Opoyastin: Wolves of the big wind

"Hello beautiful,” a guest whispers as a wolf coyly approaches. A pale, rose-gold light illuminates her raised hackles in the rising sun. A nearly full moon still hangs in the sky. Careful with each step — her paws are like snowshoes on the crusty layer atop deep snow. The hair on the back of my neck raises, too. She doesn’t seem afraid, but she stays vigilant. Humans are not all that common in this remote landscape in northern Manitoba. She digs her snout in the snow in search of mice and looks up again, her nose dusted in white. She stares each of us in the eye, then saunters away. We are decidedly uninteresting, for now.

“I’ve watched wolves for a long time,” says Albert Saunders, better known as Butch, an Elder of the York Factory First Nation and a longtime guide at Nanuk, a fly-in wilderness lodge operated by Churchill Wild on the southwestern coast of Hudson Bay. Though many people are terrified of wolves, he explains, they won’t generally bother you. “Just like any other animal that I’ve been told about by the Elders, you got to have respect,” he says. Wolves that live near communities are scared because they have been harassed, says Saunders, but here on the coast they rarely see people and are curious.

What’s that getting into the swim of things under the icy surface of your neighbourhood pond? Well, a northern map turtle, of course!

While snappers and painted turtles can spend several months submerged under the ice with little oxygen, map turtles can only live for a few weeks at a time. To survive, they need to extract the oxygen dissolved in the water.

For years, researchers have observed map turtles wandering across the bottom of icy rivers and lakes. They knew they must be moving for a reason, but why?

They recently fit 40 northern map turtles in eastern Ontario with tri-axial accelerometers (essentially a turtle FitBit) and logged the data. The devices recorded the movement, depth and temperature of the turtles for the seven months they remained under the ice.

The researchers suspect that small amounts of activity may allow the turtles to replace the oxygen-depleted boundary layer of water on their skin with freshly oxygenated water, allowing them to better “breathe” through their skin.

The RCMP colleagues discuss the Canada-wide 5K fun run in the spirit of healing and reconciliation
By Sarah Brown

Indigenous-guided and community-led, this October’s inaugural One Spirit Unity Run is a story about a powerful vision followed by a whole lot of consultation, collaboration and hard work. RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Demers credits Métis lawyer and podcaster Myrna McCallum for the vision that would launch a Canada-wide 5K fun run in the spirit of healing and reconciliation. It was Sept. 30, 2022, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and Demers was listening to McCallum’s podcast, “The Trauma-Informed Lawyer,” when she had a sudden vision: a Canada-wide event to raise awareness and funds for Indigenous-operated healing initiatives. Over the next several months, she, Cpl. Charmaine Parenteau, who is Cree and Métis from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, and countless collaborators made it happen. On October 22, the One Spirit Unity Run takes place in 11 communities across the country.

Included in the package are two Grizzly Bear Viewing Tours in Toba Inlet – each guided tour is about 6 hours with 2-3 hours on land viewing grizzly bears from Klahoose platforms with Indigenous guides.

The enrichment program will feature our RCGS Travel Ambassador sharing their specific expertise as well as Klahoose’s own local Cultural Interpreter who will assist in guiding grizzly bear viewing tours in Toba Inlet. Immerse yourself amongst local culture through Indigenous storytelling, cedar weaving, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, ocean swimming, forest walks and ocean foraging. Prepare to be transformed as you discover the magic of Klahoose in Desolation Sound.
Meet your ambassador: Aliya Jasmine

Check out these other upcoming trips:
- Saskatchewan Whooping Cranes with Carol Patterson
- Essential Peru with Jill Heinerth
- Egypt Nile Cruise with Joseph Frey