A trader and an explorer Anthony Henday stands for A He travelled across Alberta The Cree would show him the way
Anthony Henday came to Canada in 1750 as a labourer with the Hudson’s Bay Company In 1754 he responded to a request from the governor of York Factory on Hudson Bay in present-day Manitoba The governor had asked for volunteers to journey west to find out if the Blackfoot were willing to trap and deliver furs to the Hudson’s Bay Company in exchange for goods such as cloth metal tools tobacco and beads The Cree Natives guided Anthony Henday on this difficult expedition up river and across the land Near what is now known as Red Deer Henday met with the Blackfoot leader and made a fur-trading proposal The leader did not accept Henday’s plan because he didn’t want his people to travel such a great distance from their home As a result of Henday’s expedition expedition the Hudson’s Bay Company realized it needed to build posts in the west if it were to establish direct contact with Blackfoot traders The Anthony Henday Museum is located in Delburne Alberta
B is for Alberta’s mammal the mighty Bighorn sheep surefooted agile hopping cliffs climbing rock face so steep
The magnificent and powerful curved horns on this animal give it its name the bighorn The male sheep are called rams and they have larger horns than the females which are called ewes The rams use their horns to battle other rams during the fall rutting mating season Imagine rams weighing 114 kilograms ramming heads at 32 kilometres kilometres an hour Fortunately they have two layers of bones around the brain which are padded with a spongy mass The bighorn sheep’s main predator is the cougar but young sheep called kids have actually been carried away by golden eagles Some other common mammals in Alberta are the moose which are the largest white-tailed and mule deer caribou black and grizzly bears mountain goats coyotes and elk
