Review of the Yukon Wildlife Park:
In a single sentence?
With the exception of the Elk (and maybe Muskox) the enclosures at the YWP are the largest of their kind for the species housed that I have ever seen. The Mountain Goat and Moose enclosures are remarkable.
In a multitude of paragraphs?
The YWP is just few minutes west of Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. Whitehorse gives off the vibe of a rough and tumble market town...and reminded me a lot of Fairbanks Alaska.
When you arrive a the YWP and park in the gravel lot, the first thing you'll notice is an enclosure for Elk. The collection of Elk consisted of a few cows and a single bull. Visitors are warned that the bull had just recently been placed in with the cows and that he was very possessive and eager to establish his dominance...and that he had bluffed charged the fence frequently of the last couple of days.
Adjacent to the Elk enclosure is the gift shop/entrance desk. Here you pay your fee and the attendant will tell you a bit about the park and some interesting points regarding the residents. Primarily that each animal is native to the Yukon (and for my benefit) and that many of them are also native to Alaska. She also ran down a few pointers for finding the animals in their vast enclosures and which of the animals had recently produced young.
Starting out from the entrance you are giving three options: Walk, Ride the Bus, or Rent a Bike. The walk is a hike. Inside the park you walk around a mountain...not walk around on a mountain...you literally circumnavigate a mountain and gain 500 feet elevation in the process. Several times a white pickup truck being driven by a young man would pass me by on the road. I assumed he was hurrying from task to task...I now believe he was actually checking to see if anyone had simply given up and lay down on the road to die. He observed me closely and gave a wave each time he drove by me.
As noted, the enclosures are huge. In turn along the route you pass the enclosures for Wood Bison, Mule Deer, Moose, and Thin-horn Sheep (a collection of representatives of the Dall, Stone, and Fannin morphs...I imagine that they are not separated by breed and the Fannin morph is the most common as the Stone and Dall Sheep interbreed). At the juncture of the sheep and Moose enclosure you turn right and proceed up the hill, walking alongside the sheep and Moose enclosures for a few hundred meters before coming to the Rocky Mountain Goat enclosure.
You'd have a hard time convincing someone view your photos of the goats resting or climbing along the cliffs that your photos were not of wild animals. On the opposite side of the road from the goats you can overlook the vast Caribou enclosure...so vast that not an animal of the herd was in sight.
I did stop to photograph two goats resting on a ledge several hundred feet across a wooded gorge from my viewing location. And then seeing that the path again descended the hill...considered turning back as my oxygen starved brain had forgotten that the path was a figure 8...so resistant was my subconscious to climbing that mountain twice.
Throughout the park are rest areas with sitting benches and outhouses (similar to the wonderful rest areas along the Yukon Highway System...Alaska and it turns out, British Columbia, are miles behind the Yukon in this respect)...and here we rest. Let me briefly describe the enclosures for you.
The Elk probably have the least exciting enclosure as it is just an open pasture next to the entrance. The Wood Bison have a larger circular pasture, large enough that if the bison were on the opposite side of the enclosure from your vantage point...binoculars would not be inappropriate. The east side of the bison enclosure abuts a long grove of trees which at certain times of the day would provide shade to that side of the enclosure. The Mule Deer enclosures (two of them) are a mixture of open meadow and forest grove. The Moose enclosure contains a small lake or extremely large pond with adjoining Spruce Bog and Marsh. The sheep also have a mix of meadow and open parkland forest...a large cliff face dominates the north of the enclosure and I would be surprised if the sheep did not have access to it. The Caribou occupy more of the boreal parkland on the saddle north of the sheep, in an enclosure of tall grassland and light woods. The goats have the entire cliff-face of a mountain above a thickly wooded gorge and on the far west side of the enclosure an open slope pasture with a strand of pines for cover. The Muskox have an open grassland enclosure (two of these as it appears a couple bachelors are kept from the main herd) with, like the bison, one side dominated by tall trees just beyond the fence creating a shaded spot were most of the herd was resting. The Canada Lynx is exhibited in an enclosure surrounding the wooded knob of a small hill...again the largest such enclosure I have ever seen this species housed in...and in truth, I did not spend much time trying to find the lynx. The Red Fox enclosure is across the road from the lynx and I observed a single fox resting among the brush atop a rocky hill. Arctic Ground Squirrels can be observed in each of the herbivore enclosures with the exception of the Moose. There was a single bird on display, which the administration clerk told me was projected to be released the finally Friday, but during my walk around the YWP I did not note the enclosure.
Each enclosure (but for the fox and lynx) is a wire square rig that can easily accommodate a cell phone or camera lens for obstruction free photography (similar to the AWCC back in Alaska) and unlike the current trend at the AWCC the barricades separating the visitor from the animals run along the inside of the fence allowing access to the fence for the zoo guests.
In fact the YWP and the AWCC are very similar with, mostly due to the separate geographies of each park (wooded, hillside pasture for the YWP and coastal brush and scrub for the AWCC, the main contrast between the two being that the AWCC has a more utilitarian look (which can be disguised with clever framing) than that of the YWP.
Collection wise, I was surprised that the YWP does not exhibit Brown or Black Bears, or Wolves. I also wondered while the AWCC (which sources Wood Bison from Canada) does not work with the YWP to acquire excess Thin-horn Sheep (Dall morph) or Mountain Goats to complete their collection of megafauna found in sub-arctic Alaska.
Overall the YWP was a very welcoming and pleasant experience and I'd highly recommend a visit if you are ever in Whitehorse.
Now...my own personnel zoo standard...probable ecological. If the YWP's residents were found on an island possessing the size and topography of Borneo out in the Gulf of Alaska would it work ecologically?
The herbivores would each have adequate habitat and do just fine with the Thin-horn Sheep and Mountain Goats occupying the northern mountains and the Caribou and Muskox most common on the north slope where I imagine the land cover would be similar to that of the Aleutian Islands or Kodiak being a mixture of brush and grassland. The Mule Deer and Moose and Bison would thrive in the myriad of open, closed, and wetland habitats south of the mountains on the wetter southern and eastern regions. With Arctic Ground Squirrels abundant on the northern third of the island and present in smaller numbers throughout the south (lacking competition from other rodents)...during the summer, when the squirrels are active, the lynx and the Red Fox might have a chance...but barring other prey species the Canada Lynx and the Red Fox would not abundant, if present at all. The lynx (larger specimens) might be able to take down the occasional caribou calf, or sheep and mule deer...but probably not successfully enough to sustain a populations...preying on the Red Fox would be an option...but the fox will have it's own difficulties sustaining an island wide population. But the Red Fox would be better equipped than the lynx. At least along the coastline the foxes couple hunt in the tidal zone and scavenge on creatures washed up on the beaches. In the summers, success with hunting the Ground Squirrels and feeding on berries and maybe fungi would sustain the animals. In the late winter, herbivores (overpopulated in cyclical boom / bust function) would leave carcasses that could be scavenged...but otherwise the foxes (at least those not on the coast) would subsist on cannibalism and starvation. If we include the default species of rodent and lagomorph (as well as documented birds) both the Lynx and the Red Fox would each survive, although the larger herbivores (once they have reached carrying capacity) would exist in a perpetual boom / bust cycle as disease, starvation, and winters periodically thinned the herds.
The Yukon Wildlife Park has a probable ecological score of 100. Pretty low for a zoo in general and very low for a "native species wildpark." Were it in a slightly more populated area, I would be surprised if the YWP continued to be bereft of wolves and bears.
In a single sentence?
With the exception of the Elk (and maybe Muskox) the enclosures at the YWP are the largest of their kind for the species housed that I have ever seen. The Mountain Goat and Moose enclosures are remarkable.
In a multitude of paragraphs?
The YWP is just few minutes west of Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. Whitehorse gives off the vibe of a rough and tumble market town...and reminded me a lot of Fairbanks Alaska.
When you arrive a the YWP and park in the gravel lot, the first thing you'll notice is an enclosure for Elk. The collection of Elk consisted of a few cows and a single bull. Visitors are warned that the bull had just recently been placed in with the cows and that he was very possessive and eager to establish his dominance...and that he had bluffed charged the fence frequently of the last couple of days.
Adjacent to the Elk enclosure is the gift shop/entrance desk. Here you pay your fee and the attendant will tell you a bit about the park and some interesting points regarding the residents. Primarily that each animal is native to the Yukon (and for my benefit) and that many of them are also native to Alaska. She also ran down a few pointers for finding the animals in their vast enclosures and which of the animals had recently produced young.
Starting out from the entrance you are giving three options: Walk, Ride the Bus, or Rent a Bike. The walk is a hike. Inside the park you walk around a mountain...not walk around on a mountain...you literally circumnavigate a mountain and gain 500 feet elevation in the process. Several times a white pickup truck being driven by a young man would pass me by on the road. I assumed he was hurrying from task to task...I now believe he was actually checking to see if anyone had simply given up and lay down on the road to die. He observed me closely and gave a wave each time he drove by me.
As noted, the enclosures are huge. In turn along the route you pass the enclosures for Wood Bison, Mule Deer, Moose, and Thin-horn Sheep (a collection of representatives of the Dall, Stone, and Fannin morphs...I imagine that they are not separated by breed and the Fannin morph is the most common as the Stone and Dall Sheep interbreed). At the juncture of the sheep and Moose enclosure you turn right and proceed up the hill, walking alongside the sheep and Moose enclosures for a few hundred meters before coming to the Rocky Mountain Goat enclosure.
You'd have a hard time convincing someone view your photos of the goats resting or climbing along the cliffs that your photos were not of wild animals. On the opposite side of the road from the goats you can overlook the vast Caribou enclosure...so vast that not an animal of the herd was in sight.
I did stop to photograph two goats resting on a ledge several hundred feet across a wooded gorge from my viewing location. And then seeing that the path again descended the hill...considered turning back as my oxygen starved brain had forgotten that the path was a figure 8...so resistant was my subconscious to climbing that mountain twice.
Throughout the park are rest areas with sitting benches and outhouses (similar to the wonderful rest areas along the Yukon Highway System...Alaska and it turns out, British Columbia, are miles behind the Yukon in this respect)...and here we rest. Let me briefly describe the enclosures for you.
The Elk probably have the least exciting enclosure as it is just an open pasture next to the entrance. The Wood Bison have a larger circular pasture, large enough that if the bison were on the opposite side of the enclosure from your vantage point...binoculars would not be inappropriate. The east side of the bison enclosure abuts a long grove of trees which at certain times of the day would provide shade to that side of the enclosure. The Mule Deer enclosures (two of them) are a mixture of open meadow and forest grove. The Moose enclosure contains a small lake or extremely large pond with adjoining Spruce Bog and Marsh. The sheep also have a mix of meadow and open parkland forest...a large cliff face dominates the north of the enclosure and I would be surprised if the sheep did not have access to it. The Caribou occupy more of the boreal parkland on the saddle north of the sheep, in an enclosure of tall grassland and light woods. The goats have the entire cliff-face of a mountain above a thickly wooded gorge and on the far west side of the enclosure an open slope pasture with a strand of pines for cover. The Muskox have an open grassland enclosure (two of these as it appears a couple bachelors are kept from the main herd) with, like the bison, one side dominated by tall trees just beyond the fence creating a shaded spot were most of the herd was resting. The Canada Lynx is exhibited in an enclosure surrounding the wooded knob of a small hill...again the largest such enclosure I have ever seen this species housed in...and in truth, I did not spend much time trying to find the lynx. The Red Fox enclosure is across the road from the lynx and I observed a single fox resting among the brush atop a rocky hill. Arctic Ground Squirrels can be observed in each of the herbivore enclosures with the exception of the Moose. There was a single bird on display, which the administration clerk told me was projected to be released the finally Friday, but during my walk around the YWP I did not note the enclosure.
Each enclosure (but for the fox and lynx) is a wire square rig that can easily accommodate a cell phone or camera lens for obstruction free photography (similar to the AWCC back in Alaska) and unlike the current trend at the AWCC the barricades separating the visitor from the animals run along the inside of the fence allowing access to the fence for the zoo guests.
In fact the YWP and the AWCC are very similar with, mostly due to the separate geographies of each park (wooded, hillside pasture for the YWP and coastal brush and scrub for the AWCC, the main contrast between the two being that the AWCC has a more utilitarian look (which can be disguised with clever framing) than that of the YWP.
Collection wise, I was surprised that the YWP does not exhibit Brown or Black Bears, or Wolves. I also wondered while the AWCC (which sources Wood Bison from Canada) does not work with the YWP to acquire excess Thin-horn Sheep (Dall morph) or Mountain Goats to complete their collection of megafauna found in sub-arctic Alaska.
Overall the YWP was a very welcoming and pleasant experience and I'd highly recommend a visit if you are ever in Whitehorse.
Now...my own personnel zoo standard...probable ecological. If the YWP's residents were found on an island possessing the size and topography of Borneo out in the Gulf of Alaska would it work ecologically?
The herbivores would each have adequate habitat and do just fine with the Thin-horn Sheep and Mountain Goats occupying the northern mountains and the Caribou and Muskox most common on the north slope where I imagine the land cover would be similar to that of the Aleutian Islands or Kodiak being a mixture of brush and grassland. The Mule Deer and Moose and Bison would thrive in the myriad of open, closed, and wetland habitats south of the mountains on the wetter southern and eastern regions. With Arctic Ground Squirrels abundant on the northern third of the island and present in smaller numbers throughout the south (lacking competition from other rodents)...during the summer, when the squirrels are active, the lynx and the Red Fox might have a chance...but barring other prey species the Canada Lynx and the Red Fox would not abundant, if present at all. The lynx (larger specimens) might be able to take down the occasional caribou calf, or sheep and mule deer...but probably not successfully enough to sustain a populations...preying on the Red Fox would be an option...but the fox will have it's own difficulties sustaining an island wide population. But the Red Fox would be better equipped than the lynx. At least along the coastline the foxes couple hunt in the tidal zone and scavenge on creatures washed up on the beaches. In the summers, success with hunting the Ground Squirrels and feeding on berries and maybe fungi would sustain the animals. In the late winter, herbivores (overpopulated in cyclical boom / bust function) would leave carcasses that could be scavenged...but otherwise the foxes (at least those not on the coast) would subsist on cannibalism and starvation. If we include the default species of rodent and lagomorph (as well as documented birds) both the Lynx and the Red Fox would each survive, although the larger herbivores (once they have reached carrying capacity) would exist in a perpetual boom / bust cycle as disease, starvation, and winters periodically thinned the herds.
The Yukon Wildlife Park has a probable ecological score of 100. Pretty low for a zoo in general and very low for a "native species wildpark." Were it in a slightly more populated area, I would be surprised if the YWP continued to be bereft of wolves and bears.