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No two days are ever the same for Dr. Michelle Oakley, the only all-species vet for hundreds of miles in the Yukon Territory in Northern Canada. She could be darting bison by helicopter, stalking wolverines in the wilderness, performing surgery on a bear, or facing any number of new challenges with the amazing animals of the north. Animals - both wild and domestic - are incredibly important to the people of the Yukon, and Dr. Oakley will do anything to keep them safe and healthy.
Dr. Oakley welcomes viewers into her world with her Nat Geo WILD television series, "Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet," as well as with her Saturday morning series "Wilderness Vet," which airs on NBC. Committed to her clients and helping local animals, she often drives hundreds of miles a day through snowy mountain passes in extreme temperatures. Most of her clients live off the grid, sometimes without power or running water.
In addition to the clinic she runs out of her home in southwest Yukon, Dr. Oakley runs her own mixed practice throughout Northern Canada and Alaska, often with the help of her three daughters Sierra, Maya and Willow, who also appear regularly on her TV show. She also works as an on-call vet for the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, and the American Bald Eagle Foundation. She runs specialized wildlife capture and conservation programs throughout Canada, and also in Scandinavia, Sri Lanka and Europe.
An Indiana-native, she earned her undergraduate degree in zoology at the University of Michigan. While studying there, she took her first trip to the Yukon as a field assistant on an arctic ground squirrel ecology study. During that trip, she met and fell in love with local wildland firefighter Shane Oakley, who kept referring to her as "squirrel girl." After marrying Shane, she graduated from Atlantic Veterinary College in 2000 with a doctorate in veterinary medicine, and shortly after that worked for 9 years as the wildlife veterinarian & regional biologist for Yukon's Fish & Wildlife department. Dr. Oakley also interned at the Calgary Zoo, where she regularly returns to provide relief vet services.
