You would think that living in the belly of the Boreal forest, we’d see wild animals aplenty, but we really don’t. Not the really cool ones people like to see anyway.
Just a couple of weeks ago as I was getting home there was a mink or a martin running through our yard and then across the street to where the school is. Two ravens were flying just above it, darting down at it every so often and you could tell it was terrified.
Thank goodness we are too far north for deer. I can’t stand deer. They’re such a nuisance on the highways. They cause so many accidents and collisions. And they look like giant, overgrown mice with long legs.
We do have to watch out for moose up here, on the highway, although we don’t see them as often as we’d like. Further north there are caribou but I’ve only seen the woodland caribou and they are smaller than the way up north caribou.
In the summer we see black bears or brown bears quite often. The polar bears live up in Churchill which is a twelve hour train ride from here and though they have been spotted south of Churchill, thankfully they haven’t made their way this far south. Yet.
Of course we have a multitude of smaller animals like the large cats, the bobcats and lynx. They are quite a sight to see in the wild. They’re really beautiful.
We also have wolverines which are ferocious little beasts and popular with the trappers.
When our city sprouted out of the ground in the late 50’s, the planners named the streets after all of our natural habitat and animals. Each neighbourhood is named after a species, for the most part. The streets in my neighbourhood are named things like Martin Bay, Elk Bay, Staghorn Bay, etc. I live on Beaver Crescent. There’s another area where the streets are all fish, Pike and Pickeral Crescent for example. And another that is all birds such as Mallard Bay, Spoonbill Crescent.
When I first moved here I thought that was really cool.
We used to be too far north for skunks but they seem to be migrating north and I see more and more of them these last few years. I love the smell of skunk, I honestly do. I’ve got my eye on a skunk fur hat which I may ask Santa to bring me for Christmas. I will definitely post pics if he delivers.
bloom.planted.north 
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