CBC North's animal newsmakers of 2018
An albino seal, a beaver-eating lynx and a 50,000-year-old wolf pup made headlines this year
After years of research and analysis involving teams of reporters and producers working across the country, CBC North can now confidently state this: people love animal stories.
Every year, many of CBC North's most popular and widely-read news stories involve pets and wildlife — and 2018 was no different.
Here, in no particular order, are 10 of our favourite and most popular animal newsmakers of 2018.
1. The pup-sicle
This fellow made the news around the world this year, despite being dead for about 50,000 years.
The ice age wolf pup's complete remains were dug up from the permafrost near Dawson City, Yukon, by miners in 2016, but it took researchers until this year to confirm its remarkable age and present their findings.
Researchers said it's the only mummified ice age wolf ever found in the world.
"It's so cute, it's beautiful, it's amazing," said Yukon paleontologist Grant Zazula.
2. The albino seal
Leopa Akpalialuk, pulled this oddity out of his nets a couple of weeks ago near Pangnirtung, Nunavut — a small, albino ringed seal.
They're not unheard of in Nunavut, but rare. And according to Inuit traditional knowledge, they should be respected and not harvested.
The seal was dead when Akpalialuk found him, though, so the hunter put the pink-eyed critter on display at the local visitor centre.
3. Yellowknife's busy beavers
Blocked streams, flooded trails, property damage and complaints of aggressive tail-slapping — this was the year beavers really asserted themselves in Yellowknife.
A flooded baseball diamond was closed for a while, and there was even concern that the N.W.T. Legislature was at risk of flooding, if the busy rodents managed to raise the water level on Frame Lake.
Wildlife officials even started trapping some to move them out of town.
"You just calm them down, talk gently to them, then they relax. When you release them, they just swim away," said wildlife officer Adrian Lizotte.
4. Boars gone wild
Crafty escapes always make for good stories, but few people were cheering after seven Eurasian pigs, or wild boars, broke free from their pen on a Yukon farm last summer.
Some of the animals were quickly found and killed, but others managed to run free for weeks. Experts also warned of possible ecological disaster if a feral population somehow took hold in Yukon.
For weeks, it was an open question whether the last of the fugitives would ever be found. But by summer's end, they'd all been shot.
The farmer was fined $400 and was encouraged to improve his fencing.
5. The dog who hates music
Yellowknife's Mike Mansfield likes to have music playing around the house or even pick up the guitar and strum a bit. The trouble is, family dog Tuk goes bonkers every time.
It doesn't take more than a chord or two before Tuk starts loudly howling and whining. The Mansfields were told by their vet that it's most likely a learned behavioural reaction, so Tuk's now undergoing immersion therapy.
6. Iqaluit's bowhead whale
It was a hunt seven years in the making — and worth the wait.
A group of Iqaluit hunters in several boats harvested a bowhead whale in August — a first for that community since 2011, and only the second bowhead hunted near Iqaluit in a century.
The beast did not die without a fight, either — hunter Brandon Oolayou, who planted the first harpoon, got knocked into ice-cold Frobisher Bay by the whale.
"It was crazy, it was scary. It was more intense," said Oolayou.
The muktuk filled many freezers in the community.
7. The beaver-hunting lynx
Gerry Trudeau of Carmacks, Yukon, didn't realize at first what he'd caught in his camera trap. He thought he just had some cool shots of a busy beaver.
Then, in one image, he spotted a watchful lynx in the background. Trudeau kept his camera in place, and more amazing scenes followed.
Eventually, there was violent showdown between the animals — again caught by Trudeau's camera.
Guess who won?
"It's sad for the beaver, absolutely — but it's the circle of life," Trudeau said.
8. Fluffy, the travelling hamster
Fluffy the hamster from Fort Simpson, N.W.T., apparently had so much fun on vacation in High Level, Alta., he decided to hide out in the family's hotel room as they packed to head home.
Christine Tsetso's family tried hard to find him, but eventually gave up.
Fluffy reappeared for the room's next guests — conveniently, another family from Fort Simpson.
A Facebook post about their hotel room guest found its way to Tsetso, and Fluffy was soon back home.
9. Wandering sperm whales
"They're not known by us, we don't know too much about them," said guide Titus Allooloo of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, after a couple of sperm whales were spotted near his community in September.
World Wildlife Fund scientist Brandon Laforest, who also saw the whales, said it was "really shocking" to see the southern whales so far north, close to freeze-up.
Laforest also said it was a sign that the Arctic habitat is changing, as animals move into new areas to find food.
10. Nanook, the Lassie of Alaska
Amelia Milling of Tennessee met Nanook as she was lying alone and injured at the base of a 100-metre slope she'd just tumbled down, in Alaska's Chugach State Park.
"He showed up suddenly out of nowhere. I thought he was a wolf at first until I saw the bone tag," Milling later said.
The white husky then spent the next day and a half by Milling's side, eventually giving her the motivation to get up and attempt to walk to safety.
Along the way, he even helped pull her from a freezing river.
Milling didn't know it at the time, but Nanook was well-known for his rescues — he's an honourary Alaska State Trooper, and he's even been dubbed "Alaska's version of Lassie."