The past couple of days at the shelter have been extremely stressful and emotional. Last week one of the horses here, Cass, gave birth to her foal, Rocky. However it became apparent soon after he was born that something wasn't right. His front legs were bent strangely and he couldn't stand at all. He was rushed to the vets where his legs were bandaged and he was given medication and shots to combat the problem. As he couldn't stand to drink we had to milk Cass and bottle feed Rocky. However it was extremely difficult and he wasn't getting enough milk to sustain himself. He passed away today (Monday June 16th).
To make things even worse, one of the bears, Fisher, has become gravely ill. We brought him back down to the hospital to monitor him and took him to the vets to have tests done. We are still waiting for the results, but he is eating so there is still hope, even if he very weak right now, he hasn't given up yet.
In my last post I told you about the moose we got from Prince George that had a large hernia. We decided to give surgery a go, seeing as her chances of survival without it were zero, she would have died and we wanted to do everything we could to prevent that. Miraculously she woke up from the surgery and recovered from the sedation very well. However not long after she started refusing milk and it all went downhill. Sadly she also passed away at around 10am this morning. During the last few hours we spent with her, we decided to name her Trooper after her fighting spirit.
Honestly, I have spent most of the past day crying. I was bottle feeding Trooper every three hours. Even during the night, waking up and midnight, 3am and again at 6am to ensure she never went hungry. Sometimes it was a struggle and sometimes she happily drank. I spent a lot of time just sitting with her, playing with her and trying to help with that feeling of loneliness that many orphaned animals have to deal with. For the five days I cared for Trooper I became very attached and it has been extremely hard to let her go.
There is a quote, from a show called Code Geass, which articulates that if happiness were to resemble a physical object it would be that of glass as it is often all around you, yet invisible, you merely have to change your perspective a little to see it. I often find myself thinking about this quote and the truth behind it. I also find myself thinking similarly in terms of other emotions and given my current situation I propose that if happiness resembles glass then sadness must resemble the bricks surrounding that glass in a window. Without those bricks the glass could not stay supported - It is the sadness in life that brings meaning to the happy times and never have I seen this more in losing an animal that I was caring for.With the terrible sadness I felt upon learning that Trooper didn't survive I am able to value the fact that the other animals did. We have already released nine bears, two foxes, two owls and a hawk back into the wild. We have more bears, a deer, a hare, a goose and a whole bunch of ducks that have a great chance of being released within the next year and continue their lives where they should be - In the wild.
I apologise for getting sentimental and for writing such a depressing post, but it's not really in my capacity to write about much else at the moment. I hope that normal service will resume next time, but for now all that's left to say is rest in peace, Trooper and Rocky.
Showing posts with label moose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moose. Show all posts
Monday, 16 June 2014
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Animals everywhere
When they said that spring time at a wildlife shelter can get pretty busy, they really weren't kidding.
Our bear cub count is now up to six. Norman, Jo and Fisher have been joined by Artio, a black and brown cub from just down the road, who was found wandering around on a neighbour's driveway all alone. Maya, an extremely small and very quiet cub from Vanderhoof and a still unnamed male cub from Prince George. Feeding time is more than a bit chaotic right now as they are all on milk and will often try to steal milk from another bears bowl leading to a few scuffles each night.
We also got the first moose of the season in a few days ago from Prince George. She is very small, and at most only two or three days old. Conservation officers found her drowning in a ditch and we picked her up. She is drinking milk well and seems quite alert. However we discovered a large lump on her right side during our initial check up. Upon further inspection by a vet, we learnt that she has a very large abdominal hernia. It doesn't seem to be causing her any discomfort and the hole is quite large so the vet doesn't think she is at risk of any pinching of the guts. Surgery is an option, however there are risks. Moose are already extremely sensitive to sedation and with this moose being so young surgery isn't a guarantee of survival. The vet suggested that we could try to push the lump back in and wrap a tight bandage around her middle to hold it and hope that it heals by itself. In the meantime i'm having a great time bottle feeding, she needs to be fed every three hours, so we share the job between the three volunteers to ensure we at least get some sleep.
Just yesterday we picked up our first deer as well. A concerned neighbour had been watching it all afternoon and when no mum came back to it we were called to investigate. The deer is around 2 days old, very weak and has an infection in the right eye. He has been put on the same feeding schedule as the moose and we administered eye drops to try and clear the infection.
We also packed up five more bears to be released and as I write this the shelter owners are continuing their drive right to the BC/America border to release one of them. All the bears we rehab are released into the same region from where they came. There hasn't been much study into the genetics of black bears and we don't want to mix gene pools to be on the safe side. This does mean however that we have to drive thousands of miles each spring to take them back. In just a few weeks time I will be going to the Queen Charlotte islands to release our last bear from last year, Zippy. That is a five hour drive, followed by a seven hour ferry and another hour drive to reach.
Our bear cub count is now up to six. Norman, Jo and Fisher have been joined by Artio, a black and brown cub from just down the road, who was found wandering around on a neighbour's driveway all alone. Maya, an extremely small and very quiet cub from Vanderhoof and a still unnamed male cub from Prince George. Feeding time is more than a bit chaotic right now as they are all on milk and will often try to steal milk from another bears bowl leading to a few scuffles each night.
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| Artio |
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| Maya |
We also got the first moose of the season in a few days ago from Prince George. She is very small, and at most only two or three days old. Conservation officers found her drowning in a ditch and we picked her up. She is drinking milk well and seems quite alert. However we discovered a large lump on her right side during our initial check up. Upon further inspection by a vet, we learnt that she has a very large abdominal hernia. It doesn't seem to be causing her any discomfort and the hole is quite large so the vet doesn't think she is at risk of any pinching of the guts. Surgery is an option, however there are risks. Moose are already extremely sensitive to sedation and with this moose being so young surgery isn't a guarantee of survival. The vet suggested that we could try to push the lump back in and wrap a tight bandage around her middle to hold it and hope that it heals by itself. In the meantime i'm having a great time bottle feeding, she needs to be fed every three hours, so we share the job between the three volunteers to ensure we at least get some sleep.
Just yesterday we picked up our first deer as well. A concerned neighbour had been watching it all afternoon and when no mum came back to it we were called to investigate. The deer is around 2 days old, very weak and has an infection in the right eye. He has been put on the same feeding schedule as the moose and we administered eye drops to try and clear the infection.
We also packed up five more bears to be released and as I write this the shelter owners are continuing their drive right to the BC/America border to release one of them. All the bears we rehab are released into the same region from where they came. There hasn't been much study into the genetics of black bears and we don't want to mix gene pools to be on the safe side. This does mean however that we have to drive thousands of miles each spring to take them back. In just a few weeks time I will be going to the Queen Charlotte islands to release our last bear from last year, Zippy. That is a five hour drive, followed by a seven hour ferry and another hour drive to reach.
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| What a truck, loaded with 5 bears, looks like |
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Just how do you deal with a pissed off moose?
One of my favourite parts of working at the shelter is going up to feed the moose and deer each evening. I never thought I would get to be so up close to wild moose and honestly i'm not even going to lie - it's pretty amazing.
I think a lot of people don't realise how big moose can be. Let me try and put it into perspective. The biggest moose I have dealt with is Bully he was rehabbed at the shelter in 2011, meaning he is now only 3 years old, he came back this winter (as many previous moose do) because we put out food to help them as it's so cold and food is so scarce. While we feed up on the hill there are many wild deer that also come to eat, these fully grown deer can walk underneath Bully with the fur on their back just lightly brushing the fur on his underside. Bully is big! He also has shovel antlers, very big shovel antlers, one of them actually fell off a few weeks ago and it seems we were having a spell of good luck as it fell off right by the feeding station meaning we were easily able to pick it up and it will be painted and maybe engraved with Bully's name and the date he lost the antler and put in the volunteer quarters.
Another moose I deal with frequently is Gilbert. He is another male who was rehabbed previously at the shelter, he is younger and slightly smaller than Bully. He also has these tiny little adorable mini shovels, seriously they are too cute! He was however quite aggressive. I have seen him rear up on his hind legs and kick at deer, other moose, even our quad a few too many times. I say was aggressive because we fixed this. I quickly developed what I like to call my 'stern voice' that I would use to basically shout at Gilbert when he would come running towards me. I would stick to my path, walk towards him with confidence shouting 'NO' and he quickly learnt to back off and have some respect, otherwise he would receive a smack to the nose. So essentially what i'm trying to say is don't get on my wrong side once i'm back in England! Dealing with angry moose was a common occurrence and i'm pretty good at scaring them away now.
The deer are also lovely to feed and spend time with. Many of the wild deer are understandably very skittish and try to keep their distance. There are however two shelter deer from previous years that don't mind saying hello. Bella and Ping, they both have little numbered ear tags so we can tell them apart. There is also another deer, that has a government issue ear tag, not a shelter one, but is the friendliest deer in the world it seems. She adores cuddles and usually just follows me around while I spread the food out until I give her some attention. Pretty cool for an evenings work i'd say!
I think a lot of people don't realise how big moose can be. Let me try and put it into perspective. The biggest moose I have dealt with is Bully he was rehabbed at the shelter in 2011, meaning he is now only 3 years old, he came back this winter (as many previous moose do) because we put out food to help them as it's so cold and food is so scarce. While we feed up on the hill there are many wild deer that also come to eat, these fully grown deer can walk underneath Bully with the fur on their back just lightly brushing the fur on his underside. Bully is big! He also has shovel antlers, very big shovel antlers, one of them actually fell off a few weeks ago and it seems we were having a spell of good luck as it fell off right by the feeding station meaning we were easily able to pick it up and it will be painted and maybe engraved with Bully's name and the date he lost the antler and put in the volunteer quarters.
Another moose I deal with frequently is Gilbert. He is another male who was rehabbed previously at the shelter, he is younger and slightly smaller than Bully. He also has these tiny little adorable mini shovels, seriously they are too cute! He was however quite aggressive. I have seen him rear up on his hind legs and kick at deer, other moose, even our quad a few too many times. I say was aggressive because we fixed this. I quickly developed what I like to call my 'stern voice' that I would use to basically shout at Gilbert when he would come running towards me. I would stick to my path, walk towards him with confidence shouting 'NO' and he quickly learnt to back off and have some respect, otherwise he would receive a smack to the nose. So essentially what i'm trying to say is don't get on my wrong side once i'm back in England! Dealing with angry moose was a common occurrence and i'm pretty good at scaring them away now.
The deer are also lovely to feed and spend time with. Many of the wild deer are understandably very skittish and try to keep their distance. There are however two shelter deer from previous years that don't mind saying hello. Bella and Ping, they both have little numbered ear tags so we can tell them apart. There is also another deer, that has a government issue ear tag, not a shelter one, but is the friendliest deer in the world it seems. She adores cuddles and usually just follows me around while I spread the food out until I give her some attention. Pretty cool for an evenings work i'd say!
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Dangers
Today I was reminded of just how dangerous working with animals can be, whether they are wild or domestic. Of course I am always well aware of the dangers involved with my job, however after many months of calm, it can be very easy to become... complacent . In a related note I also discovered today that horses are terrified apparently, of moose.
Let me paint the scene, it is a usual day the other volunteer and I are driving down to the fields to feed the horses. Everything is going fine, we managed to get Ibis and Raven, the yearling horses, on the halters, tie them to the gate and they are happily eating away at their food, all is well. Until that is, we hear the two dogs barking and yelping, clearly agitated by something. The other volunteer jumps on the quad and shoots off back to the farm to check on them, leaving me with the horses, again all is well. Until that is, I hear some rustling from the tree behind me and I see Baby and Belle the two baby moose we are raising here making their way through the trees. All the horses, the 30 or so in the field and the two girls, flip out when the moose appear. The horses in the field start running around, while the girls start pulling at their halters and kicking the gate. Raven slips and falls into the fence, Ibis is freaking out, and I am standing in a field full of spooked horses, honestly not knowing where is safer, in the field or out with the girls. All I can do at this point is scream for the other volunteer to come back. Trying to help Ibis or Raven was completely out of the question, with the way they were freaking out going anywhere near them was way too dangerous.
To make matters worse Jasper the dog, came running down barking at the moose, scaring the horses even more. Luckily the other volunteer heard my screams and came to help. We managed to somehow get the two girls back into the field, and luckily everyone, horses and human escaped the whole ordeal with no injuries.
I'm not going to lie, I was pretty terrified, I am relatively new to working with horses, and the power they have can be pretty scary, so being surrounded by freaked out horses was terrifying to say the least, and being unable to help Raven and Ibis when they were clearly scared was even worse. I felt so helpless, but it was for my own safety that I stayed back, and i'm glad I did as my first instinct was to rush forwards and help.
It was a complete accident, and nothing really could have been done to prevent it. Later when we went up feeding, the moose were back up on the hill, so hopefully this is all over now and it won't happen again, because honestly I don't know if my heart could take another day like this.
Let me paint the scene, it is a usual day the other volunteer and I are driving down to the fields to feed the horses. Everything is going fine, we managed to get Ibis and Raven, the yearling horses, on the halters, tie them to the gate and they are happily eating away at their food, all is well. Until that is, we hear the two dogs barking and yelping, clearly agitated by something. The other volunteer jumps on the quad and shoots off back to the farm to check on them, leaving me with the horses, again all is well. Until that is, I hear some rustling from the tree behind me and I see Baby and Belle the two baby moose we are raising here making their way through the trees. All the horses, the 30 or so in the field and the two girls, flip out when the moose appear. The horses in the field start running around, while the girls start pulling at their halters and kicking the gate. Raven slips and falls into the fence, Ibis is freaking out, and I am standing in a field full of spooked horses, honestly not knowing where is safer, in the field or out with the girls. All I can do at this point is scream for the other volunteer to come back. Trying to help Ibis or Raven was completely out of the question, with the way they were freaking out going anywhere near them was way too dangerous.
To make matters worse Jasper the dog, came running down barking at the moose, scaring the horses even more. Luckily the other volunteer heard my screams and came to help. We managed to somehow get the two girls back into the field, and luckily everyone, horses and human escaped the whole ordeal with no injuries.
I'm not going to lie, I was pretty terrified, I am relatively new to working with horses, and the power they have can be pretty scary, so being surrounded by freaked out horses was terrifying to say the least, and being unable to help Raven and Ibis when they were clearly scared was even worse. I felt so helpless, but it was for my own safety that I stayed back, and i'm glad I did as my first instinct was to rush forwards and help.
It was a complete accident, and nothing really could have been done to prevent it. Later when we went up feeding, the moose were back up on the hill, so hopefully this is all over now and it won't happen again, because honestly I don't know if my heart could take another day like this.
Thursday, 5 December 2013
Meet (some of) the animals
As I have limited internet access at the shelter, and limited time in town to devote hours to uploading photos, I haven't yet been able to deliver on my promise, made four months ago, of having lots of pictures of cute animal on this blog. This, however, is all about to change. I had some spare time today and the other volunteer was nice enough to drive me into town and I had a little bit of time to upload some pictures of the animals I am currently looking after. This is only a selection of those animals, hopefully in the future I will be able to share with you the rest of them.
First off Belle and Baby, the seven month old moose that I have been helping to raise since my first day here. They are now much bigger than in this photo. So much so that I struggle to give them their milk bottles now as I'm not the tallest of people.
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| Belle and Baby when they were still small enough to feed without standing on tippy toes |
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| Belle being silly |
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| Baby striking a pose |
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| Waiting for his daily scratch behind the ears |
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| Patrolling his territory |
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| Just a little camera shy |
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| Am I beautiful? |
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| Looking like the saddest dog in the world in the first snowfall |
In the kitchen lives Felix. A previously feral cat that the shelter took in after finding him at the vets surgery, Whilst he normally looks sullen and moody, he is actually quite playful and loves toys. His claws are pretty sharp though, as I have found out on many occasions.
The shelter also has a sister company in the form of a trail riding and summer camp business. They have approximately forty horses used for trail rides and horse summer camps for kids and teenagers. As well as volunteering for the shelter I also help with the trail riding side. During the summer I would help walk horses in, groom and get them prepared for the rides. I also feed the horses that need extra food every day. Here are just a few of the horses that I have come to know, however with forty on site, learning their names is proving to be quite a challenge.
This is Tonka who is, in my opinion, one of the prettiest horses here. I also got to ride him on my second trail ride.
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| Do I blend in? |
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| Tonka and Ghost |
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| Pixi and Orion (another one of my favourites) |
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| Pixi |
Now onto the bears. This past week we had another new bear arrive at the shelter from the island of Haida Gwaii. The island bears are known for being slightly larger than the mainland bears, so I am expecting her to grow up to be very big, as right now she is pretty tiny. She was found roaming around the airport with no mama bear in sight, so was caught and eventually sent to us. While she was waiting for the ferry over she managed to escape four times, earning her the name Zippy. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of her to upload, or of Trouble, Berwyn or Karhu. However I do have some rather cute pictures, all taken from the NLWS facebook page, of the other five
This is Benny, the first black bear of the season who arrived back in September. We gave the bears a bunch of cardboard as enrichment and they went crazy for it!
Polaris, a brown black bear, was rescued after getting stuck up a twenty five foot hydro pole for 2 days. She was a famous bear for a while, appearing in local news as people desperately tried to help, fearful that she might electrocute herself on the wires on the pole. Thankfully the power company shut of all the electricity and the conservation officer was able to get her down.
The next three are Pumpkin, Rascal and Shawn, triplets from Kamloops. Shawn was named before we had time to assess their genders, it turned out she was a girl, but we decided to keep the name as we thought it was kind of funny. As can be seen from the photos they each have quite a personality and love to have fun, however they, along with Benny, are hibernating right now so won't require our care again until they wake up next year.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Cause for celebration
This past weekend we had a group of university students from Prince George come and stay and help with the final outside clearance before winter comes. One guy knew how to use a chainsaw so we gave him the spare and together we all cleared the dead longs and branches out of the horse field. We then collected all of the waxed cardboard, that can't be recycled, and burnt the lot in three big fires, which I think more than makes up for the fact that I missed bonfire night.
Also while the uni group were here, we got the surprise of our lives as, while up on the hill, a large male moose, with shovel antlers, approached the feeding station. I was told earlier on in the year that as it gets closer to winter the older moose will start showing up, and that we will feed them as food can become scarce as the leaves fall and it turns colder. So far two females have shown up. Mona who was raised here in 2007 and Nikki from 2008. I was down in the kitchen when the male showed up and Angelika came driving down on the quad, shouting to get a bucket of food ready and from there it was all a blur, I grabbed a bucket of food, jumped on the quad and we shot up the hill hoping he was still there. The moose was huge! I learnt later on that it was another shelter moose, Bully, who was raised here in 2011. Apparently when he first arrived he had to be put on an IV drip so seeing him so big and healthy was definitely cause for celebration. It was also incredible news to find out that he had survived another hunting season, as sad as it is, male moose with shovels are 'prime' hunting targets.
Finally, we have another bear bringing the total up to eight. She only weighed 29lbs when she arrived, compared to Bennie, the first bear we got back in September, who weighed over 60lbs when he got here. Angelika said that as we get further along in the year the bears generally get smaller due to the limited food sources in the winter and bears that come in after the hibernation period tend to be extremely tiny! She is currently being kept in the hospital as she is so small, but despite her size she is very feisty. A few days ago I went into the hospital to clean and as I walked past her pen, she bluff charged me. Usually this is meant to be scary and intimidating, however being the tiny furball she is it was more adorable than anything, and the confused look she gave me when I just laughed instead of recoiling in fear was priceless.
Also while the uni group were here, we got the surprise of our lives as, while up on the hill, a large male moose, with shovel antlers, approached the feeding station. I was told earlier on in the year that as it gets closer to winter the older moose will start showing up, and that we will feed them as food can become scarce as the leaves fall and it turns colder. So far two females have shown up. Mona who was raised here in 2007 and Nikki from 2008. I was down in the kitchen when the male showed up and Angelika came driving down on the quad, shouting to get a bucket of food ready and from there it was all a blur, I grabbed a bucket of food, jumped on the quad and we shot up the hill hoping he was still there. The moose was huge! I learnt later on that it was another shelter moose, Bully, who was raised here in 2011. Apparently when he first arrived he had to be put on an IV drip so seeing him so big and healthy was definitely cause for celebration. It was also incredible news to find out that he had survived another hunting season, as sad as it is, male moose with shovels are 'prime' hunting targets.
Finally, we have another bear bringing the total up to eight. She only weighed 29lbs when she arrived, compared to Bennie, the first bear we got back in September, who weighed over 60lbs when he got here. Angelika said that as we get further along in the year the bears generally get smaller due to the limited food sources in the winter and bears that come in after the hibernation period tend to be extremely tiny! She is currently being kept in the hospital as she is so small, but despite her size she is very feisty. A few days ago I went into the hospital to clean and as I walked past her pen, she bluff charged me. Usually this is meant to be scary and intimidating, however being the tiny furball she is it was more adorable than anything, and the confused look she gave me when I just laughed instead of recoiling in fear was priceless.
Sunday, 25 August 2013
Falling into a routine
I have completed my first two weeks at the shelter and I'm starting to fall into a routine, which is nice. I'm also finally over the jet lag, so not falling asleep by four in the afternoon, which is extremely helpful when it comes to afternoon feeding. Due to there not being any bears right now, there isn't a whole lot going on at the shelter, so apart from feeding the animals that are currently here, a lot of the work has been clearing out overgrown areas of land for enclosures and hospital pens to be built in, ready for the autumn and winter where there is suspected to be an increase in admitted animals.
I was talking to Angelika earlier in the week about the lack of bears at the shelter. Just a few months ago there was 34 bears ready to be released here. The lack of bears is very bittersweet though. On one hand It is a good sign that there are no bears, as it means that the cubs that did survive the winter and the disease that is circulating B.C right now are currently healthy and with their mothers and aren't in need of the shelter's help. However having no bears around means the shelter is abnormally quiet right now, which seems strange to the people who work here full time as according to them this place is usually extremely busy, and more than a little bit chaotic at times.
There is still plenty to be done though and one of my favourite tasks of the past two weeks has been feeding the baby moose. They are still quite young so are being bottle fed milk alongside their fruit and vegetables. Although they are only two months old they are already quite big and extremely strong, and can be very pushy if you don't give them their bottles straight away. I had to learn this the hard way when I hesitated and ended up on the receiving end of a very slobbery moose kiss to the cheek!
I have also been learning how to drive the four wheeler, which is like a large quad bike. It isn't difficult, however I have never driven anything before so it was challenging at first and I was a bit terrified of driving into a ditch or crashing into a building. Luckily that hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it never will, although Kim (another volunteer) and I had a close call yesterday when we went on a nature walk. A bear had been spotted up in the hay field so we took the four wheeler up there to have a look. However because the grass was so long it was hard to see where the path was and Kim drove us straight into a ditch and almost turned the quad over, but we managed to save it before that happened. We walked around the forest for around an hour and spotted many field signs of recent bear activity, such as fur tufts on the fences and claw marks on the trees, but no visual on the bear yet.
This weekend has been the annual fall fair in Smithers. It is comparable to the county fairs we have in the UK, however the focus is more on horses. They have many competitions and judges drive in to present ribbons in a whole variety of riding and horsemanship competitions. I got to watch the owners of the shelter and many of the kids here on summer camp show and the shelter won a whole bunch of ribbons, including one champion and one reserve champion, that gives them an extremely good reputation for their horse breeding. I also learnt that once fall fair is over we will be driving to Prince George to release the black fox that arrived here a little while before I arrived. Prince George is "only four hours away" as Angelika put it. To me four hours is a long drive, it only takes me three to drive to university. However the Province is so large that when they released the bears earlier in the year sometimes they were driving ten to fourteen hours each way to ensure they were released where they were found. So relatively speaking a town four hours away here is local, which I find very weird.
I was talking to Angelika earlier in the week about the lack of bears at the shelter. Just a few months ago there was 34 bears ready to be released here. The lack of bears is very bittersweet though. On one hand It is a good sign that there are no bears, as it means that the cubs that did survive the winter and the disease that is circulating B.C right now are currently healthy and with their mothers and aren't in need of the shelter's help. However having no bears around means the shelter is abnormally quiet right now, which seems strange to the people who work here full time as according to them this place is usually extremely busy, and more than a little bit chaotic at times.
There is still plenty to be done though and one of my favourite tasks of the past two weeks has been feeding the baby moose. They are still quite young so are being bottle fed milk alongside their fruit and vegetables. Although they are only two months old they are already quite big and extremely strong, and can be very pushy if you don't give them their bottles straight away. I had to learn this the hard way when I hesitated and ended up on the receiving end of a very slobbery moose kiss to the cheek!
I have also been learning how to drive the four wheeler, which is like a large quad bike. It isn't difficult, however I have never driven anything before so it was challenging at first and I was a bit terrified of driving into a ditch or crashing into a building. Luckily that hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it never will, although Kim (another volunteer) and I had a close call yesterday when we went on a nature walk. A bear had been spotted up in the hay field so we took the four wheeler up there to have a look. However because the grass was so long it was hard to see where the path was and Kim drove us straight into a ditch and almost turned the quad over, but we managed to save it before that happened. We walked around the forest for around an hour and spotted many field signs of recent bear activity, such as fur tufts on the fences and claw marks on the trees, but no visual on the bear yet.
This weekend has been the annual fall fair in Smithers. It is comparable to the county fairs we have in the UK, however the focus is more on horses. They have many competitions and judges drive in to present ribbons in a whole variety of riding and horsemanship competitions. I got to watch the owners of the shelter and many of the kids here on summer camp show and the shelter won a whole bunch of ribbons, including one champion and one reserve champion, that gives them an extremely good reputation for their horse breeding. I also learnt that once fall fair is over we will be driving to Prince George to release the black fox that arrived here a little while before I arrived. Prince George is "only four hours away" as Angelika put it. To me four hours is a long drive, it only takes me three to drive to university. However the Province is so large that when they released the bears earlier in the year sometimes they were driving ten to fourteen hours each way to ensure they were released where they were found. So relatively speaking a town four hours away here is local, which I find very weird.
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