The Yukon government has paid $33,950 to buy out the wildlife viewing facility in Carcross, including four animals and the fencing infrastructure.

The purchase included two caribou that were killed one by accident and two lynx that have been transferred to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve on the Takhini Hot Springs Road.

It was to include another $9,500 to purchase a Dall sheep, but the owners of the viewing facility put the animal down just days before the government signed the purchase agreement.

Department of Environment spokesman Dennis Senger said today the department does not know why Chuck and Marilyn Buchanan put down the Dall sheep instead of including it in the sale.

Marilyn Buchanan declined comment.

Senger said the accidental death of a caribou calf occurred April 25 when Environment staff were at the Caribou Crossing Trading Post testing the animals for disease in advance of the transfer from the facility, formerly known as Frontierland.

Wildlife technician Philip Merchant, who has extensive experience darting animals, said the tranquilizing dart was coded for use at close range but exited the dart gun at a much greater velocity.

'And it caused internal injuries that it was not going to recover from,' explain Merchant. Rather than having the dart simply pierce the skin and remain visible, he explained, it travelled through the hind quarter into the abdominal area.

Senger said the animal was subsequently put down, though blood samples were taken as originally planned.

Blood samples were also taken from the Dall sheep and the other caribou, but it could be another two or three months before test results are available, Senger explained.

While the original intent was to transfer the one remaining caribou, in a subsequent discussion, staff felt it would be best to purchase the animal and put it down instead of risk spreading any undetected disease to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve.

Senger said the lynx were not tested, but will be in the normal course of work at the preserve. Merchant said since there were no other lynx at the preserve, and while there are a few known diseases that will travel from carnivores like the lynx to ruminants like caribou and sheep, staff were not worried about that in this case.

In the case of the two caribou and the Dall sheep, Senger said, preliminary tests proved negative for Johne's disease, which department staff were most concerned about.

Merchant said the field test for Johne's can give wildlife officials an indication but is by no means conclusive.

Senger said staff did have some concern about the visible appearance of the Dall sheep. It was, however, planning to the follow through with the purchase the animal and then kill it, rather than transfer it to the preserve, he explained.

In addition to the $5,000 Yukoners paid for the two caribou, and the $2,000 they paid for the lynx, the government paid the Caribou Crossing Trading Post $26,500 for the fencing and other infrastructure used for its wildlife viewing business.

The infrastructure remains onsite but will be removed after the summer tourism season at a cost to be determined by tender, Senger said.

In addition, the government hired a consulting firm for $3,000 to appraise the value of the animals at the Carcross facility, as well as $1,500 to a local engineering firm to appraise the value of fencing and other infrastructure.

He said the purchase of the captive wildlife facility in Carcross is in keeping with a position taken by the Yukon's Fish and Wildlife Management Board.

The board recommended early last year that its preference was to not have any facilities that held captive wildlife, but that if there had to be, then there should just be one, and that it should be owned by the public and not operated for profit.

The Yukon government announced last December it was purchasing the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, or Yukon Game Farm, and all its animals from Danny and Uli Nowlan for $2.06 million.

Yukoners took possession April 1.

It is the intent of the government to put a non-profit organization in place to manage the facility as a wildlife viewing opportunity for tourists and locals, as well as an educational and research centre.

Senger said the Department of Environment has a staff member on-site as the temporary manager during the transition, along with a team of four students, and three contract workers.

Under contract to assist with the transition in ownership is Uli Nowlan, the Nowlans' lead hand of many years and Danny Nowlan's wife.

Senger said formation of the nonprofit organization to manage the facility is the works. It includes locals like Bill Klassen, who once served as the deputy minister of what was then the Department of Renewable Resources.

The government began talking with the Buchanans not long after it announced it had purchased the Yukon Game Farm.