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Travel & Adventure Guides

Past stories ------ Summer 2006 ------ Table of Contents Canadian Winery Destinations Otters of Kyuquot Sound Fishing in the Prairies Moncton - 3 Great Day Trips Sylvia Forest - Mountain Guide Yukon River Quest Path to Paradise A Century of Summits Mina Hubbard's Journey Tent Buyer's Guide Climbing Della Falls ------ Winter 2005 ------ Table of Contents 10 Best Mountain Destinations Affordable Adventures Spa Holidays Snow Shelters David Marra - The Ice Man Adventure Travel Insurance Tempest in Tofino ------ Summer 2005 ------ Table of Contents Dealing With Mosquitos Search for the Freshwater Sea Girls On Top Journal Astronomy Ottawa - 3 Great Day Trips Seabound Grasslands National Park Sugar Bush Country Hallowed Home of the Haida ------ Winter 2004 ------ Table of Contents Cross Country Skiing Snowshoeing Dogsledding in the Yukon Snowmobiling Winter Photography Mountains as Water Towers Knapsacks Explained Contributors ------ Summer 2004 ------ Table of Contents Thor Peak Rocky Mountain Teahouses Canoeing in Northern Sask. Fantastic Fundy Destinations Summer Stargazing Kayaking the Great Lakes Adele Frizzell - Adventure Racer BC Mountaineering Hiking Shoes Explained Exploring Nootka Sound

Splendour in the Grasslands

By Brock May

Photo: Brock May

It would have been difficult to overlook the badger's distinctly striped, flattened form as it scurried across a gravel road bordering the western section of Grasslands National Park near Val Marie, Saskatchewan. But this was a chance daytime encounter. Every other badger sighting I'd had occurred at night and only fleetingly.

Secretive and solitary, Taxidea taxus is a creature of open landscapes where it can spread its holdings over a one-to-three-square-kilometre territory and prey on ground squirrels and prairie dogs. And it is beautifully designed for life as a digger — heavy-boned, short-legged and with small eyes and rapier-like claws. At first glance, I thought this female was likely heading to its den. Indeed, excavations dotted the roadside throughout the badger's territory and received its frequent attention. Over the days I watched, the badger travelled from one den to another, routinely tidying and maintaining each entrance.

For its size (60 to 90 centimetres long), the badger is a formidable fighter. If it crept toward me, I would pick up my tripod and retreat. When startled, the badger would dive underground, only to reappear seconds later, curiously poking its wedge-shaped head up to survey the surroundings, then emerging and stretching out like a dog in front of a fire.

Grasslands is celebrated as Canada's first national mixed-grass prairie preserve and is home to blue grama grass, needle-and-thread grass, prickly pear cactus and gumbo evening primrose. Yet this ecosystem supports an abundance of wildlife in addition to the humble badger. Pronghorn antelopes and white-tailed deer move across the landscape. Shorebirds and ducks dabble in sloughs and dugouts. Each of the park's few large trees provides a welcome roost or nest site for birds of prey, soaring effortlessly overhead. Songbird music gently drifts on the wind.

Until 1988, the current 478-square-kilometre park was ranch pasture. Abandoned homesteads and hedgerows still remain. The years when humans were making a living off the land were less kind to my burrowing friend. But today, returned to the control of its wild inhabitants, Grasslands is once again the prairie landscape Wallace Stegner described as "a distance without limits, a horizon that did not bound the world but only suggested endless space beyond."

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