Winter Wildland at Northwest Trek Deserves a Spot on Every Holiday Season Calendar

It's a Winter Wildland at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, December 26 and 27. Photo courtesy: Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.

 

Submitted by Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

It's a Winter Wildland at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, December 26 and 27. Photo courtesy: Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.
It’s a Winter Wildland at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, December 26 and 27. Photo courtesy: Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.

It’s the season of giving, and animals need treats and interesting items like evergreen trees, wreaths and ice piles to enrich their lives.

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park’s annual Winter Wildland event is coming up December 26 and 27 and it’s not too early to do a bit of calendar-marking and planning for post-holiday fun with family and friends.

Look there! A raccoon shimmies up a tree branch to get to pieces of fruit in a treat-stuffed evergreen wreath.

Over there, a Canada lynx pokes his nose in, under and around a similarly decorated tree, fresh with scents and goodies especially for him.

Winter Wildland is an annual treat for visitors as well as for the animals.

Keepers put their imaginations to work to find materials and create enrichments that interest and engage animals large and small, including omnivores and carnivores.

In addition to watching raccoons, Canada lynx, wolves and other native Northwest animals enjoy these treats, visitors can hop aboard heated trams for a naturalist-narrated tour of the wildlife park’s 435-acre Free-Roaming Area.

It is home to herds of American bison, Roosevelt elk and bighorn sheep, plus moose calf Willow, her mom Connie, father Ellis and a fourth moose. There is nowhere else like it in the Northwest; it’s a cozy outing of animal watching.

Northwest Trek is conveniently located off Highway 161 near Eatonville and is only about an hour’s drive from just about anywhere in the Puget Sound area.

For more information, go to www.nwtrek.org.