Part of our birthright as Manitobans is living right beside a bounty of wildlife.
VIDEO: See the reader pictures slideshow here
After an interesting exchange with a giant snapping turtle recently, I asked readers to share their tales of our province's wildlife. The response I got from readers proved many Manitobans still value their connection to the natural world.
With readers' help, we now know we have a resurgence of otters, elk, wolves, deer and possibly even wild cats, too. And we have the photos to prove it.
Beavers feature prominently on our list of sightings. Star Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park rose two feet this year thanks to beaver dams blocking the lake's outlet. It's a sign the price of beaver fur has been very low for several years.
Near Minnedosa, Sheila Thiessen had a peculiar look at our national symbol when a beaver waddled up to her truck on the road. "I thought he seemed confused, blind, deaf perhaps," Thiessen wrote.
Chris Petersen has seen otters near his family cottage at Shoal Lake. "Just this spring, my father and I spotted a family of seven otters swimming along the shore eating perch and crayfish."
We have the Dalai Lama to thank for the otters, according to Jack Dubois, Manitoba Conservation wildlife protection manager.
"There's a lot of otter fur used in Tibetan rituals, costumes and things in that part of the world. And there's a short-clawed otter in Asia that's highly endangered. So the Dalai Lama put out the word that it isn't good to use otter fur," Dubois said. "We saw the price for otter drop from $200 to $20 overnight" about two years ago.
Otters are like the dolphins of our rivers and lakes because of their playfulness, curiosity -- try making a squeaky noise at them and see if they'll investigate you, said Dubois -- and just plain cuteness.
We have the deer to thank for the wolves. The wolf population is very high when the pantry, i.e. the forest, is well-stocked with venison.
Neil Woolston recently encountered wolves on the TransCanada about 20 kilometres west of Falcon Lake. "I saw what appeared to be two dogs on the highway. Closer, I realized they were wolves going after a deer carcass on the shoulder."
Deer have become a road hazard, with an increasing number being hit on highways.
But Janice Lucek of Selkirk nearly became the first human on foot to be run over by a deer. She was walking in the 400 block of Sophia Street in Selkirk, when she saw something running down the sidewalk towards her.
"I could see what I first thought to be a large dog running towards me. As it approached, I could see this was not a dog at all but a female white-tailed deer. I immediately stepped off the sidewalk not sure what it would do. I understand any animal can become aggressive if it feels threatened.
"It stopped abruptly about 20 feet away from me and appeared as startled as I was. I said, "It is OK, girl," in a calm voice. It stood and looked at me for a few seconds and then it ran across to the other side of the street, looked at me one more time and fled down the adjacent street."
Meanwhile, Diane Buck nearly ran into a deer -- on Archibald Street in Winnipeg. "All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this deer comes sprinting across the road and I was like, 'Oh my God!' And it runs into Windsor Park."
Manitoba Conservation's Dubois suggested it may be part of a survival strategy of some smart wildlife, choosing to live close to people because predators will stay away.
We also learned from readers that when you least expect it, you may see a wild cat. Art and Cecile Peterson spotted a cougar near Bishop Grandin a few years ago. Leanne Hanuschuk and her family had a similar experience on Highway 314 near Beresford Lake in Nopiming Provincial Park.
"My husband slowed right down, and we slowly pulled up close to it. It was a lynx. It was standing at the side of the road, about 10 feet away, and we stared at each other for several minutes before the cat disappeared into the bush. What a beautiful animal. We were all amazed we got to see a wild cat," Hanuschuk wrote.
We certainly learned a lot more about snapping turtles. Apparently, the Seine River from Winnipeg to the Town of Ste. Anne is an excellent place for spotting snappers. Larry Gillings, a City of Winnipeg River Interpretive Tour Boat driver, invites Winnipeggers to see for themselves by boat.
All the more reason to return the river to its historic flow, which was cut off as part of the original floodway construction in 1968.
Sadly, snappers often become roadkill in June when they try to cross roads on their way to nesting. Do not try to pick one up, no matter how much you want to help. The snapper has a lightning strike ability and can bite all the way to the back of its shell. Its head will fire out with such force the turtle actually lifts off the ground.
You can try shouting and semaphoring to get it off the road, but Michael Tougher says there's a better way.
"Just pick them up by the tail, and hoist them straight up in the air, rendering them virtually helpless. I learned this trick while working maintenance on Ontario golf courses," wrote Tougher.
Some readers report the garter snake is going urban, with reported sightings from Transcona to St. Vital.
Meanwhile, the elk population in southeast Manitoba around hamlets such as Zhoda has grown into a nice little community, said wildlife manager Dubois. In northwestern Minnesota, the state is permitting elk hunting east of the Red River for the first time.
Some of your letters:
Hi, We have seen a cougar in the late spring of 2000 in Winnipeg along the Seine River near Bishop Grandin.
A lynx was in our yard at Lester Beach on May 13, 2002, at 2:30 a.m. The yard light was on, and the lynx was under our bird feeder, probably waiting for rodents.
Art & Cecile Petersen
Hi Bill, My family and I just had an interesting wildlife sighting at our trailer at Nutimik Lake last Wednesday morning. We had popped some popcorn around our fire the evening before and left the bowl with a few kernels left out on our picnic table. About nine in the morning, I thought I heard something.... Looking out the window, I was fully expecting to see a skunk or racoon but was quite surprised to see a black bear with the bowl in his paws licking up what was left. After he was finished he actually walked up and stood on all fours on our picnic table to look around! We couldn't get to the camera fast enough but did get the attached picture. My four-year-old daughter wanted to go and pet him, but we didn't think that was a good idea. He quietly ambled back into the bush within a couple of minutes.
Cheers Darryl Balasko
Hi Bill, We were up at the cottage, Lac Du Bonnet on the Winnipeg River, this weekend, and I was sitting with the rest of my family enjoying the great weather when I heard this odd screeching sound behind me. After a few moments, I got up to investigate and came across a prime example of one of nature's top laws. The screeching sound was coming from a frog, a frog that was being eaten by a garter snake. The frog was trying to escape the snake but couldn't, thus the screeching. Slowly the snake pulled the frog under our cottage while at the same time slowly swallowing it. It was quite amazing... to see a snake with a mouth roughly the size of a dime swallow a frog approximately three inches long and about one to two inches wide.
Elliott High
Hi Bill, My first close encounter (with a snapping turtle) was five years ago. We were sitting in our sunroom overlooking the Seine River when my grandson said: "There's a turtle in our yard."
At first the turtle appeared still. Then her shell went up, her backside went down, and she took one small step. She was laying eggs. When her front shell lifted, a white egg, about the size of a ping pong ball, popped out. Her shell went down, and she covered the egg with dirt with one back leg and moved slightly forward. This continued, alternating legs, until about 30 eggs were laid. She then rested a while and slowly returned to the river.
Two months later, I went to the nest and saw several small things made out of mud. They were the size of Turtles chocolates, but were made of mud. Then one of the pieces of mud moved, and I realized that it was a baby turtle. I watched the 30 turtles crawl from a single hole, sun themselves for a few minutes, then head down to the river.
The mother turtle, the nest, and the hatchlings are so well camouflaged that any or all stages could have been easily missed.
June Slobodian
bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
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