Wild Wildlife

Banff National Park

Tuesday 30 April 2019

It’s fair to say that I wasn’t quite as excited to see goats or mountain sheep as my fellow passengers on the train between Vancouver and Banff. Whilst we were genuinely excited to see bears, we couldn’t quite muster the same level of excitement when goats were seen through the train window. People were so excited that the carriage nearly tipped off the rails when all the passengers, bar us, dived to one side to snap a picture of the animal. The goat, in turn, looked rather non-plussed and went about it’s business of eating the snow encrusted grass.

Nope it was bears that we were interested in. Whilst in Tofino on Vancouver Island, we booked on a boat trip to see bears in their natural habitat. And seem them we did. The Captain of the boat, a small six person craft, was fairly certain we would but couldn’t guarantee a sighting. After a quick journey into the inlet, there it was. A male black bear, scouring the shoreline at low-tide looking for food. It felt like a real privilege to watch, whilst we slowly drifted on the water, to see him going about his morning routine of looking for early spring food. Possibly even a second breakfast. 

Later on the trip, as chances of a second sighting were growing dim, we came across a mother and her yearling , again wandering along the coastline looking for food. Amazing stuff. Or at least we thought so.

Later in the trip I was recounting the sightings to an assistant in a Cafe and she noted that she gets them sometimes in her garden during the night as they try to go through the trash. “Wow!” I exclaimed, adding “Doesn’t that frighten you?”. “Oh, for sure”, she replied, “It makes me think that I’m being burgled.”

It wasn’t quite the reason why I thought she should be frightened. I imagine, and I hope that I never find out, that if I were to come across a 250kg hairy mammal in my garden I’d be less worried about getting some of my valuables being stolen and more concerned about my family jewels being removed. 

It was the same when I mentioned later in the conversation that we’d been excited to see a beaver. “Hhhmm, they such a nuisance aren’t they?” came the response, adding “They sometimes dam the river at the bottom of our garden and flood our neighbours.” Deflated I murmured something about being impressed anyway, particularly as they were much better at damming rivers than I was at their age!

So Canada, let’s make a deal. I’m happy to let you get excited about the sight of goats and in return please let me get excited about large mammals. Providing it’s from a safe distance of course!