Wildlife

Where to Safely See Wildlife in the Yukon (Bears, Moose & Caribou)

8 min read

Plan by where you drive, not by species

Most visitors come to the Yukon on a road trip, not on a hunt for one particular animal, so the easiest way to plan wildlife watching is by route. Roadsides are genuinely productive here: drive the highways slowly at dawn and dusk with a pair of binoculars on the seat beside you and you will turn up a surprising amount. The sections below run through the places you are most likely to be driving anyway — Kluane, the Dempster, the Southern Lakes, Whitehorse, the Alaska Highway and the Yukon Wildlife Preserve — and the animals you are most likely to meet at each.

Kluane National Park

Kluane, in the southwest along the Alaska Highway, is the best place in the territory for the high-country animals. Sheep Mountain — Tachäl Dhäl — is named for the Dall sheep that graze its slopes, and the visitor centre at its base is one of the most dependable places anywhere in the Yukon to pick out the creamy-white animals through a spotting scope. Mountain goats cling to even steeper ground deeper in the ranges. Grizzlies range through Kluane’s river valleys and alpine tundra, digging for roots and ground squirrels in early summer and feeding on berries later on; scan the open green slopes for moving dark or white dots and you will spot far more than you expect.

The Dempster Highway

The Dempster is the Yukon’s great caribou road. The Porcupine caribou herd, around two hundred thousand animals, migrates across the northern Yukon, and the Dempster is the route most likely to put you within sight of them, especially in spring and again in autumn as the herd moves. Grizzlies, foxes and raptors are all regular sightings along the gravel, and the tundra opens the country up so far that animals are visible at great distance. Timing and luck matter enormously, but few sights in the North rival a river of caribou flowing across the tundra.

The Southern Lakes

The lakes country south of Whitehorse — Marsh Lake, Tagish, Carcross and the highways that link them — is prime moose and black bear ground. Moose feed at dawn and dusk in the shallow ponds, marshes and roadside willows, and black bears amble the verges in summer eating new growth. In April the Swan Haven site on Marsh Lake fills with thousands of migrating trumpeter and tundra swans staging on the first open water, one of the territory’s genuine wildlife spectacles and an easy day trip from the capital.

The Whitehorse area

You do not have to leave the capital to see wildlife. Red foxes trot through the outskirts, moose and the occasional black bear wander the wooded edges of town, and the trails along the Yukon River and up Grey Mountain regularly turn up tracks and sign. Whitehorse also makes the natural base for day trips out to the Southern Lakes, up the Alaska Highway toward Kluane, and to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve just north of town.

The Alaska Highway and wood bison

The Alaska Highway is the spine of most Yukon trips, and its eastern end holds one of the territory’s most memorable encounters: free-ranging wood bison. The herd is often seen right beside the highway east of Watson Lake, toward the British Columbia border, most reliably in the early morning and evening. These are huge, wild animals and they will stand their ground, so watch them from inside your vehicle, do not stop in the traffic lane, and never approach for a photo. West of Watson Lake the highway carries you toward Kluane, with black bears and the occasional grizzly working the roadside brush the whole way.

The Yukon Wildlife Preserve

If your schedule is tight or you are travelling with children, the Yukon Wildlife Preserve near Whitehorse offers a reliable, ethical alternative to the roadside lottery. Its large natural enclosures are home to muskox, wood bison, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, mountain goats, lynx and more, and a walk or drive through the preserve all but guarantees close, unhurried views of species that can take days to find in the wild. Many visitors go early in their trip to learn what they are looking for, then head out into the backcountry with a far sharper eye. In winter it is one of the few places you can count on seeing animals at all.

Birds worth watching for

The Yukon is a world-class birding destination, and even a casual traveller will notice the big, dramatic species. Trumpeter swans stage on the Southern Lakes in spring, bald eagles and golden eagles hunt the river valleys and mountain updrafts, sandhill cranes pass overhead in noisy migrating flocks, and common loons call across almost every quiet lake at dusk. Bring binoculars and you will add these to your list without going out of your way.

A seasonal wildlife guide

What you see depends heavily on when you come. Use this as a quick planning guide.

Spring (April–May): black bears emerging hungry from their dens, migratory birds and staging swans, moose drawn to green-up along the roadsides, and the first newborn animals of the year.

Summer (June–August): Dall sheep and mountain goats on the high slopes, red foxes, and beavers working the ponds and wetlands, all under nearly endless daylight.

Autumn (September–October): the caribou migration on the move, bears feeding hard on berries before winter, and rutting moose — the most dramatic and the most unpredictable season.

Winter (November–March): ptarmigan in their white plumage, the occasional wolf, fresh tracks written across the snow, and the Yukon Wildlife Preserve as the surest bet for close sightings.

Moose and the September rut

Moose are the largest members of the deer family and, for most of the year, solitary and shy — seen most often at dawn and dusk feeding in shallow ponds, marshes and roadside willows. September is different. It is the rut, and bull moose become bold, agitated and genuinely unpredictable; a bull that would slip away in July may stand its ground or charge in autumn. Give moose far more room than usual during the rut, never place yourself between a bull and a cow, and if one approaches, put a large solid object such as your vehicle or a tree between you and it. Wolves and lynx share the same forest but are rarely seen; hearing a pack howl across a valley at night is a more likely and equally unforgettable encounter.

Watching responsibly

Ethical wildlife watching is not just courtesy; in the North it is a safety issue and a conservation one. Keep a generous distance, never feed an animal or leave food accessible, and store food and scented items securely when camping. Carry bear spray on the trail, know how to use it, make noise in dense brush, and travel in groups where you can. A fed or habituated animal often becomes a dead animal, so the kindest thing you can do for the wildlife you came to see is to keep it wild.