A horde of mosquitoes descends on a stoic stone sheep in Northern British Columbia. With every spring comes the masses of biting insects in the north. As someone who is a mosquito magnet, I couldn’t imagine having to put up with this after surviving a long, harsh winter. Just taking this photo made me feel itchy!
If I told you that for the past few years mountain caribou have been captured by nets, sedated and loaded into helicopters and then flown to either awaiting transport trailers or large enclosures on the sides of mountains you would likely think I’m pulling your leg. I wish I was, but for the past several years dedicated teams composed of First Nations personnel, wildlife biologists, fellow veterinarians, and countless others have being doing just that in order to try to conserve some of the most critically endangered caribou herds in British Columbia.
Past and current caribou conservation measures in the province include everything from limiting human access to caribou habitat, predator management and caribou translocations. Talks continue to occur to establish a captive breeding program so that there is a source population for dwindling herds, but while those plans are still in the preliminary stages other intensive caribou conservation initiatives are being implemented. The most recent includes what is termed ‘maternal penning’ of caribou.
Maternal penning involves taking wild, pregnant caribou and placing them in large enclosures in their native habitat for about 3 months. During this time they are protected from predators, given lots of lichen and other high quality caribou food and provided with a safe place to give birth to their calves. Disturbances from people are kept to an absolute minimum so caribou are not conditioned to human presence. The calves are born in May-June and kept in the enclosure for the next 1-2 months until they are strong enough to easily keep up with the herd and to be able to outrun predators like wolves and bears. At this point the mothers and calves are released back into their natural habitat and monitored to track calf survival. Previous application of this technique in the Yukon showed promising results and so the technique was adapted for use in the mountainous areas of British Columbia.
A few months ago maternal penning projects were undertaken for two declining herds in BC. One was in Revelstoke and another near Chetwynd. The later is a unique initiative spearheaded by the West Moberly First Nations in partnership with biologists and the provincial government. The West Moberly first nations have suspended their treaty right to hunt caribou for the past several decades and have recently used this treaty right to drive the process of caribou recovery in their native lands. They created their own caribou recovery plan that met the requirements of the Species at Risk Act, which in turn has led to the maternal penning project that was implemented earlier this spring.
It is too early to say whether all of these efforts will pay off, and some may argue that the resources put into mountain caribou conservation would be better spent elsewhere. In my opinion caribou are just a symptom of much bigger problems that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later. While governments decide on what to do to combat climate change as a result of habitat destruction and pollution, those of us on the front lines will continue to try to treat the symptoms until the bigger issues are finally addressed.
If you’re interested in learning more about mountain caribou click on the below links for additional details.
Mountain caribou herds facing extinction
Alberta government sells off caribou habitat to industry
US government downgrades mountain caribou federal status despite continued declines
Putting it mildly, mountain caribou as a whole are not doing well. Several of the southern and central mountain herds are down to less than 50 animals! In fact, these two populations were just listed as endangered by COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada). The northern mountain population was listed as ‘special concern,’ which is one step away from threatened status.
On my drive up to a conference to discuss current research on caribou I was lucky enough to come across some of these iconic animals along the way. This bull was hanging out near the border between BC and the Yukon, where many bulls were feeding on plants in the valley bottoms. Unfortunately, in the near future sightings like this may become exceedingly rare.
Next week I will post on some of the intensive conservation measures being undertaken to try to save this species.
Having visited Arches National Park before, I wanted to explore some of the more remote areas on my trip in October. After a bit of a hike and a steep scramble up a sandstone formation, I came across this amazing cave with spectacular views over the valley below. The extra effort to get there was certainly well worth it.
With temperatures hovering around -25 degrees Celsius last week, getting out into the mountains was a bit more challenging, but the extra effort always pays off in one form or another.
Powerful, intense, resilient and beautiful. To me the wolf symbolizes nature and wilderness as it’s meant to be.
I took this photo on one of my recent trips into the Canadian Rockies!
Feel free to share and/or comment and as always, please click on the image for the full size!
Cheers,
Owen
I knew after I took this photo that it was going to be my favourite of him, but initially I wasn’t sure if I was going to get it. The marten was moving behind a small hill out of site and I thought he might just disappear into the bushes. But I got lucky and he came up from behind a snow bank, cocked his head back and forth and intently listened for rodents scurrying under the snow. I quickly fired off a few frames and smiled to myself knowing that I had the photo I wanted.
Which of the two marten photos do you like best?
(Please click on the image for the full size)
While pine martens are relatively common in coniferous forests in western Canada, they aren’t often seen since they’re primarily arboreal and when they do come down to the ground, they rarely stay in one spot for long. These weasels are out all year-long, but are generally not as active in winter. They hunt pretty much anything they can sink their teeth into including ground squirrels, snowshoe hare, fish and birds.
This little guy was out bounding through the deep snow looking for breakfast. He stopped a few times to watch and listen for any prey, which gave me just enough time to get a few photographs of him before he disappeared back into the forest.
An adult male grizzly bear plows through 10 centimeters of snow in minus 10-15 degree Celsius temperatures. While the females and young cubs are already tucked away in their dens, these big males are still out looking for food to pack on the pounds so they can compete against the biggest males for breeding opportunities in the spring.
For the past several years I have tried in vain to get a good photo of a grizzly bear in snow. I have run into them as late as December, always either really early in the morning or late at night. All of that changed when this bear lumbered out of the forest in the middle of the day. He wander back and forth following the tracks of a pack of wolves that had been in the area earlier in the morning. Most likely he was trying to determine if the wolves had made a kill. Being the biggest predators in the Rockies, they will follow wolves and steal away their kills through brute force but on this day the bear came up empty handed. With his nose covered in snow, he plodded along weaving a route back and forth through the forest before giving up and moving on.
Well not really, more like hungry birds! These two osprey are siblings that successfully fledged this year. They took to the skies to practice their maneuvers and to compete with one another for the best waiting spot. It takes a few more weeks after fledgling before they are proficient at hunting on their own so the parents would return with fresh fish to give to them. It was always first come, first serve and once one had a fish there was no way they were going to share it!
With the annual elk rut in Banff National Park taking place around the town site, many of the elk end up with ropes, plastic bags and other items tangled up in their antlers. Some require sedation to remove the items, while less severe entanglements like this one can be left alone.
The new antler-wear didn’t seem to bother this elk, but he had bigger concerns. Due to his young age and relatively small rack he was relegated to the sidelines and needed to stay out of the way of the larger, much more powerful and battle harden males. After narrowly skirting around one, he took a few minutes to catch his breath before wisely deciding to move off into the forest.
Over the past two weekends I have been a naturalist for Classic Canadian Tours, which provides polar bear safari day trips out of Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon to Churchill, Manitoba. Many people who would otherwise never have the opportunity to see these magnificent animals in the wild are able to make this trip and come away with a once in a lifetime experience.
This time every year, tour companies are in full swing as the bears congregate around the Hudson Bay. Due to the influx of fresh water and bay currents, the water in the Churchill area is the first to freeze each year. Over a 2-3 week period between late October and mid-November the bears return to this area to sit on the tundra and wait for the ice to form. Once frozen, the bears have direct access to cross the bay and continue to their winter hunting grounds. This brief window creates a perfect viewing opportunity for wildlife enthusiasts and we were lucky to see several bears including this one as she made her way along the tundra during a snowstorm.
One of my favourite moments from these trips was at the end of the day when we were back in Calgary. An elderly man who had made the trip strolled up to me and we chatted while he waited for his family members. As we shook hands and talked about the great trip, he stated that he only took a brief nap on the morning flight out but was otherwise feeling great even after being up for 16 hours! The adrenalin rush of seeing polar bears was easy to appreciate! As he left he proudly stated he was 87 years old and that he hoped I would be able to do such a trip at his age! I couldn’t have agreed more!
An aspen tree appears to take a stand against winter in Sheep River Provincial Park.
It was the worst of times. With the wet spring and summer it was a very good year for amphibians in Western Canada but it wasn’t all great news for them. Each morning I would find many of them squashed on the roads, particularly in Banff National Park. They were too mutilated to be able to ID, but on one of the late nights returning from photographing the night sky I eventually came across one that was alive and well. It was a western toad; a species of “special concern” under the Species At Risk Act (SARA).
I pulled over to the side of the road and got out to take a few photographs. While laying on the road to get the perspective I wanted, a couple with a truck and camper came around the corner in the opposite direction. I used the opportunity to take a photograph that tells the fate of many of these toads on the roads this year. However, I didn’t anticipate the reaction from the people in the vehicle!
As they passed by they must have looked down and saw me laying on the road directly in front of my parked car. I assumed they saw me photographing something and wondering what it was I assumed they started backing up in my direction to find out what it was. I continued taking photos until they were right beside me, at which point I got up. Almost immediately the driver yelled at me that I had just given him the scare of his life! He explained that he thought there had been an accident, that I had been hit or thrown from my vehicle and that he thought I was dead on the road! I apologized several times, but I think he was still in shock because he kept repeating the same refrain. I apologized once more before he slowly drove off towards the campground shaking his head. Not wanting to cause any more concern, I quickly coaxed the toad off the road, got back in my car and drove away.
Owen Slater Photography 