electricland (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
electricland) wrote2005-06-17 02:12 pm
electricland) wrote2005-06-17 02:12 pm
Entry tags:
Probably the last baby muskox story
for a while, anyway. This one's from the Whitehorse Star.
‘Summer romance’ blossoming on game farm
By Chuck Tobin
A friendship of different sorts is being kindled at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve north of Whitehorse.
Boo the caribou calf, and Chance the muskox calf, will be hangin’ out in the same pen for the rest of the spring and summer until they’re weaned off the bottle.
Aside from the obvious – one lean and lanky, the other bullish and stocky – the two could be brother and sister from birth, given the frolicking about and fondness they show each other.
Boo came to the wildlife preserve in late May after her mother rejected her not two days after giving birth in the wilderness pen being used as part of the Chisana caribou recovery project.
Chance arrived a couple of days later after he was found abandoned beside an ice road in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.
Originally, the plan was to keep Boo and Chance in separate quarantine pens, with an aim of introducing Chance to the four other muskox calves born at the preserve earlier this spring.
Boo had spent the first week inside the main house on the property, but every time she was left alone, she would bawl.
While there was a place for Chance to go, with no other caribou calves on the property, there was no place to put Boo.
In consultation with the staff veterinarian, it was decided to move the two together, to see if they would keep each other company.
Fear of either of them passing on a bad bug or the like was minimal, as Chance had to be given a clean bill of health before he was allowed into the Yukon.
And with so much research and blood work done on the Chisana herd, there was not much chance Boo was carrying anything nasty, Carolyn Thorne, the new executive director of the preserve, said in a pen-side interview Thursday afternoon.
“They are a bit of an unlikely pair but they were so lonely when they were separated,” said Thorne.
“Now they are inseparable.”
She said removing one from the other’s side makes them both unhappy, instantly.
“So they will spend the summer together... sort of a summer romance,” she said. “Eventually they will have to be separated but they will be much older when they are weaned off the bottle at about five months.”
When they’re separated, Chance will be put in with the adult muskox, and Boo with the adult caribou, making the separation that much easier.
Thorne said right now, veterinarian Maria Luchnic has to bottle-feed the pair every three hours, around the clock.
Visitors to the pen are greeted by both Boo and Chance, who like to nudge and nibble at their guests and just generally play around, as though somebody’s thrown a new toy into the pen.
Chance and Boo will be centre stage during this weekend’s free open house being hosted by staff at the wilderness preserve, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The farm is located off the Takhini Hot Springs Road.
‘Summer romance’ blossoming on game farm
By Chuck Tobin
A friendship of different sorts is being kindled at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve north of Whitehorse.
Boo the caribou calf, and Chance the muskox calf, will be hangin’ out in the same pen for the rest of the spring and summer until they’re weaned off the bottle.
Aside from the obvious – one lean and lanky, the other bullish and stocky – the two could be brother and sister from birth, given the frolicking about and fondness they show each other.
Boo came to the wildlife preserve in late May after her mother rejected her not two days after giving birth in the wilderness pen being used as part of the Chisana caribou recovery project.
Chance arrived a couple of days later after he was found abandoned beside an ice road in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.
Originally, the plan was to keep Boo and Chance in separate quarantine pens, with an aim of introducing Chance to the four other muskox calves born at the preserve earlier this spring.
Boo had spent the first week inside the main house on the property, but every time she was left alone, she would bawl.
While there was a place for Chance to go, with no other caribou calves on the property, there was no place to put Boo.
In consultation with the staff veterinarian, it was decided to move the two together, to see if they would keep each other company.
Fear of either of them passing on a bad bug or the like was minimal, as Chance had to be given a clean bill of health before he was allowed into the Yukon.
And with so much research and blood work done on the Chisana herd, there was not much chance Boo was carrying anything nasty, Carolyn Thorne, the new executive director of the preserve, said in a pen-side interview Thursday afternoon.
“They are a bit of an unlikely pair but they were so lonely when they were separated,” said Thorne.
“Now they are inseparable.”
She said removing one from the other’s side makes them both unhappy, instantly.
“So they will spend the summer together... sort of a summer romance,” she said. “Eventually they will have to be separated but they will be much older when they are weaned off the bottle at about five months.”
When they’re separated, Chance will be put in with the adult muskox, and Boo with the adult caribou, making the separation that much easier.
Thorne said right now, veterinarian Maria Luchnic has to bottle-feed the pair every three hours, around the clock.
Visitors to the pen are greeted by both Boo and Chance, who like to nudge and nibble at their guests and just generally play around, as though somebody’s thrown a new toy into the pen.
Chance and Boo will be centre stage during this weekend’s free open house being hosted by staff at the wilderness preserve, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The farm is located off the Takhini Hot Springs Road.