A quieter time of the year at the sanctuary.
Tony Grant has raised, rescued and released a good number of moose at the sanctuary.
Submitted photo
We call this the quiet time of the year – not because we are doing nothing; all the enclosures not in use are being scrubbed spotlessly clean. The entire downstairs of the barn, where baby animals will be cared for, has been repainted and is gleaming white. New enclosures are being prepared. This week has seen huge steel rails hauled up through the deep snow to a back hill where, come spring, a new deer enclosure will be built.
What “quiet” means is that babies are not arriving daily and demanding to be fed every three hours, day and night. The only new babies being born are deep in the caves of the black bear, where the mother scarcely wakes up to deliver the cub and the tiny cub suckles contentedly whenever it wants to. No help from humans.
We do have animals come in. We are getting reports of foxes with mange….we have two live traps out just now. If we can catch the mangy animal, it can be cured and set free again….if we do not catch it, it will die. Mange is a dreadful, slow-working condition. Those we do catch will go free, healthy.
We are also getting reports about deer skidding on the ice and injuring themselves, or breaking through the ice and drowning. These are always difficult rescues. Most often the animal either drowns or dies of shock …we do our best.
Sometimes the OPP or the Ministry of Natural Resources will bring in the body of a deer hit on the highway and killed. They know we have wolves to feed. The wild ravens are enthusiastic at helping to clean up the slightest leftover scrap. Once this winter we had a bald eagle show up with the ravens! I guess word gets around.
One of the saddest arrivals this winter was a cow moose. She had been chased by dogs (up from the city “our dogs do enjoy running free”) – out on to the lake ice, where she broke through. Local people saw it, and tried their best. They tried to get help and couldn’t, so it was an entire night before they phoned. Our staff, armed with ropes and skids went out to see what could be done. However, it was too late. The moose was still in the hole, her head above the water, but she was dead. They managed to pull her out and brought the body back to the sanctuary with them.
I knew Tony was working out behind the barn, so I was not expecting to hear him calling from outside. I went to see what he wanted. And what he had to show me was one of the saddest things I have seen in all the years….the moose had been pregnant. He was holding a tiny fetus, no more than a foot high. Pink – but an absolutely perfect little moose – tiny ears, and round nose, perfect wee tail, perfect hooves. And it would never grow up to run free and wonderful in the woods.
(Audrey Tournay is the executive director of the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary and a regular contributor to the Beacon Star.)