Parks Canada wildlife specialists Steve Michel and Jesse Whittington will present a program at the next Bow Valley Naturalists meeting about wolf and grizzly bear research in Banff National Park.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Banff Seniors Centre and is free of charge.
Grizzly bears are considered a threatened species in Alberta because of their low reproductive rates, low population sizes, and high rates of mortality near human developments.
In 2012, Parks Canada and Canadian Pacific Railway began a project to better understand factors affecting grizzly bear risk of mortality and to implement management actions that will increase their likelihood of survival.
Eleven grizzly bears were radio-collared to collect fine-scale movement data essential to understanding how bears navigate this fragmented landscape.
Michel will discuss the research program, capture techniques, and will focus on some of the most interesting bear movements of the summer.
Banff National Park has radio-collared wolves for the last three years in an effort to determine how changes in wolf movements and predator-prey dynamics may influence the success of potential caribou translocation.
Also, many of the park’s wolf packs are monitored using remote cameras.
Together these projects have provided us with glimpses into the amazing lives they lead and their fascinating interactions with other wildlife.
Whittington will highlight some of the more interesting research with respect to their movements, dispersal, predation, and interactions with people.
Michel has been involved with various aspects of bear management during his 19-year career with Parks Canada.
He currently is the human/wildlife conflict specialist for the Banff Field Unit.
Whittington is a carnivore specialist for Banff National Park. He has been studying wildlife in the Rockies for the last 19 years.