In the December 2008 issue of Canadian Geographic, we present our annual package of wildlife stories of the year. Writer Candice Savage heads to Guelph, Ont., to get the scoop on the world’s first park for bees and photographer Stephen J. Krasemann hides out in the willows in the Yukon to snap shots of a late-autumn grizzly banquet. Writer Heather Pringle reveals what scientists have discovered about a 200-year-old boy pulled from a B.C. glacier.

PLUS: see the winners of our first wildlife photo contest and read about Northern Ontario’s puzzling forest rings.

Online exclusive: Top 10s: Animal stories
A year in review: Canadian Geographic highlights the best, funniest and strangest wildlife stories of 2008
By Sheri Gagnon

Hungry as a bear
A Yukon river’s warm waters create a rich microclimate for spawning salmon — and gorging grizzlies
Story and photography by Stephen J. Krasemann

Online exclusive: Canadian Geographic Photo Club
Join us for an interview with photographer Stephen J. Krasemann and get a behind-the-scenes look into a photo shoot for Canadian Geographic.
By Michela Rosano

Plight of the bumblebee
As the die-off of pollinators threatens our food supply, one scientist has found a solution down in the dump
By Candace Savage

Wild things
Canadian Geographic and the Canadian Museum of Nature present the winners of the first Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year Contest

The messenger
The remains of a young man who died on a glacier more than 200 years ago reveal details of his life and times
By Heather Pringle with illustrations by François Thisdale

Editor’s notebook
What we share with bears

Contributors
Meet our writers and photographers

Reverberations
High-fives for five collaborators, Pricing carbon, Later that century, Oasis in the desert, Not quite that cold

Discovery
Mr. Beasley goes to Abu Dhabi, Island in extremes, Forest-ring theory, Tower o’ power, Secret cells, This old house, Mountain management, All wet

À la carte
Blow by blow: 2008 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record
By Steven Fick and Elizabeth Shilts

Reviews
Pork and beans at the apocalypse, The conundrum of time

On the horizon
Nunavut at 10

Mosaic
King of the gourds
Photography by Jeff Friesen with text by Monique Roy-Sole

In Habitat
Late nights in Yellowknife
By Elizabeth Hay