Parc Omega - Day 2

My early morning wake up was actually fairly ideal as we had tickets for a guided pre-park-opening tour this am that boarded at 7:15 and we needed to check out of our teepee before then.   We ate the cinnamon buns I’d brought for breakfast then packed up and headed down to the shower station and then checked out and just hung out for a bit till the bus was loading.

Deer traffic - not an issue on pre-park tour

This tour - 💯 worth it.  Partially cause the naturalist guide was amazing - tons of knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm.  And partially cause the bus was tall enough for both views and photos often unrestricted by fencing.  And definitely cause there were no other cars on the road ;)

Bison are not allowed to wander wherever.  Probably for the best ;)

The animals that are low-risk of endangering people or other animals are allowed to wander freely - multiple types of deer (squirrel note: we learned the odd-coloured deer, seemingly dark brown or conversely albino - like the pic from last night, are actually all just normal - but because natural selection isn’t at work here, the camouflage colour has no advantage and so more colours appear).  

Boars are amongst those allowed to wander as they see fit

So freely walking deer, boars, ducks, Canada geese (which are wild and not intentionally in the park but come for the easy food), squirrels, chipmunks, etc just wander around.   Feeding the deer carrots is actively encouraged and has made for some very pushy deer and interesting traffic challenges.  But also for some great photo ops.   

I didn't get a great photo of the moose, but I did at least get to see them :)

Also learned moose are actually deer?   The largest species of.  Logically that does make sense but is definitely not a thing I clued into before today.  The moose do not wander freely because apparently they are the opposite of social creatures.  The moose in this park were orphaned as babies that the park was called to rescue and raise, not moose obtained in the wild.   Most of the animals throughout are apparently bred there or rescued as orphans.   All seemed to be in very good condition and not showing signs of stress you so often see at these kinds of places.  So credit to them for doing something right.

Mama with two of her three cubs

Had so much fun taking photos of all the animals - I’m still horrendously bad at finding them (I’d 💯 trip over a bear for sure).  The white wolf was about the only one I found easily 🤦‍♀️.    Loved the wolves and the bears - no surprise there.  Even a mama bear w 3 cubs!    

Wolverine

(Squirrel!   What did surprise me was the Wolverines - which to me seemed like little bears.  Apparently fierce and scrappy little creatures that can take down a moose if they need to?!?!   They’re the Tiny Dog of wild animals.   We didn’t see them till after the tour though so back to that later).

One of the few areas that you can get out of your car and walk around

The park is broken into sections w different animals in different sections.  The areas w mostly “safe” animals you can get out and walk around.  The others are in-vehicle only.  Although windows open and feeding deer highly encouraged.    

We paused to let these guys cross the road

The only area we didn’t see anything was the otters - apparently they’ve only just moved in and are mostly hiding.   The guide did stress at every section that it’s up to the animals if they wish to be seen or not, and some days they choose not to come out.   She did have tasty treats w her though to encourage appearing ;)

 

The deer’s velvety antlers were something to see up close.  That was very cool.  Also enjoyed watching them swim.  And saw at least one nursing.  Boar apparently are not actually native, so the park staff have built them huts so they can stay warm in the winter and not freeze to death.   Those, one species of deer (red = very big, imported originally for hunting), and the Preswalski’s horses (Russian, imported because they were going extinct in the wild and live in a similar climate) were pretty much the only non native animals.  

Red?!?! Fox ;)

The red foxes were actually grey 😂 apparently the same reason as the randomly coloured deer.  I really enjoyed watching them, although we didn’t stay there super long.  Also, I think they were in w either bears or wolves so it was almost an extra rather than the main attraction, but they could’ve rated primary ;)

Lots of goats, ibexes, and various other climbing mountain creatures.  I tend to enjoy them as long as I’m not responsible for caring for them ;)

Seen from the wolf viewing centre;
these guys were quite far away, I was lucky to have a long lens.

There was a whole wolf viewing centre where you could see at ground level behind glass or up on a platform looking down.   A couple wolves came to visit during the guide’s talk, and others were within camera range if you looked away from the primary area.   I really enjoyed that part.   

Some great carvings

After the bus tour we had access to the park, so we drove back up to the top end where the walking trails were - it was there that we found the Wolverine section and stayed to listen to the naturalist talk.   As w the bears last night, this was way better than just looking ourselves.   I’m disappointed we missed the birds of prey both days but at least those we’ve seen before elsewhere.   We took the time to follow most of the walking trails, which was really nice out-of-vehicle break.  Wandering around we also saw prairie dogs (which I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen before?) and walked over to the “old farm” which had more normal farm animals and some random llamas cause why not?

Trying to think of what else we saw today but my phone is about to die, so that'll do for now ;)