FortWhyte Alive

Summer, for a lot of us, is a time to relax. Routines are more flexible, we schedule time away from work, we try new things, we reflect on the past, in short, summer is off-season for people in many ways.

In nature, there is no off-season. Summer in Manitoba means warm temperatures, long days of strong sunlight, and abundant water—perfect conditions for most life to thrive. A summer visit to FortWhyte Alive is the perfect way to experience this seasonal peak.

A walk down the Carolyn Sifton Trail leads past the Bison Prairie, where the magnificent prairie giants who make up our herd are busy tending to cinnamon-coloured calves. The calves are tiny when they are born in May and June, but by September, will have grown into adolescent animals the size of domestic cows. Through August and September, our local herd begins to act like guests at a school dance; the bulls, somewhat separate and aloof for most of the year, begin to feel amorous towards the cows as bison breeding season approaches. Watch for wallowing displays, and the bull chasing cows, as the summer progresses. This annual cycle has been going on since the glaciers gave up their hold on the prairie landscape twelve thousand years ago. Watching the massive animals go through their annual courtship can be profound, making one feel incredibly tied to the present moment as two thousand pounds of animal rolls in the dust … but in the same moment tied to the past, we humans have been watching this display with awe since long before we had the words to describe the power and beauty of what we were witnessing.

Returning from the bison herd, summer is the perfect time to stop at the Prairie Dog
Town. New studies of other species of related ground squirrels have shown these social rodents communicate with one another using sounds too high pitched for human hearing.

Watch the prairie dogs for a few minutes, as they run to one another, groom one
another, call out warnings and all clears, and then make your own judgments about how much communication is occurring. Animal communications aside, one of the not-to-bemissed spectacles of a FortWhyte Alive summer is prairie dog wrestling—the young of the year jump on and tussle with each other and their parents (or unrelated prairie dogs!), rolling, jumping, nipping and yipping all over their enclosure.

The most visible prairie dog signal is the behaviour biologists have labeled the jumpyip.  Watch for a prairie dog to leap up, lifting it’s front paws in the air, and giving a sharp yelp. You see a jump, you hear a yip … you experience the jump-yip. Jump-yipping seems to be the prairie dog equivalent of “aloha”; it can mean “hello”, “goodbye”, “life is good”, “listen to me!”, or “cheers!”. Whether it is the first time one sees this, whether one is five or ninety-five, it is impossible to see the jump-yip
and not smile and laugh, if only a little bit. “Listen to me, life is good—cheers!”

Readers, I cannot jump-yip for you. My fellow education team members would have a good laugh if I tried, but print being the media it is, my efforts would be mostly wasted. You will have to come and see the prairie dogs in person. I can agree entirely with the feelings of the prairie dogs, though, and hope life is indeed good, and you have the chance to take some time and explore the wonders of summer nature at FortWhyte Alive. Cheers!