Preserve Post 2017 Spring Newsletter

Quarterly Publication of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve Operating Society
Volume 11, Issue 4
Spring 2017
In this Issue...
2 From the ED
3 Renovations with
a View
4 Let ‘em Have
Control!
6 WildWise Yukon
8 Easter Egg-
Stravaganza!
Spring
Edition

Spring Greetings from the
Wildlife Preserve
We have been having a wonderful winter at the
Preserve with strong visitation numbers from both
our valued resident market and our visitor market.
The inbound Travel Trade appears to have been having
a very strong season to-date. Our pilot March Break
Nature Camp is sold out and teachers are signing up
their classes for our upcoming School Program. It is
looking like we will all be busy beavers this spring and
summer – just the way we like it!
As is our nature, we have a number of exciting new
projects and initiatives on the go. These include:
• We have been hired by the Department of
Environment (Wildlife Viewing) to deliver the
Swan Haven Interpretive School Program. This is
a pilot and if all goes well, we may be looking at a
longer-term arrangement;
• We have successfully accessed substantial funding
from CanNor through the Canada 150 Community
Infrastructure Program (CIP) which will allow
us to completely update all of our mountain goat
fencing – including a number of new holding
areas and the re-opening of a lovely, flat walking/
skiing/biking route running from behind the red
fox habitat down the valley bottom to the moose
pasture – you will be able to avoid our two steep
hills; and
• We have successfully accessed funding through
Yukon Government’s Community Development
Fund (CDF) to undertake some landscaping
and other improvements around our reception
cabin in an effort to provide the Preserve better
representative “curb appeal”.
On top of all this, in early August we will be
welcoming the CAZA Accreditation Inspection Team
to re-evaluate the Preserve for continued accreditation.
It is hard to believe that it has been five years since we
first received accreditation! Every five years we have
to start from scratch and re-do the full accreditation
process. We are confident that we will once again,
achieve unconditional accreditation status.
Finally, thank you to everyone local or distant, for your
continued support!
Bring on summer!
Photos: Bull moose in snow just a week before he shed his
antlers. Cover photos, from top to bottom: It’s only at about -45
degrees Celsius and colder does an arctic fox need to increase its
metabolism to stay warm; Lynx use their ear tuffs to hear better;
red foxes are incredibly cunning and intelligent, distributed
across the entire Northern Hemisphere!
2
Volume 11, Issue 4

Renovations
With a View
Kilometres of new fence, hundreds
of new fence posts, steep and rugged
cliffs... sound like fun?
Over the coming weeks and months
Preserve staff will undertake a huge
fencing upgrade along the back
cliff where the mountain goats live.
The fence is starting to show its age
and part of the back cliff sits empty
for this reason. It will also simplify
seasonal animal movements required
to manage our amazing mountain
goat herd. Finally, it will open up a
new walking trail for visitors to the
Preserve - enabling stunning, close
views of the mountain goat cliff that
most have never experienced!
The hard work has already begun.
Operations staff are busy currting 30’
steel posts into 10’ fence post lengths.
Soon they’ll start laying them out
along the new fence line. This is where
it gets tricky though. Putting fence
posts into a rocky, cliff environment
is no easy feat. It will take a rock drill
to sink most of the posts. On softer
ground its easier to dig the holes, but
they also collapse faster - so while it
might seem
odd to be
working away
in the cold,
the frozen
ground will
actually help
keep the
holes open!
Above: posts and fencing stand ready. The repairs and renovations will open up
a path along the bottom of the back cliff giving visitors new areas to explore and
enjoy!
Spring 2017
3

Let ‘em Have Control!
This past February I had the opportunity to speak at
the International Association of Avian Trainers and
Educators’ conference about how important choices
are to the animals (and humans) we share our lives
with. While my topic focused on the importance of
choices to the American Bald Eagle Foundation’s 12
avian ambassadors, in reality this concept should be
broadened to all of our relationships human, and
animal.
In animal training we talk a lot about reinforcers.
Some reinforcers are things that animals work toward
earning to ensure individual and species survival.
They can include things like food, water, sleep and
reproduction.
A reinforcing event is anything that occurs that will
strengthen an animal’s (don’t forget humans are
animals) future behavior. This means that if an animal
is successful at obtaining a reinforcer (such as food)
then it will repeat the same behavior it performed in
order to obtain the reinforcer in the future. Trainers
often use reinforcers to encourage animals to
participate in training, husbandry and outreach events.
For example, when we ask bird to step up on the glove,
and it chooses to do so, the bird gets reinforced with a
tid-bit of quail.
This information may be a bit difficult to digest, so to
put it more simply; we can ask
for, and strengthen behaviors by
reinforcing with something that
the animal would work to earn
on its own.
control.
One reinforcer I frequently
see overlooked is control. It’s
easy to overlook control as a
reinforcer because it’s not a
reinforcer we think of working
toward earning. However
when we begin to think about
being forced around and
pushed into every action we
make, we begin to feel a loss
of choice in our lives and we
start to feel helpless. It’s vital
to the health and welfare of our
relationships with humans, and
animals that we begin to utilize
the reinforcing properties of
Think about it this way: would you rather be physically
forced to do dishes, take out the garbage, shovel snow;
or asked to do these chores and then be rewarded
with your favorite snack or praise from a loved one
afterward? In the latter circumstance, not only are
you choosing to perform this event, but you know
that there is a reward for you in participating in these
chores.
4
Above: Eurasian eagle owl Hans is asked to step-up to come out of his aviary.
The owl has a choice. If he chooses to step-up he gets reinforced with food. If he
chooses not to, the trainer respects the decision and leaves.
Volume 11, Issue 4

When we give those in our lives
choices and control over their
lives, we open up the door to
more positive and rewarding
relationships. Further, we can
reinforce behaviors we like. For
example, when your dog lays
down in the living room instead
of begging at the table she receives
a “good girl” and a scratch on the
head (the reinforcing praise and
scratch on the head makes the
laying down in the living room
behavior more likely to occur in the
future).
In order for us to improve the
lives of animals we share our lives
with, and to improve the quality
of our human relationships, we
must recognize the reinforcing
(remember reinforcement makes the behavior more likely to occur) value of control. Only then can we begin to
build positive relationships based on rewarding histories.
Leia Minch is the Raptor Curator for
the American Bald Eagle Foundation in
Haines, Alaska. She manages the health
and welfare of the 12 avian ambassadors
that live and work at the facility. She feels
one of the most important aspects of her
job is connecting humans to the natural
environments that we live and thrive from.
Visit the American Bald Eagle Foundation
in Haines, Alaska. The facility is currently
open Monday to Friday’s 9am - 3pm .
* Chance, Paul. “Operant Applications and Interpretations.”
Learning and Behavior. 6th ed. Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1988. 250-51. Print. Ser. 2008.
Spring 2017
Top: A group winter walking the trails tucked in behind the Learning Centre at
the Yukon Wildlife Preserve - next time you visit check them out! Left: Resident
bald eagle is asked to step-up onto the scale for a regular weight check. Re-inforcement
with food is provided is the bird obliges.
5

The Physiological Wonders of
a Deep Winter Slumberer
Bears in Yukon Territory
traditionally hibernate until around
the end of April. i Most of us know
that bears spend the summer and
fall months bulking up for a long
winter of sleeping and fasting,
but one may not know that many
bears’ winter sleeping habits are
evolutionarily fascinating.
Firstly, bears actually do not
hibernate. During the cold,
food-scarce months, bears enter
a state of torpor. Animals in
torpor only decrease their body
temperature a few degrees, and
reduce their breathing and heart
rates minimally. With hibernation,
animals reduce their metabolic
rates substantially. Torpor can
be considered a ‘deep sleep’, but
animals can become awakened if
needed. ii
During torpor, bears do not
eliminate wastes such as urea and
nitrogen. High levels of these
compounds in the blood are usually
fatal, but bears have evolved unique
strategies to solve this problem.
Bears recycle
these waste
products by
converting
them into lean
muscle mass
while sleeping.
iii
Additionally,
immobility
in an animal
usually leads
to both muscle
and bone
density losses.
Although bears
are highly
sedentary
throughout the
winter months,
they are able to somewhat maintain
these facets of their body condition
through a variety of unique
physiological changes. iv,v
With spring around the corner
WildWise Yukon would like to
take an opportunity to ask if you
are prepared for emerging bears?
Use the
Backyard
Checklist:
https://goo.gl/
DVRdbG
A few ways to
be WildWise
this spring!
• Garbage
- secured with certified bearproof
containers or indoors;
• Domestic farm animals
protected with electric fencing;
• Compost - turned regularly, add
odor dampers, electric fence
protected;
• Bird feeders - put them away
for the spring/summer;
• Pet food - secured inside;
• BBQ’s/freezers/smokers cleaned
and concealed inside.
The Yukon Wildlife Preserve and
WildWise Yukon are building on
their partnership in many ways
including a project focused on
creating a Bear Learning Module
to be implemented in curriculum
across Yukon Territory. The
curriculum will include various
6
Top: a bear necessity slumber - bear.org; A bear tests this bear-proof garbage
system (Haul All Equipment Services). Facing page: the large ears of the aptly
named mule deer move independently allowing them to hear even better!
Volume 11, Issue 4

stakeholders including First Nation
Tradition Knowledge. WildWise
Yukon and Yukon Wildlife Preserve
partner through advocacy for
education and conservation. For
more about WildWise Yukon visit
www.wildwise.ca or give us a call
335-5212. We would be happy to
hear from you!
Cassandra Andrew is a volunteer
board member for WildWise Yukon,
and is currently enrolled at Western
College of Veterinary Medicine -
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine 2019.
Candidate.
i
Environment Yukon. 2016. American Black Bear. Accessed online from: http://www.env.gov.yk.ca/
animals-habitat/mammals/blackbear.php.
ii
Telus Science World. 2016. Do Bears Actually Hibernate? Accessed online from: https://www.
scienceworld.ca/blog/do-bears-actually-hibernate.
iii
National Park Service. 2016. Denning and Hibernation Behaviour. Accessed online from: https://
www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/denning.htm.
iv
Chow BA, Donahue SW, Vaughan MR, McConkey B, Vijayan MM. 2013. Serum Immune-Related
Proteins are Differentially Expressed during Hibernation in the American Black Bear. PLoS ONE
8(6):e66119. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066119.
v
McGee-Lawrence ME, Carey HV, Donahue SW. 2008. Mammalian hibernation as a model of
disuse osteoporosis: the effects of physical inactivity on bone metabolism, structure, and strength.
American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology 295: R1999–
R2014.
Full-time Staff
Yukon
Wildlife
Preserve
Greg Meredith, Executive Director
Sheila Downey, Executive Assistant
Randy Hallock, Operations Director
Dr. Maria Hallock, Wildlife Curator
Jake Paleczny, Director of
Programming & Education
Lindsay Caskenette, Manager of
Visitor Services
Daniel Jolkowski, Animal Care &
Operations Assistant
Beth Paul, Senior Education
Programmer
Board of Directors
Alexandra Tait President
Lacia Kinnear, 1 st Vice-President
Michael Kokiw, 2 nd Vice-President,
Kristine Hildebrand, Treasurer
Jessie Dawson
Chris Evans
Katelyn Friendship
Kirk Cameron
Brooke Rudolph
Shirley Adamson
Shawna Warshawski
Ed van Randen Non-voting Member
- Environment Yukon
Darrell March, Non-voting Member -
Environment Yukon
Spring 2017
7

Above: Scarface and a juvenile male mountain goat claim the highest land as the sun sets in their temporary habitat.
EGG-stravaganza!
Scavenger Hunt
The Wild Easter fun returns
Monday April 17 th . Take part
anytime between 10:30am-5:00pm.
What is the Easter Hare up to
this year?!
Follow the clues, you will need
to be wise as they will lead you to
a chocolatey prize! Bring your
family and friends, little by little
help one another piece together
the riddle.
Regular rates apply. Members get
in free! A great opportunity to re-new or
purchase your membership
for access to this eggcellent
event and others
throughout the year!
When to Visit
Winter Hours
10:30am to 5:00pm: Friday - Sunday
Guided Bus Tours at 12pm, 2pm.
Extended March Break Hours
Open Daily March 17 th to April 2 nd .
Walk, run, fat-bike anytime while open. We also
highly encourage skipping! Enjoy the multi-use
winter trails for skiing.
Curious about the latest news? Visit
facebook.com/yukonwildlife or call 456-7300.
We’re on Instagram now!
Share your adventures with us through Social Media
and we`ll re-share our favs! Tag us #YukonWildlife
Writing: Lindsay Caskenette, Greg Meredith,
8
Leia Minch, Jake Paleczny, Cassandra Andrew
Photos and illustrations: Lindsay Caskenette, Jake Paleczny,
Printed on 100% Recycled Volume Paper 11, Issue 4