Preserve after being seized in B.C. by the Wildlife Branch of the British Columbia Provincial Government from an individual who did not have the appropriate permits for possession of wild animals for filming. 

Archie the red fox looks towards the camera while silver stands in the distance

On July 3rd, Archie flew up to the Yukon. He arrived here at the preserve and spent a month in quarantine in the rehabilitation centre. This is a necessary procedure to animal import and eventual collection integration. Archie was also neutered.

During his time in quarantine, our dedicated animal care staff took their time with Archie. He was understandibly shy and cautious at first, but eventually started to warm up to them.  

On August 6th Archie was introduced to our 3-legged silver fox – Silver – in the red fox habitat. As you can see from these photos, Archie was a little overweight when he arrived. We lovingly describe this as “a little Chonky.” Since being integrated into our Red Fox habitat, Archie has been getting much more excersixe and socialization with Silver, staff and guests alike. 

Throughout the summer, our manager of Education & Programming – Neil, along with our animal care staff, have been working with Archie and Silver. With this added enrichment, they have learned some new behaviors and are getting much more comfortable everyday. Archie, with this added movement is now looking how a fox his age should look.

Photo Credit Britt Forsythe

Welcome to the preserve Archie! We look forward to continuing to work with you and get to know you.

 

Photo Credit to Melissa Mark, unless otherwise stated.

Lindsay Caskenette

Lindsay Caskenette

Manager Visitor Services

Lindsay joined the Wildlife Preserve team March 2014. Originally from Ontario, she came to the Yukon in search of new adventures and new career challenges. Lindsay holds a degree in Environmental Studies with honours from Wilfrid Laurier University and brings with her a strong passion for sharing what nature, animals, and the environment can teach us.

867-456-7400
Lindsay@yukonwildlife.ca

Brittney Forsythe

Brittney Forsythe

She/Her - Visitor Services Coordinator

Brittney joined the Wildlife preserve in the summer of 2023. Growing up on Northern Vancouver Island, surrounded by the temperate rainforest, nature and animals have always been a part of her life. It exploded into a passion, when she started her dog walking business in 2017 and she began spending 6-7 days a week in the forest, rain or shine! This sparked an even deeper appreciation for the cyclical nature of the land and how all of the plants & animals work together symbiotically. She is forever ‘that girl’ on the hike, pointing out different rocks and plants, explaining their origin or what they could be used for medicinally. Brittney and her dog Cedar relocated to the Yukon to help care for 31 sled dogs. She is so excited to expand her local knowledge as a part of the Preserve team.

867-456-7400
 Brittney@yukonwildlife.ca

Explore by Category

Explore by Author

JB the Moose

JB the Moose

JB the Moose

6 minute read

On August 15th 2024 the Preserve’s Animal Care team with the support of one of our veterinarians’, Dr. Julianna Campbell made the difficult decision to say goodbye to JB the moose. Her condition had declined rapidly over the last 6 weeks when our team noticed she was starting to look thin. She developed diarrhea which dramatically impacted her body condition. She had lost a significant amount of weight (she was estimated to be 200-300 lbs under her normal weight). Unfortunately in that time, physical exams and fecal / blood tests did not reveal the cause. Nor did she respond to attempted treatments. Despite enthusiastically eating browse, our Animal Care Team was seeing her increasingly displaying signs of distress or pain. She also now lacked the body condition to handle colder winter temperatures (and now the ability to regain the necessary body condition in the next couple of months). In order to mitigate her suffering we made the decision to euthanize her.

JB- Moose First Day May 26th, 2014 - Justine Benjamin

JB the moose. Summer 2024. Photo credit: Melissa Mark

The morning of the 15th, after she was immobilized the euthanizing drugs were administered and she passed away quickly and easily. Our Animal Care Team conducted a necropsy which includes a physical exam of the internal body systems as well as taking a series of tissue samples that will be sent out for testing. The goal is to understand the root cause of her sudden decline in health. Very preliminary necropsy results show hemorrhaging / ulcers in one of her stomachs and intestines, but understanding why will be more challenging. Once we have more information and a better understanding of what happened, we’ll share more information. Testing of samples can take several weeks, so we won’t know right away.

female, moose, snow, YWP - Whitehorse - Yukon JB the rehabilitated moose. Jake Paleczny

JB the moose. Winter 2016. Photo credit: Jake Paleczny

JB was well known to many visitors over the years. She was generally calm mannered and smaller than the other female moose, Jesse, who was 2 years younger than JB. Jesse has been known to have a lot more attitude and dominant behaviour.

JB- Moose First Day May 26th, 2014 - Justine Benjamin

JB arrived as an orphaned moose in spring 2014. Orphaned moose are notoriously difficult to hand raise and we hadn’t received an orphaned moose in many, many years. Under Dr. Maria Hallock, the Animal Care Team threw themselves at the situation – feeding every 3 hours at first, spending nights with her, etc.

JB- Moose First Day May 26th, 2014 - Justine Benjamin

JB the moose First Day. She arrived May 26th, 2014. Photo credit: Justine Benjamin

In a near-tragic twist, JB broke her leg. Although it might have been the end for any other moose, Maria put a cast on JB’s leg. Because JB was growing so quickly the cast had to be cut off and redone just 2 weeks later, but eventually the cast came off. 

The Animal Care Team put in a huge effort that spring. Among others, Dr. Julianna was at the YWP as a summer student in 2014 and was part of the team that bottle raised JB.

Another person on the team that year was Justine Benjamin. Justine spent more time than anybody else with the young moose, right through to when she was moved into the main habitat in February 2015. 

Because of that special connection and dedication from Justine, Maria proposed we name the moose JB. Justine is now a part of our Board of Directors and Chair of the Animal Care Committee.

At that time we didn’t have a laser therapy machine (for reducing inflammation) but All Paws Vet Clinic and their team continued their support of the moose, bringing out their machine for regular treatments. Further, we received support for a local physio therapist, Natasha Bilodeau after the brace was off to help continue the healing and recovery.  Normally we’d be starting to decrease our time spent with a calf, but with the cast leg she continued to need a lot of support. 

Later in the winter she was introduced into the main habitat with our bull moose. Years later as Jesse joined the group, the three of them roamed the 40 acre moose habitat. 

• • •

The following is an article created in our original newsletter, the Preserve Post in Spring 2015. 

• • •

The Yukon Wildlife Preserve is a zoological institution and a non-profit charity dedicated to connecting our visitors with the natural world. As ambassadors of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve’s animals, lands, and operations, the operating society proudly maintains populations of 10 species of Yukon wildlife in large natural habitats. The society also conducts educational programming and funds a wildlife rehabilitation program for Yukon’s injured and orphaned wildlife. The facilities and the level of care provided to the Preserve’s animals successfully meets the stringent criteria of Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums, to which the Yukon Wildlife Preserve is a long-time member.

Lindsay Caskenette

Lindsay Caskenette

Manager Visitor Services

Lindsay joined the Wildlife Preserve team March 2014. Originally from Ontario, she came to the Yukon in search of new adventures and new career challenges. Lindsay holds a degree in Environmental Studies with honours from Wilfrid Laurier University and brings with her a strong passion for sharing what nature, animals, and the environment can teach us.

867-456-7400
Lindsay@yukonwildlife.ca

Jake Paleczny

Jake Paleczny

He/Him - Executive Director/ CEO

Jake Paleczny is passionate about interpretation and education. He gained his interpretative expertise from a decade of work in Ontario’s provincial parks in addition to a Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. His interests also extend into the artistic realm, with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario and extensive experience in galleries and museums.

867-456-7313
jake@yukonwildlife.ca

Explore by Category

Explore by Author

Old Crow Bald Eagle

Old Crow Bald Eagle

Old Crow Bald Eagle

1 minute read – 

In the remote, fly-in community of Old Crow, on the Traditional Territories of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations a juvenile bald eagle was found by Robert, at the dump, flightless and injured. The eagle was coaxed into a crate and eventually brought to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve after it made a stop in Dawson and caught a flight via Air North.  

Old crow bald eagle upon arrival and admittance into the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre at the Preserve. May 10th. Photo credit L.Caskenette

The bald eagle, thak tth’ak came to the Preserve’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre on May 10th underweight (4.3kg) and with a OD (medical term for right eye) chronic corneal ulcer. 

mature bald eagle in rehabilitation

Likely a she, given the large size of the animal. She has gained sufficient weight, coming in at 4.83kg. She has been viewable in the aviary as she works to build up flight muscles. Now she is ready for her public release back to the wild this Friday. She has a cloudy eye but has been successful catching live food and as a predominantly scavenging animal she is likely to do quite alright back in the wild even with this limitation.

She will not be returned to Old Crow due to the long travel and stress concerns related to transfer. Instead, she was released outside of Whitehorse on Friday June 14th at 7pm. 

Around 40 people joined the event to send off the bird. Thank you to everyone who joined the release, it was a perfect evening. The sky welcomed us all without a drop of rain. Thank you to all who provided good vibes and sent off the eagle with strength and grace.

Thank you to Wylie, Corrine, and Thay K’i Anint’l for the prayer and blessing for this bird’s return to the wild and resilience for a long eagle life. 

Thank you to everyone who helped this Eagle along its path to recovery. To Robert K who found the bird and ensured it got a second chance at life. To Norma, to the team at the Preserve that helped with the bird release event. To Air North for giving the bird some helping wings South to the Rehabiliation Centre.  Thank you, Masshi, Gunalchîsh????

She took her time deciding to soar but this allowed everyone to share in more details of her story, to practice patience and to grow our appreciation of her and others’ incredible story of resilience. 

• • •

The beginning of June the Preserve welcomed a visitor who had, and later shared with us, an extraordinary experience with the eagle while it was recovering in the aviary. 

She shared with us the following:

I felt a very special spirit from her. A very conscious and intelligent bird.
I heard she didn’t have a name. 
Horus came to mind for me because of her eyes and her mystical spirit.
“Horus, in ancient Egyptian religion, a god in the form of a falcon whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing.”
"Horus, in ancient Egyptian religion, a god in the form of a falcon whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing."<br />
The old crow bald eagle was given and unofficial name by a visitor, Jasmine Colomby who also drew and shared this interpretation.

Help us get them back on their wings. We could use your help. If you are able to support the care of these two animals, please consider donating. Every contribution makes a difference and as a non-profit charitable organization, you can receive a charitable tax receipt for your support. 

Photo credit: B.Forsythe

Britt Forsythe

Britt Forsythe

Visitor Services Coordinator

Brittney joined the Wildlife preserve in the summer of 2023. Growing up on Northern Vancouver Island, surrounded by the temperate rainforest, nature and animals have always been a part of her life. It exploded into a passion, when she started her dog walking business in 2017 and she began spending 6-7 days a week in the forest, rain or shine! This sparked an even deeper appreciation for the cyclical nature of the land and how all of the plants & animals work together symbiotically. She is forever ‘that girl’ on the hike, pointing out different rocks and plants, explaining their origin or what they could be used for medicinally. Brittney and her dog Cedar relocated to the Yukon to help care for 31 sled dogs. She is so excited to expand her local knowledge as a part of the Preserve team.

 867-456-7400

 brittney@yukonwildlife.ca
 

Lindsay Caskenette

Lindsay Caskenette

Manager Visitor Services

Lindsay joined the Wildlife Preserve team March 2014. Originally from Ontario, she came to the Yukon in search of new adventures and new career challenges. Lindsay holds a degree in Environmental Studies with honours from Wilfrid Laurier University and brings with her a strong passion for sharing what nature, animals, and the environment can teach us.

867-456-7400
Lindsay@yukonwildlife.ca

Explore by Category

Explore by Author

Crane Gets A Flight South

Crane Gets A Flight South

Crane Gets A Flight South

4 minute read – 

Back in early November, a sandhill crane came into the Yukon Wildlife Preserve’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre with a number of wounds, including a laceration to its eyelid. We are pleased to say that it has been successfully released! But when a bird like this misses the migration, how exactly do you release it?

mature bald eagle in rehabilitation

Photo credit: Neil Tracey

With the help of the amazing folks at Air North, Yukon’s Airline and George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary we were able to transport the crane all the way from Whitehorse to its new winter home outside of Vancouver.

George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary is a federal Migratory Birds Sanctuary located in Delta, British Columbia (about an hour from downtown Vancouver). It has a small population of sandhill cranes that overwinter there, which we hoped would help this newly released bird transition back to the wild. We were a little nervous, as sandhill cranes can be quite unaccepting to newcomers, but in this case things went very well!

• • •

6:00am

Yukon Wildlife Preserve’s veterinarian, Dr. Maria Hallock, collects the crane from the rehabilitation centre. It will ride to Vancouver in a large dog kennel, specially equipped with barriers to limit visibility and help the crane stay calm on the long journey.

6:45am

The crane arrives at Air North Cargo at Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport. Checking in a crane is more complicated than checking in a human. Permits and paperwork is processed and the kennel is given a final check to ensure it is secure.

7:30am

Neil checks in for the flight. Neil is the Manager of Programming and Education at Yukon Wildlife Preserve. Before moving to Whitehorse, he worked in wildlife rehabilitation in British Columbia. He was originally going on vacation to visit family; he added a crane release to his itinerary.

8:45am

Air North flight 521 departs for Vancouver. The weather is surprisingly good, and the flight is very smooth.

12:00pm

Air North flight 521 arrives in Vancouver.

12:30pm

Neil and the crane depart for the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta, British Columbia.

1:00pm

Kathleen Fry, Sanctuary Manager, meets the bird. She is a big fan of cranes. It shows. She escorts the crane and Neil to the release site, a beautiful lagoon between a set of dykes.

mature bald eagle in rehabilitation

Photo credit: Neil Tracey

1:01pm

The bird makes a break for it! While the team at the Sanctuary had set up a small fenced area to release the bird into – hoping to make the transition to a new environment smoother – the bird almost immediately ducked under the fence and ran off into the reeds.

1:02pm

The crane stops moving and relaxes in the reeds. It blends in extremely well and is challenging to see.

3:00pm

The crane is still in the reeds, relaxing. It has moved a few steps, but is staying in the same protected area.

Normally, when an animal is released back to nature, we do not know exactly what happens next. This time, thanks to updates from the team at Reifel Sanctuary, we can not only tell you what happened next but we also have some amazing photos! Thanks to Kathleen Fry at the Sanctuary for giving us permission to share her photos.

mature bald eagle in rehabilitation

Photo credit: Kathleen Fry – Day 2

Day 2

The crane visited with 15 local resident cranes in the morning before disappearing. This was a huge positive step, as the other cranes did not act aggressively toward the newcomer. In this photo from Kathleen, the rehabilitated crane is clearly identified by his small size and darker colours.

Day 3

The crane is slowly adapting to the wet coastal weather and seems to be keeping his feathers in better condition.

Day 5

Everything looks fine! The newly released crane seems to be hanging around the release area, is staying active, and is interacting appropriately with the other cranes in the area.

Photo credit Kathleen Fry - Day 5 after this crane was rehabilitation in the Yukon, flown South by Air North and released in BC.

Photo credit: Kathleen Fry – Day 5

If you are visiting the Vancouver area, you can reserve a spot to visit the Sanctuary. You might see the rehabilitated crane or some of the songbirds, waterfowl, and other species that call the Sanctuary home!

Wildlife rehabilitation doesn’t take a holiday! If you would like to support future rehabilitation efforts, donations are accepted all year round.

Neil Tracey

Neil Tracey

Manager Education and Programming

Neil is an interpreter and biologist who has worked in wildlife rehabilitation, interpretation, and education. He joined the team in early 2023 from Vancouver. In his spare time he teaches first aid and grows far more plants than he has space for at home.

Explore by Category

Explore by Author

How are Animals Named?

How are Animals Named?

How are Animals Named?

11 min read –

Throughout history, various languages and cultures have contributed to a wide – and often confusing – vocabulary used to describe animals’ genders, the young stages of their lives and what they may be called when they are gathered together in groups.

Mule deer:
Males are called bucks. Females are called does & young are fawns.
A group of deer are often called a herd but more fun versions include a bevy, a bunch, a rangale or a parcel
– though a parcel is often in reference to a group of young deer.

Historically, adjectives were the labels of choice to communicate animal gender identifiers. A broad selection of these labels has resulted – which are not universally applied, even within the same species. For example: in the deer family or Cervidae, males are identified as bucks and females are called does. In moose, and caribou – also members of the Cervidae family – males are called bulls and females are called cows while elk males are referred to as stags.

Cervids
From left to right – moose, caribou and Elk.
Males are called bulls (elk are called stags) and females are called cows.

Generally these cervids in groupings would be called herds (though moose are not actually herd animals) while elk can be also called a gang – watch out!

Not limited to just fur-bearing creatures, these titles are applied to other species and there are often departures from the naming conventions used. Rabbits are called bucks and does while steelhead trout males are called bucks, with females being called hens rather than does.

There is also a vast difference in the scientific naming of all creatures. Over the centuries a number of early scientists attempted to establish a format to classify animal groups. Ancient Chinese created the first recorded reference in 2700 BC, but it was quite limited and focused primarily on flora (vegetation) of their geographic region. 

Check out our Facebook post to learn more about Vulpes vulpes; not all red foxes are created equally but all are a red fox!

  1. Remember Fox and the Hound? A male is called a tod (sometimes a reynard or a dog), while females are referred to as vixens.
  2. Young are most commonly called kits but can also go by cubs, or pups.
  3. The collective noun to describe a group of foxes are a skulk, earth or a leash! These names are related to fox behaviour corresponding respectively as a group hunting together, a mama fox with her kits, and a group of domesticated or captive foxes as a leash.

Now, there are other foxes including Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), swift fox (Vulpes velox), fennec fox (Vulpes zerda), and others across the world for a total of 12 species that comprise the largest genus, Vulpes.

Smaller classifications exist within the genus Urocyon which include the gray fox. The only extant species of fox belonging to the Otocyon genus is that of the bat-eared fox found in the African savanna.

Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle described a large number of natural groups, and although he ranked them from simple to complex, his order was not an evolutionary one. He was far ahead of his time in separating invertebrate animals into different groups and was aware that whales, dolphins, and porpoises had mammalian characters and were not fish. The Aristotelian method dominated classification for many centuries. During this period, it provided a procedure for attempting to define living things through careful analysis, it neglected the variations between living things.

In 1758 Carolus Linnaeus, who is usually regarded as the founder of modern taxonomy and whose books are considered the beginning of modern botanical and zoological nomenclature, drew up rules for assigning names to plants and animals. He was the first to use binomial nomenclature consistently. Although he introduced the standard hierarchy of class, order, family, genus, and species, his main success in his own day was providing workable keys, making it possible to identify plants and animals from his cataloging. Linnaeus was the father of the Field Guide.

Lynx classification

Over the centuries a number of paleontologists, biologists, and scientists contributed to refining Taxonomy as we know it today. Perhaps the most notable of these was Charles Darwin – who explained his theory of evolution by describing how animals changed over time, yet still remained within specific categories in taxonomy.

Below is a table defining each classification of steppe Bison, the 15,000-year-old ancestor of today’s wood bison. As you can see, their classifications are not much different, other than identifying wood bison as a sub-species.

While their scientific classifications are very similar, the animals themselves were quite different. Steppe bison persisted through the great extinction of the last Ice Age up until about 5,400 years ago. A relatively recent find in Whitehorse city limits proves steppe bison persisted giving rise to the bison seen in the Yukon today but are not the direct descendants of the steppe bison.

Darwin’s famous illustration The Tree of Life displays the evolutionary relationships between species. This idea caused a great deal of controversy when he concluded that mankind evolved from the apes which was contrary to the religious teachings of the day.

Muskox and bison – both species are members of the Bovidea family. In this family, males are called bulls and females are called cows. The young are called calves and groups of both species are referred to as “herds”. But that is where the line is drawn for their nomenclatures. The Inuit name for muskox is “omingmak,” which means “the animal with the skin like a beard.” Geographically, today’s populations of muskox and bison do not overlap and their adaptions to winter survival as a result are very different.

We can see from this phylogenetic tree how bovids (horn bearing) and cervids (antler bearing) are related to each other. The animals with icons represent those species at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. The Yukon has 9 of the 11 ungulates of North America, excluding the bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope. What’s also interesting to note is that mountain goats are their own genus and muskox are more closely related to sheep and goats than they are bison!

When we dive into the scientific name we can see how the classifications carry over. For instance muskox, Ovibos, share genus naming from sheep and cow. Caribou or Rangifer tarandus is reindeer in Latin, from the Greek tárandos, also meaning reindeer. So when someone asks you the difference between caribou and reindeer, you can say, nothing! (Except, reindeer fly!)

Classification tree for ungulates bovid and cervid

(Note: this a general phylogenetic tree; it is not complete and does not represent accurate branch length for amount of genetic change and complexities of sub-taxa).

Beyond the labels used for animal species, their offspring also suffer from a variety of descriptors to classify their young age. There are calves, fawns, foals, pups, cubs, kittens, chicks, hatchlings, fry and owlets to name a few. Yes, there is a lot to remember, but with practice you can master the various names used to identify animal difference.

These descriptor variations also extend to the words used to describe a group of an individual species. There are herds, colonies, congresses, tribes, swarms, flocks, droves, clutches, packs, murders, litters, pods, braces, convocations, gangs, schools, hordes, gaggles, bands, and numerous other words used to describe a group of same-species creatures. There are even names given to groupings of animals that are, in fact, unlikely to group together given their territorial and/or solitary nature – like owls, moose or wolverines.

Even within a class of animals like birds, its a complex web of classification and further to each species’ grouping names.

Birds:

  • In general – Flock
  • Eagle – convocation
  • Falcon – cast
  • Owl – parliament, stare or wisdom
  • Swallows – flight, gulp
  • Swans – bevy, wedge
  • Ptarmigans – covey
  • Ravens – unkindness, rave, conspiracy
  • Magpies – tiding, mischief
  • Grouse – pack, covey
  • Crane – sedge
  • Ducks – raft in water and skein when flying
    • mallards on the ground can be called a sord
  • Geese – gaggle
  • Loons – asylum

 

 

Other mammals:

  • Squirrel – scurry
  • Wild canids, dogs – pack
  • Goats – tribe
  • Otters – romp
  • Porcupines – prickle
  • Voles – colony
  • Wolverines – mob
  • Martens – richness

Invertebrates:

  • Bees – grist, hive or swarm
  • Caterpillars – army
  • Flies – business

Amphibians (no reptiles in the Yukon):

  • Frogs – army
  • Toads – knot

Fish:

  • Trout – school
  • Salmon – bind, draught or run

It’s an interesting read to understand the many different words used to describe an animal’s gender, how they are identified when they are youngsters and in groups together. Of course, the list above is centered on animals that make their home in the Yukon – imagine some of the animals that live in your neck of the woods, or places you’ve travelled to, and what those animals’ naming classifications may be.

What is more, the naming of animal’s as described by history must also recognize that many of these species, (beyond the few mentioned like Wapati and Omingnak), also hold Traditional and First Nation naming of animals that are descriptive, communicating the animals’ place, use or spiritual significance.

Do you have any interesting or favourite animal classification terms/names? Share them with us in the comment section below!

Doug Caldwell

Doug Caldwell

Wildlife Interpreter

Doug is one of the Interpretive Wildlife Guides here at the Preserve. An avid angler and hunter he has a broad knowledge of Yukon’s wilderness and the creatures that live here. With a focus on the young visitors to the Preserve, Doug takes the extra time to help our guests to better appreciate the many wonders of the animal kingdom here in the Yukon.

Lindsay Caskenette

Lindsay Caskenette

Manager Visitor Services

Lindsay joined the Wildlife Preserve team March 2014. Originally from Ontario, she came to the Yukon in search of new adventures and new career challenges. Lindsay holds a degree in Environmental Studies with honours from Wilfrid Laurier University and brings with her a strong passion for sharing what nature, animals, and the environment can teach us.

867-456-7400
Lindsay@yukonwildlife.ca

Explore by Category

Explore by Author