Geographical Location: Canada

June 16, 2021

Oil, gas development changes caribou migration

Woodland mountain caribou in western Alberta change their yearly migration behavior during the winter months in an attempt to cope with increasing habitat loss to energy development. But while the...

June 15, 2021

Vancouver Island faces growing lizard problems

After being released from a private zoo in 1970, common wall lizards are surging on Vancouver Island. “This is a lizard that shouldn’t be here,” Gavin Hanke, curator of vertebrate...

June 9, 2021

Bears that rub trees reproduce more

In bear country, it’s not uncommon to notice the evidence of a bear rubbing against a tree, even if you don’t catch it in the act. Claw marks may be...

May 28, 2021

Polar bears hunt seals along large cracks in sea ice

Polar bears in western Hudson Bay sometimes follow large, linear cracks in the sea ice while searching for prey. Those large cracks, known as flaw leads, can occur between fast...

May 25, 2021

For red squirrels, there is no winning personality

As April Martinig was studying red squirrel dispersal in the Yukon, she got to know the squirrels pretty well. Over time, she found, their behavior was pretty consistent. Squirrels that...

May 20, 2021

Electric fencing put up to deter bears from highway

Parks Canada recently put up more electric fencing in Banff National Park to stop bears from crossing the dangerous Trans-Canada Highway, where there have been several black bear deaths. Staff...

May 19, 2021

JWM: Hog-nosed snakes need sandy dunes for nesting

Saying eastern hog-nosed snakes are a little prickly is probably an understatement. When Laura Robson, a master’s student at the University of Ottawa at the time, would approach one, the...

May 13, 2021

Committee recommends expanded polar bear conservation

The Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee in Canada is recommending measures to enhance polar bear monitoring and conservation. The committee says it is reassessing the bears’ status based on...

April 22, 2021

Bison reintroduced into southern Alberta national park

Bison have been reintroduced to Waterton Lakes National Park after being removed due to a massive wildfire in southern Alberta in 2017.  A herd of bison (Bison bison) were moved...

April 21, 2021

Wolves have been resilient since the Pleistocene

The climate began to change drastically in Yukon at the same time that a new invasive species was spreading across the continent, outcompeting large mammals that lived there and driving...