Canadian Wildlife Species - Mountain Goats

 

Mountain goats are not true goats—but they are close relatives. They are more properly known as goat-antelopes.

These surefooted beasts inhabit many of North America's most spectacular alpine environments. They often appear at precipitous heights, from Alaska to the U.S. Rocky Mountains, showcasing climbing abilities that leave other animals, including most humans, far below. Mountain goats have cloven hooves with two toes that spread wide to improve balance. Rough pads on the bottom of each toe provide the grip of a natural climbing shoe. Mountain goats are powerful but nimble and can jump nearly 12 feet (3.5 meters) in a single bound.

Mountain goats have distinctive beards and long, warm coats to protect them from cold temperatures and biting mountain winds. Their dazzling white coats provide good camouflage on the snowy heights. During the more moderate summer season goats shed this coat.

Female goats (called nannies) spend much of the year in herds with their young (called kids). These groups may include as many as 20 animals. Males (known as billies) usually live alone or with one or two other male goats. Both sexes boast beautiful pointed horns, and in mating season billies will sometimes use them to battle rivals for prospective mates.

In the spring, a nanny goat gives birth to one kid (sometimes two), which must be on its feet within minutes of arrival into its sparse mountain world. Mountain goats eat plants, grasses, mosses, and other alpine vegetation.

To see our trips to photograph Mountain goats in the Yukon, see this link. http://northof49photography.com/photo-workshops/

Canadian Wildlife Species - Woodland Caribou

 

Caribou are ungulates, which means they are cloven-hoofed and chew cud. The caribou has a short, stocky body that conserves heat, but its legs are long to help it move through the deep snow. Its winter coat provides insulation from the cold, and its muzzle and tail are short and covered in hair. The caribou's large and concave hooves support it through the snow or muskeg, and it uses them as a scoop when looking for lichen and other plants in the snow. Although the caribou can withstand the cold temperatures and hard terrain, it has a tough time coping with insects in the summer. It has been known to run for kilometres, just to escape the hordes of pesky bugs. 

The caribou belongs to the deer family and is the only member where both male and female counterparts carry antlers. The antlers of the female are smaller than those of the male, but they are carried for a longer period of time. Caribou start growing their antlers each spring and are normally done the process by August. Male caribou shed their antlers in November or December, after mating, while females will often carry them until June, after they have given birth. Antlers are a sign of dominance, and it is usually only the pregnant caribou that keep the antlers that late. It allows them to defend their feed and displace large caribou from favoured sites while nourishing their babies.

There are many subspecies of caribou. They can be found dwelling in forests, on mountains, in the tundra, and even migrating each year between the forests and tundra of the Far North. Approximately half of Canadian caribou are barren-ground caribou. This means they spend almost all of the year, sometimes even the full year, on the tundra from Alaska to Baffin Island.

The woodland caribou, the largest and darkest of the species, can be found in the boreal, or northern, forests from British Columbia and the Yukon Territory to Newfoundland and Labrador. In mountainous western areas the woodland caribou make seasonal movements from their winter range on the mountainside to their summer range on the tundra. Those in eastern areas occupy mature forest and open bogs and ferns, or low-lying wet areas.

The Peary caribou are a smaller subspecies and are light-coloured. They can only be found on the islands of the Canadian arctic archipelago and their population is numbered at 10,000. This subspecies does not normally have significant migrations

Canadian caribou can be found from the United States-Canada border to northern Ellesmere Island, and from British Columbia and the Yukon Territory to the island of Newfoundland. There are 2.4 million caribou in Canada.  But many are subspecies and populations that are threatened or extinct.

You can join is on one of our tours to Yukon when we track down herds in the vast landscapes.

Please see this web page for all our Yukon Workshops, http://northof49photography.com/photo-workshops/