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May 2011

Welcome to On the Wild Side, WCS Canada’s e-newsletter. Through this newsletter we keep our colleagues and supporters informed about the great wildlife conservation work being done by WCS across Canada.

WCS Captures Results | WCS in the Field |Talking Science

With generous support from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, WCS Canada has awarded five fellowships which provide all or partial funding of graduate level field research activities. The research undertaken by these students will be relevant to WCS Canada’s conservation objectives at our two long-term sites where WCS is pursuing various science-based conservation efforts: the boreal region of northern Ontario and the northern boreal mountains of Yukon and British Columbia.

The 2011 Fellowships have been awarded to:

John Benson, Trent University, (PhD Candidate) is examining hybridization between eastern wolves, gray wolves, and coyotes in northern Ontario. His work will help guide wolf conservation efforts in this region.

Kathryn E. Hargan, Queens’ University (PhD Candidate), is developing and applying new approaches to increase our understanding of the Hudson Bay Lowland peatlands of northern Ontario and to contribute important information regarding potential changes to their huge carbon storage function as peatland carbon emissions change in a warming climate.

Shirley Roburn, Concordia University (PhD Candidate), is examining a conservation campaign in support of the Porcupine caribou herd, whose range encompasses a large swath of boreal forest and arctic tundra in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Her goal is to identify those features of a conservation campaign (scientific data, story-telling, artistic involvement, political lobbying) that contribute most to the campaign’s success.

Krista Sittler, University of Northern British Columbia (M.Sc. Candidate), is studying the influences of prescribed fire on habitat choice and risk of predation to elk and thinhorn sheep in the Muskwa-Kechika region of the northern Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. Her goal is to gain knowledge of how often and where this management technique should be applied for conservation ends.

Guilherme Verocai, University of Calgary (PhD Candidate), is conducting an inventory of parasites in woodland caribou across boreal Canada. His work will increase our understanding of the distribution, prevalence and ultimately population effects of these parasites, whose effect on caribou may be changing as parasite ranges shift with climate changes.

WCS looks at climate change impacts on northern ecosystems

Collared lemming WCS Canada’s Yukon scientist, Donald Reid, is one of the principal investigators on an International Polar Year project which has been running for the past four years, investigating the functioning of the terrestrial arctic tundra ecosystem, and the ongoing impacts of climate change. Field work is complete and Don is lead or co-author on papers on the ecology of lemmings, arctic and red foxes, and birds of prey. The research team is producing a Synthesis Report for the entire international project, and a book on the Natural and Cultural History of Herschel Island.

A juvenile collared lemming - Photo@DonReid

Effects of warming

The effects of a warming climate are most clear so far in the vegetation, in changing patterns of snow (earlier melt), in the effects of sea and sea ice on the coast (increased coastal erosion, storm surges and reduced fog), and in tundra drainage (increased permafrost melt). These forces are beginning to influence birds by changing the habitat suitability for various tundra nesters, and putting some coastal nesters at risk. The project’s data will augment baseline data gathering for the upcoming Beaufort Region Environmental Assessment.

Lowlands and forests

Boreal lowlands WCS Canada’s Yukon scientist, Hilary Cooke, is focussing on conservation issues in lowland boreal forest and river and wetland ecosystems, starting with the Southern Lakes region of south-central Yukon. Hilary is leading field research to gain new knowledge of how species use and move within these habitats. This information will be incorporated into recommendations of ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘how much’ habitat should be retained to ensure wildlife are conserved in areas developed for agriculture and forestry.

Wetlands in southern Yukon - Photo @Hilary Cooke

Mining needs planning

In March, Justina and Cheryl gave a presentation entitled: “Mining and Biodiversity Conservation: Out of Africa and into the Ring of Fire” at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in Toronto. This provided WCS an opportunity to highlight conservation challenges and opportunities in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire as well as lessons learned during the development of mines in two WCS sites in the Republic of Congo and Madagascar. WCS’ Global Coordinator for Natural Resources Extraction Ray Victurine and staff from our Congo and Madagascar country programs contributed to the development of the presentation materials.