A Visit To The Upper Clements Wildlife ParkThe Upper Clements Wildlife Park was constructed in 1973 by the department of Natural Resources. Opening day to the public was on July 6, 1973. It covers approximately 1400 acres, 30 of which contain exhibits of wildlife common to North America. The first enclosures for the animals used at the Park were "corn cribs". These were small enclosures that had been built in the late 1970's. They were used for storing corn on farms in the Midwest. They were all made of steel and cement. They would put in a branch or two of a tree for the animals. At the end of the 1994 season there was talk of the government planning to close the Upper Clements Wildlife Park, along with others in the province. Not wanting to loose their park several local citizens met together and formed the Upper Clements Wildlife Park Society. Negotiations were started with the provincial government resulting with the park opening up for the 1995 season under new management. The Society is run by a 12 member Board of Directors that is elected from the local area. They employ one person year round and others seasonally. Volunteers who want to keep the park open for the area complete much of the work. Volunteers man the admission/canteen building, plus the Clementsport Seniors Group tends to all the gardens and flowers in the park. They agreed to merge with the Hanse Society of the Upper Clements Park and join the two parks together in December of 2002. This helped to cut down the administrative cost for both parks. In order to survive the Upper Clements Wildlife Park needed funding for the maintenance of the park, feed for the animals, and new renovations including new animal enclosures. So fundraising and applying for grants was one of the first task. One fundraiser that caught on good and is still done is the Adopt An Animal Program. Under this program individuals, groups and businesses donate amounts from $10.00 to $500.00 to adopt an animal in the park. This money is used for various cost pertaining to the animals. The donors receive a thank you package, which includes specific information about the animal they adopted, a certificate and their name included on the Adoptive Parent Board in the admissions building. Tax receipts are also available and the adoption last for one year. Gift adoptions are available.
The Trails at Upper Clements Wildlife Park Through the dedicated efforts of the local citizens the Upper Clements Wildlife Park has been able to improve both the animals shelters and the walking trails. The new enclosures are built of pressure treated lumber and chain link rather than the cement and steel of before. Visitors now view the animals in a natural setting in a typical habitat. The Upper Clements Wildlife Park features 200 animals today; representing 30 different species. The animals are all native to North America. They have either been born in captivity or were injured and could not be returned to the wild. There is also 10 kms of walking, hiking and skiing trails starting from in the park. One leads to a historical 1802 Mill Site on the property. The same day my sister Judy and I spent at the Upper Clements Park we boarded the shuttle and toured the Upper Clements Wildlife Park also. I may not have the exact order of the animals here, I am working on memory, but I should be close. The shuttle arrived at the admissions/canteen building and stopped to let us off. There were people waiting to board for the trip back to the Upper Clements Park. We enter the building and we are greeted by a friendly attendant who welcomes us and explains some basics of the park. She asks if we have any questions and then wishes us a good visit. They have a few trinkets and t-shirts for sale in here. On the wall is a bulletin board and certificates of those people who have adopted an animal. They also have a few canteen items for sale. This admissions/canteen building was added to the park in 1996. By the door to the park there is a pond/wetland like display with salamanders and turtles in it.
Ryerson Brook Runs Through The Park collected to help with the operations of the Upper Clements Wildlife Park. We continue on. At the top of the hill we come to a "T" in the trail but the signs tell us to turn right. Only a few feet from here are the first of the animal displays. It is the skunks. Don't worry though the scents glands have been removed form these skunks. The skunk is very common in Nova Scotia. Next is the Great Horned Owl, which are also found in Nova Scotia. These are the largest owls found here reaching lengths of 52 - 60 cms. In another pen are the Barred Owls, which is the most common owl in Nova Scotia. They are smaller reaching lengths of 43 to 55 cms. The feathers on these owls are shaped so that when in flight they make virtually no noise. Both of these owls housed in the Upper Clements Park had been injured and could not be returned to the wild. It really is a lovely walk through the Upper Clements Wildlife Park. The trail is very wide and smooth but the woods are all around you. They have left it as natural as they could. Now we come to the raccoon cage. I enjoy watching these little animals; they can be so playful and inquisitive. I know farmers do not agree with me. They can be a nuisance getting into the gardens, hen houses and garbage. The raccoon is also found throughout Nova Scotia. An average male can weigh 7.5 kgs and females about 6 kgs.
Now we come to Canada's second largest rodent, the porcupine. He may move slowly but he can reach a length of 1 metre and a weight of 10kgs. Porcupines are found in every The Snowy Owl province and territory except for Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. This one at the Upper Clements Wildlife Park seems quite content as he rest up on the branch of a tree. We come to a nice area here on the left. This is the Ryerson Meadow Project. Here Ducks Unlimited, in cooperation with the Department of Natural Resources built a wildlife habitat for ducks, geese, beaver, muskrats etc. for the Upper Clements Wildlife Park. There are only a few ducks in there now, but other times I have seen quite a few ducks and geese in here. No sign of the beaver either right now. That is the small drawback to the natural surroundings for the animals. There are times when you may not see all of the animals out, but it is so much better for the animals this way. The Upper Clements Wildlife Park Society have really done a nice job making the animals comfortable in their natural habitat. From here you can also look across the pond and see the moose if she is down for a drink. A few years ago I had a perfect view of her and her baby from here as they laid down in the shade by the pond. But she is not here this time, must be up in her field.
Close by is the Red Tailed Hawk, one of The Bald Eagle Nova Scotia’s most common hawks. They grow to a size of 48 to 61 cms in length. This hawk was also injured at one time and could not be released back into the wild so was brought to the Upper Clements Wildlife Park. The fox dens are next, first the Red Fox and then the Silver Fox. The red fox is found throughout most of North America, Asia, Europe and northern Africa. The fox are all sleeping today. Some are in their dens and some are curled up in a hole dug in the ground where it is cooler. We now come to a couple of wild cats. The first one is the lynx that once roomed all over Nova Scotia. Though they are seldom seen in the wild they are very common in Canada. Reaching weights of 9 - 10 kgs they are larger then the neighbouring Bobcat in the next enclosure. The bobcats are often mistaken for the lynx, however they have shorter legs, smaller paws and they do not have the predominant tuffs of hair on their ears. The bobcat is found all over Nova Scotia and southern Canada.
The Coyote Taking A Rest picture. In this area you will see the start of the hiking trails. The Upper Clements Wildlife Park has 10 kms of walking, hiking and skiing trails. These trails were added to the park in 1994. It would be a beautiful day to go on one of the trails, but we decide against it for today. It is getting late and there is still a lot to see.
There are two black bears at the Upper One Of The Two Black Bears Clements Wildlife Park; Penny and Teddy and it is close to 3 p.m. when they get their afternoon meal. They know what to do, as the park attendant appears they move over to be fenced in while their food is set out. It is put on the top of the picnic table that is in their cage. Once the attendant is finished and out of the cage he opens up the gate so the bears can go get their meals. The bears actually sit at the picnic table while they are eating, one on either side. This is so cute; you just have to come see this. Now we come to the cougar's cage. The new cougar cage was built in 1999 and it gives the big cat much more room and a more natural environment. These cougars are from Western Canada, as the last documented time a cougar was spotted in Atlantic Canada was in 1930. These cats are the largest of the wild cats in Canada weighing in at 40 - 85 kgs and measuring 1.5 to 2.7 m long. The cougar is another one of the popular attractions at the Upper Clements Wildlife Park. We continue up around the bend and leave the cages behind. We are going past pastures now and as we look we can see the Red Deer up on the hill grazing. These red deer are the only animals in the Upper Clements Wildlife Park that are not native to North America. Queen Elizabeth II on her Silver Jubilee donated these to the park in 1978. She originally donated 5 of them, but the herd has grown since. The red deer are a little larger than our native deer weighing from 100 to 250 kgs. We see a sign on the next fence saying Fallow Deer but the pasture looks empty. We look and look and do not see anything it there. Then I spot a head sticking out of the grass way over in the distance. I guess they are all lying down and hidden in the taller grass today.
An Emu Poses For A Picture seen. We watched the chick being hatched and then she put it into an incubator. The Rheas are very similar to the emus. They are a very fast runner, able to out run a horse. They are a large bird, the largest in the Americas reaching about 1.5 m tall. Now this is interesting. After the female lays the egg she is finished with her parenting. The male Rhea sits on the egg and cares for the young after it is born.
The sable island ponies are descendants from livestock sent to the island by Thomas Hancock of Boston in 1760. Do you know how close we came to loosing these A Small Herd Of Sable Island Ponies wonderful little ponies? It was thought they were starving to death and that they were so small due to in breeding and lack of food. The Federal Crown Assets Disposal Corporation put them up for sale in 1960. They wanted to take them off the island before they starved to death. To them selling the ponies for dog food would be better than leaving them on the island. This caused such an uproar, especially from children, that the Prime Minister John Diefenbaker intervened and had them protected. To this day the Sable Island Ponies are protected from any human interference by Sable Island Regulations, which falls under the Shipping Act. They are some of the few remaining wild horses left. There is a shed in the pasture across the trail from the ponies. When we looked in we seen the Caribou and Reindeer taking cover from the sun. These are not common to Nova Scotia but are found in the northwest areas of Canada. They have a heavy outer coat with a tight woolly fur underneath to keep them warm. Now we come to a barnyard setting with lots of farm animals. The Annapolis County Federation of Agriculture has sponsored this area in the Upper Clements Wildlife Park each year. The farmers in the area will lend the park baby farm animals each spring and pick up the grown animals in the fall. There are goats, sheep, pigs and many other farm animals. As we leave there we walk pass a nice grassy area around a pond. Up near the fence there are about five geese looking to see if we have any food for them. They head back to the water after they see that we don't.
One Of The Favorites At The The park had Molly, the moose back in 1997 and they brought in Wally in 1998 with the hopes that they would breed eventually. At two years old Wally was still a very young moose, too young they thought to breed. But he showed that he was more mature than they thought. On May 20, 1999 a park attendant checking out the pasture came across Mollys' little baby. What a wonderful surprise that was for everyone. That was a busy summer for the Upper Clements Wildlife Park as many people wanted to come see the baby moose. At one time moose were very common across Nova Scotia. Researching out the history of this area we see many mentions of the abundance of moose here and hunters coming from all over to hunt them. Due to over hunting and other various reasons they have disappeared from this end of the province. There are still some to be found in the eastern part of the province, in Cape Breton and all over New Brunswick.
The White Tail Deer Come Right Up To From here we continue on back down to the Wishing Brook and up the hill to the canteen again. It had been a great walk through the Upper Clements Wildlife Park. With stopping to watch the bears and take pictures along the way we were only about an hour. We buy a couple of soft drinks and go out to sit and wait for the shuttle to come back. It does not take long and we see it coming up with another load of passengers coming to see the animals. Well that was our visit to the Upper Clements Wildlife Park, it was a very enjoyable visit. I recommend this park for everyone, young and old. We did not go around the hiking trails but I had been on one of them before and I recommend them also. The one I had been on followed the Ryerson Brook for quite a distance and was very scenic. If you would like more information on the Upper Clements Wildlife Park you may visit their website. Make sure you come back to read more about all the many places to see and things to do in the Annapolis Valley. I still have so many places to write about.
Link from Upper Clements Wildlife Park Page back to Attractions Page
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Outside there are picnic sites and public washrooms. We follow the trail that leads us down the hill to the Ryerson Brook. This is also known as the Wishing Brook. This is such a pretty area I just have to take a couple of pictures. Judy hands me a couple of pennies and we make our wishes as we throw them in. The water is very clear and we can see our pennies and many others on the floor of the brook. This money is
Here is another one of the owl family, the Snowy Owl. These are uncommon to Nova Scotia in the winter months. They live throughout the Artic and feed on lemmings. When the lemming population is down the snowy owl will move south for food. These owls are usually 55 - 65 cms tall. 
Ah, the Bald Eagle is next. They are such a majestic bird and big to. They can reach as much as 1 metre in length; weigh between 3 to 5.5 kg. and have a wingspan of 2 - 2.5 m. The bald eagle is not common in many parts of North America, but they are found throughout Nova Scotia. This one came to the Upper Clements Wildlife Park after being injured and couldn't be let back into the wild. Today he is on the ground; usually he is up on one of the branches in his cage. 
The next stop is a large fenced in enclosure with lots of bush in it. Pacing around the perimeter is the coyote. The coyotes were first spotted in 1977 in Nova Scotia, which makes them the newest large mammal in the province. They are now found all over the province. Coyotes can grow to be up to 16 kgs. Just as we are about to go the coyote decides to rest awhile. He lays down right in front of us, so you know I had to take a 
Now we come to the new black bear cage. This cage covers just over one half acre of well-treed land. There is a large pool in there and a log cabin big enough for the bears to hibernate in. The black bear is the smallest and most common of the bears in North America, and the only ones found in Nova Scotia. 
Across from here is another pasture only this time for birds. Yes it is a pasture for birds, because these birds don't fly. First we have an Emu and next to it is a few Rhea birds. I used to have a classmate in college that was raising emus. She invited me down to her place once and while we were there she had a baby emu breaking out of its shell. The shell is large approximately 36 cms around the middle and about 22 cms long. They are the prettiest blue you ever
The next pasture is for the Sable Island Ponies. The Upper Clements Wildlife Park is one of the very few parks to have these sturdy little horses. The only other place to find them is on the island itself. 
One of the main highlights of the Upper Clements Wildlife Park is the moose. A lot of times I have come in and either did not see her, or she was quite far away. Again this can happen in the larger natural surroundings, but it is more humane for the animals. Today we are very lucky, the moose is right up by the fence. She is pacing back and forth on a well-worn path along the edge of the fence. I guess she would still like even more area. You know the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence".
The last exhibit we come to is across from the moose. This is the pen with the white tail deer in it. The white tail deer were first introduced to Nova Scotia in the mid 1890's. Since then they have multiplied and are now very common through out the province. The male white tail can weigh as much as 150 kgs. The ones you see here in the Upper Clements Wildlife Park have been raised from fawns here. 
