Haliburton Forest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve comprises 275 km² in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario, Canada about 273 km northeast of Toronto, and just south of Algonquin Provincial Park. The park was named after Thomas Chandler Haliburton.

Haliburton Forest is home to many species of fish and wildlife. Within the park's boundaries wolves can be heard howling (both wild Algonquin wolves and the timber wolves within the Wolf Centre boundaries), and you can see bears, fox, moose, beavers, deer, loons and all manner of other wildlife.

[edit] Fishing

Several of the lakes within the park are home to native brook trout and lake trout. Four lakes (Stocking Lake, Dutton, No Name Lake, Wildcat Lake) are known to be naturally reproducing Brook Trout lakes – a rarity.

There are also several bass fisheries within the forest. Among them Kelly and Johnson Lake are easily accessible, while Gadwall and especially Powderhorn pose a bit of a challenge to access.

Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve has published two books by Michael Barnes: Wolves and Haliburton Forest,2004 and Haliburton- Memories of Past Years, 2003.

[edit] Wolf Centre

The Wolf Centre opened in 1996, is home to a pack of (currently) 8 Timber Wolves (Canis lupus). Within the 61,000 m² enclosure (one of the largest in the world), they roam freely, living as 'natural' a life as possible. Fed on a random schedule (approximately once a week), they can often be found hanging out near the view area. Situated near both the highest point in the enclosure as well as the water source, they are often nearby.

The leaders or alpha pair of the pack are Smudge (the alpha male) and Citka (the alpha female), Smudge has recently become alpha male of the pack after the previous one, Ebony, vanished in the enclosure. He is presumed dead, possibly killed by his rival Smudge. The other wolves also include Manitou, Cedar, and Citka's offspring Elwood, Ember, Grimson, Ginger, and Granite. This year Citka gave birth to a litter of puppies that were donated to another facility, but because of Ebony's death the members decided to keep his black phased daughter in memory of the late alpha male.