Arctic Wildlife

Last summer it was all about caribou. I saw giant herds of them from the helicopter and smaller herds surrounded us as we worked in the field, but other animal sightings were rare. This year my wildlife sightings have been more abundant and varied.

On the second day in camp we saw a brown furry object about 1 km from the kitchen shack. It was rapidly moving away from us and we all thought grizzly bear. Sure enough when I walked down to the small lake just below the camp I saw the bear's footprints and it was big! I don't know if bears hang out in the same location year after year but we saw one last summer in about the same spot so I am hoping it is the same one. She/he didn't bother us last year so why would he bother us this year?

The next day I was sitting on an outcrop waiting for my helicopter ride back to camp when I heard some noise, looked up, and there was a muskox munching some leaves. This animal was clearly a male because his horn "helmet" meets in the middle, female muskox have a gap. I was on a small cliff downwind of him so he didn't know I was there and I managed to creep pretty close. If you enlarge the photo you  can see the cloud of mosquitoes swarming about his face.

  Then I saw a white arctic wolf - one sighting per day so far. I was eating lunch on a rock, looked up and saw the wolf staring at me from across the creek. She/he was about 100m away and once we made eye contact it melted away into the scrubby bushes. I had no time to grab my camera for an animal photo but I did find it's tracks.

The next two days were bird days: a ptarmigan at camp and baby birds in a nest under some bushes with an anxious parent squawking nearby.

 

 

 

The final sighting (so far) was a fox. I was looking at a rock with my hand lens and saw a movement in my peripheral vision. When I looked up there was a fox only 3 meters away. I felt rather sorry for it because it seemed kind of sickly;  skinny with a swollen left eye. The fox and I looked at each other for about 3 minutes and then it loped away across the tundra disappearing in the low bushes.

I have yet to see a caribou.

Comments

[kathi]

We came home early (2 weeks) from our trip to Desolation Sound. We were to be gone for 5 weeks. It rained every day, except 2 days. Hope things are better for your family. When you have time please let me know about the Jessie info as we are heading to Oregon tomorrow to pickup a new yellow lab puppy. yes, he will be traveling with us on the boat when we leave.

Thanks,

kathi