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Wildlife
Reports
2008 in
Newfoundland and Labrador
Our Year in
Photos
Welcome to this photo essay by our
staff and guests. Maybe you are considering a vacation to
Newfoundland and Labrador; maybe you are considering a vacation with
Wildland Tours; or maybe you want to enjoy some beautiful nature
images and stories from the past year. Whatever brings you to our
site we invite you to check out the images and further explore.
Checklist of
the Mammals of the Torngat National Park Reserve
by Dave Snow
Banfield's The Mammals of Canada
(1977) and Snow's Land Mammals of Newfoundland and Labrador
(1996) provide lists of mammals found in northern Labrador but these
lists were supported by a very limited amount of field observation.
Harrington (1994) provided a comprehensive synopsis of the available
literature combined with interviews to summarize the fauna and
biophysical characteristics of the region.
Whales and
Wildlife of 2007
by Dave Snow
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During 2007 we enjoyed a wonderful
summer of whale watching and study. All of our guests on all of our
week-long excursions viewed members of the world’s largest humpback
whale gathering together with other marine mammal species. Our Whale
Study Weeks included humpbacks, minkes, dolphins, fin whales, and
sperm whales while our Southern Labrador Adventure featured orcas, a minke
whale, hundreds of dolphins, fin whales, and harbour porpoises. We
collected many scientifically useful photos and company president
Dave Snow co-authored the first draft of Canada’s status report
document on Atlantic orcas. Our tours also worked to document a
number of incidents of orca predation on other whales. Look for our
Atlantic Whales site to feature photos of the white beaked dolphins
and the minke whale calf that were taken by orcas along northern
Newfoundland and southern Labrador. We are continually enhancing
this on-line catalogue of Newfoundland and Labrador's humpbacks and
orcas so that researchers and whale lovers can keep better track of
the local whales.
Land of the
Water Bear: The Torngat Mountains National Park
by Dave Snow
Inuit mythology tells of the "Torngait",
the spirits that a Shaman or spiritual leader looks to for wisdom
and power. “Torngat” comes from this Inuit name and the legends
which hold that in this region the spirit world overlaps our own.
White people have called this area the Ghost Coast and have
commented how the sounds of the winds whistling through the rugged
mountains bring forth the feeling that one is in another realm. If
the earth is home to ancient spirits they would seek out this land
where the rocks are among the oldest on the planet and the landforms
hold an otherworldly appearance. Perhaps this truly is a place of
spirits.
The Last
Place on Earth
by
George Sollish
Roland Huntford, in his retelling
of the 1911 race to the South Pole, described Antarctica as "The
Last Place on Earth" but northern Labrador, the thumb in Canada's
mitten, gets my vote. Let me tell you why.
2006 Wildlife
Report
by Dave Snow
During 2006 we enjoyed a wonderful
summer full of whales, wildlife and cultural adventures. A major
part of all our excursions is the whale research; and 2006 was a
summer of discovery and insight. We established to our own
satisfaction that the Avalon Peninsula of eastern Newfoundland has
humpbacks that visit annually and hang out for the season. While we
see hundreds or thousands of individual humpbacks over the summer,
most continue to swim further north or hang out offshore while
year-after-year the same ~200 humpbacks appear to stay in the
near-shore region for the peak summer feeding season.
2005 Wildlife
Report
by Dave Snow
The year 2005 started with two
giant squid washing up on the northeast coast. Next, we heard
reports of springtime pilot whales at the edge of arctic ice… a
surprising occurrence considering these whales are more commonly
found off the Azores or pursuing summertime squid and herring in the
deep bays of Newfoundland.
Whales of 2003
by Dave Snow
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The spring of 2003 started with
reports of two curious narwhals swimming among the icebergs near St.
John's. Soon these were joined by huge numbers of humpbacks that
appeared to arrive in early June. From June to August, our tour
participants reported excellent numbers of fin whales, minkes, and
humpbacks (we have the world's largest gathering of these playful
acrobats). It was also a wonderful year for spotting whale calves.
It is unusual to see young fin or minke whales but this year there
were obvious calves in the company of adults. The humpbacks had an
especially good year as most of our Wildlife Adventures and all of
our Whale Study guests had up close encounters with curious calves.
We were fortunate to get some great tail photos which are used for
identification and censusing purposes. The mother and calf photos
are especially useful, and we thank everybody who has submitted
their photos to us. It was also a great year for spotting dolphins
on our Viking Trail holidays. The
seabirds appeared to have an excellent summer as our leaders
reported the most fledgling kittiwakes seen since the 1980s.
Orcas of the Northwest
Atlantic
by
Dave Snow
The orcas in the western Atlantic have
received little study. We know they were common enough to serve as a
prominent subject for the art and rituals of the people who lived in
Newfoundland and Labrador 3,000 years ago. The most famous artifacts
taken from Port aux Choix National Historic Site on the west coast of
the island of Newfoundland are orca effigies carved in bone. These
people lived off the whales, seals, salmon, and cod of the rich north
Atlantic as did the orcas they undoubtedly shared the coastline with.
Today orcas are considered to be a rare sight in the west Atlantic from
Nova Scotia south.
Whales
and Wildlife of 2002
by Dave Snow
The summer of 2002 provided some
outstanding whale watching for our crew of Newfoundland and Labrador
whale enthusiasts. Small numbers of humpbacks have always over wintered
off the Newfoundland coast and we enjoyed regular sightings throughout
the spring until early June when their numbers were swelled by thousands
of whales including lots of small calves arriving from the Caribbean. We
saw good numbers of humpbacks -- and icebergs -- along the northeast
coast from the Labrador Straits to our favorite feeding beach at St.
Vincent's throughout the summer. There were also lots of minke whales
about but we saw fewer fin whales and dolphins than in other years.
Whales
of 2001
by Dave Snow
It was an amazing year for whales. Our
first 2001 visit to Labrador had our guests witness the spectacle of
an orca in hot pursuit of a minke whale. While we didn't get to
photograph that fast-moving episode, our luck was excellent for the
rest of the year. Our Whale Study Week and Wildlife Adventure guests
contributed more useful whale tail photos to the world-wide humpback
census than ever before. We enjoyed wonderful weather, great
photographic conditions, and some amazing beach-side shows featuring
the most frequent and best photographed lunge feeding displays in over
a decade. We also saw dozens of frisky humpback calves, some breaching
minke whales, several curious fin whales, and later in the year,
groups of up to 150 dolphins.
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