|
|
Learning Adventure
In all our trips, Cedar and Canvas
Adventures strives to deliver an understanding of
northern lifestyles, the fragility of natural ecosystems
north of the 60th parallel and the benefits of
conserving our northern waters, habitat and wildlife
species. The knowledge and experiences of our guides is
shared through interpretation, hands on learning,
anecdotal information and storytelling. We also provide
a small library for your personal reading pleasure.
 Songbirds,
birds of prey, waterfowl, scavengers, furbearers,
ungulates, bears, canines, felines, rodents, insects,
fish and amphibians.
Look and listen.
Can you imitate their sounds? Do you
recognize their tracks? Their scat? Their nests? Which
is the male and which is the female? What is their
breeding cycle?
Learn to howl wolves, call moose
(seasonal), hoot in owls and even call bears. Learn how
to prevent unwanted bear encounters and how to deal with
them if they arise.
Wildlife interpretation includes
more than identification with Cedar and Canvas
Adventures. We take great interest in all wild things of
the Yukon and provide comprehensive as well as general
interest information.
Andy Russell, Canada's best loved
and most popular nature writer phrased it well with "The
watcher of animals whose interest goes beyond casual
observation to a desire to uncover their secret lives
finds that his interest never peaks, but continually
increases. For the longer he looks, the more he is aware
of how much is left to learn and of how our lives are
tied to the lives of animals in nature's intricate
patterns."
top
A
Bear Quiz - hover your mouse over the questions for
our answers
| |
 Is this a grizzly bear or a black bear?Grizzly bears are most often identified by the hump on their shoulders, but this view does not offer that opportunity. The claws are also a good way to identify bears, the grizzly having very long claws on the front foot while a black bear has very short claws, often not discernible.However, that is not an option in this photo either.
However, this is a grizzly bear identifiable by its dish-shaped face which is much different than the Roman nose of a black bear.
Do you think this bear is aware of the
photographer?Almost certainly. It would be a very unusual circumstance for someone to be this close to a bear without the bear being aware of the viewer.
Bears do not always acknowledge someone either because they are not alarmed by the person being there, they are more interested in something else or they simply do not put enough value on the person to waste their time looking at them.
Sometimes bears will appear indifferent, but will consciously use their indifferent look to slowly approach.
Is this bear a male or a female? Bears can be identified as male or female by the shape of their head and face, the length of their neck, their urinating patterns and whether or not they have cubs with them.
In this case, there is not much to look at, but it is probably a female. The nose is quite short and pointed and there is a definite ‘roundness’ of the facial feature between the ears and the lower jaw.
Is this bear a cub, a sub-adult or a mature animal? Cubs are most often viewed as skinny or gangly, having large ears and wearing ‘fluffy’ fur. Sub-adults share some of those same traits to less of a degree.
Mature animals, however, have smooth fur, a much sturdier build and smaller ears.
In this photo, it appears this bear has smooth fur, sturdy thick legs and small ears.
Most likely a mature animal.
Does this bear appear angry? hungry? curious?
tired? stressed?
Angry bears and stressed bears display very similar traits – teeth chomping, woofing, ears laid back, neck stretching, bristling, walking stiff legged, hopping on and swatting with their front feet, salivating, growling.
A hungry bear is generally eating although they may appear curious if they were attempting an approach on a caribou or other suitable prey.
A curious bear will display itself in much the same way as many other animals do – ears erect, neck stretched, looking intently, sniffing the wind and possibly standing up.
This bear is at a partial tilt and is either just getting up or beginning to lay down.
In other words, this is likely a tired bear.
What other emotions or instinctive thoughts do
you think would apply to this bear?
Click your mouse to drop us an email letting us know what you think. |
The Yukon is bear country.
Grizzly bears and black bears inhabit most of the Yukon
in varying densities and are frequently seen on our
trips.
There are lots of myths about bears
and a lot of misinformation has been distributed over
the years, some of it even coming from the scientific
community. For example, it wasn’t more than a
couple of decades ago that biologists and wildlife
managers were suggesting “if it’s black, fight back; if
it’s brown, lay down”. It’s comforting to know
that we understand bears much better today than we did
back then.
On our trips, we share our knowledge
and grizzly bear and black bear experiences. We
discuss bear biology and behavior, draw your attention
to bear sign, help you to spot bears, insist on camp
protocols to prevent unwanted bear encounters, provide
detailed information on responding to a bear encounter
and discuss/demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages
of bear spray.
Bears are highly intelligent and
interesting animals that can provide oodles of viewing
enjoyment. Hopefully we will see bears on the trip
you choose.
Stephen Herrero, Professor of
Environmental Science and Biology at the University of
Calgary in Alberta, Canada is recognized world wide as a
leading authority on bear ecology, behavior and attacks.
His book Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance is a
highly recommended read for anyone with outdoor
interests. Also highly recommended is Staying Safe in
Bear Country, a video available for purchase online at
www.bearbiology.com/stayingsafefront.html
top
 That
plant with the veil of beautiful tiny flowers may be
more than just a pretty face. It may be a valuable,
natural food source or poisonous.
Kinnikinick: of the heather family,
its berries mealy and tasteless, its leaves used for tea
or as a substitute for tobacco. Also called bearberry,
because of its valuable food source to bears coming out
of hibernation.
Baneberry: the only deadly poisonous
berry native to Yukon, causes dizziness, stomach cramps,
(bloody) diarrhea and death by cardiac arrest or
respiratory paralysis.
Bear Root: a wild sweet pea of the
genus Hedysarum. The roots are inedible and may be
toxic. A similar species, Indian Potato is edible and a
valuable food source. Learn all this and more on your
Cedar and Canvas Adventure.
top
 The
basics to wilderness survival are fire, shelter, water,
food and safety.
Fire is the single greatest survival
tool in the North. Learn how to start and maintain a
fire in the most adverse conditions and how to build
signal fires.
Learn a variety of shelter designs
that will reflect your fire's heat and keep you dry and
what to use for ground cover.
Giardia is a reality in all waters
of the world, regardless of remoteness. An equal, if not
greater threat, is dehydration. There are safe ways of
getting water to drink in a survival situation.
Food is not a major concern for a
short period of time, but should your survival situation
become drawn out, knowing edible plants and how to snare
squirrels and hare would be a very definite advantage.
Man can live 45 days without food; 6
days without water; 3 minutes without air; but only 1
second without hope. Keeping a cool, thinking frame of
mind is absolutely necessary. The only thing you have to
fear is fear itself.
Cedar and Canvas Adventures provides
clothing lists and a suggestive survival kit list for
everyone that partakes in our adventures.
Our guides are trained in Wilderness
First Aid and CPR.
Suggested Reading: To Start A Fire
(a short story) by Jack London, Wilderness Survival
Handbook by Alan Fry and, Northern Bush Craft by Mors L.
Kochanski
top
 Thirty-five
thousand years ago, Homo sapiens set foot on this earth
as hunters and gatherers, dependent on one another for
survival. Things are quite different now than when we
started, but the basic instinct is still there. Are you
hunter or gatherer?
It may take a Yukon wilderness
adventure with Cedar and Canvas Adventures for you to
find out.
Cedar and Canvas Adventures offers
one autumn river trip that involves the harvest of a
moose (not harvested by the client). Experience the
northern lifestyle where food gathering is not a sport
or a hobby, but an essential component of preparing for
winter.
top
 There
is more to fishing than catching fish and fish meals.
Fish biology of predator and prey species, entomology,
management of fish populations and the effects of
fishing pressure on fisheries are all part of our Yukon
fishing adventures.
While our fishing adventures
certainly include fresh fish meals, Cedar and Canvas
Adventures is also conscious of the need to protect the
breeding fish in any population. For this reason,
we practice the live release of unharmed fish which we
feel is a more responsible and respectful approach than
simply “catch ‘n release”. Fish mortality rates do
exist in catching fish and releasing them and those
rates increase exponentially with improper release
techniques and fishing pressure.
Learning “how to fish” is a more in
depth topic than simply “catching fish”.
top
Trapping
 Canada's
first industry. The Hudson's Bay Company, originally
chartered as "Governor and Company of Adventurers" in
1610, began the exploration of Canada from sea to sea to
sea. In search of fur, rivers were utilized as the major
mode of transportation, involving natives as guides and
trappers.
Today, at the grassroots level, it
is still largely a native industry.
A renewable resource, the industry
has had great difficulty in recent years with image.
Cedar and Canvas Adventures seeks to
portray the industry as viable, responsible and humane.
Living close to the land, trappers are very conscious of
species conservation and all Yukon’s furbearers are
represented by healthy populations.
Learn furbearer management
techniques, trapping methods, furbearer biology, habitat
and identification.
top
 In
August of 1896, George Carmack, Skookum Jim and Tagish
Charlie found gold on Bonanza Creek which sparked the
greatest gold rush the world has ever known.
In July '97, the ocean-going vessel
Portland arrived in Seattle laden with prospectors and a
ton of gold from the Yukon and the word "Klondike" was
soon on the lips of the American nation.
The goldseekers poured north:
overland from Edmonton into the Northwest Territories
and west over the MacKenzie Mountains; up the Stikine
from Wrangell, Alaska to follow the Dease Lake trail; up
the inside passage to Dyea and Skagway to cross the
Coast Mountains via the White Pass, the Chilkoot Trail
and the Chilkat (Dalton Trail); by ocean vessel to
St.Michael then up the Yukon River by steamer. The
summer of '98 saw Dawson City grow to a population of
30,000 making it the largest community north of Seattle
and west of Winnipeg.
Electricity, telephones and motion
picture theaters; prostitution, gambling parlours,
dancehalls and saloons. It was a time of great wealth
and high rollers. It was an exciting time!!
Prospecting has been a major
contributor to today's Yukon. Hearing the words
'mountain streams' and 'black sand' conjures up visions
of an era of discovery and dreams of untold wealth just
waiting for us to pick off the ground. Gold!
Suggested Reading: The Klondike
Stampede by Tappan Adney
top
 Aboriginal
people have been in the Yukon for an estimated 10,000
years. Hunters, gatherers and traders, they became the
grassroots source of furs to the Russian and European
empires.
A part of nature, rather than apart
from it, their traditional subsistence lifestyle made
them conservationists with an unparalleled respect for
the natural order.
With an unwritten history, much of
what is known today has been passed down through the
generations through storytelling.
Suggested Reading: Part of the
Land, Part of the Water by Catharine McClellan
top
|
