Featured Species
Alberta’s “Other” Woodpeckers
BY NICK CARTER
Alberta is rich in woodpeckers, from common backyard visitors like the little downy woodpecker to the crow-sized pileated woodpecker with its flaming crest and manic voice. But there are a couple of interesting species that often get overlooked.
The Aquatic Songbird: American Dippers
BY MARK BRADLEY
American dippers are plump little birds, 18–21 cm, that weigh about 50 grams (roughly the weight of a golf ball). Both sexes have a slate-grey body with a brownish-grey head, an upturned tail, and flashing white eyelids.
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Butterflies for Beginners
BY NICK CARTER
My experience is that once you’ve been bitten by the entomology bug, you won’t look back. A good place to start, if you are keen to expand your biodiversity horizons, is butterflies. Butterflies provide a good introduction to the world of insects for a variety of reasons. Many species are bright, colourful, and not too hard to find.
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The 20,000-Year-Old Story of the Golden-Crowned Kinglet
BY DANIKA SCHRAMM
The last Ice Age had an enormous impact on Canadian species, in some cases creating genetically distinct populations. To illustrate how geneticists have arrived at these conclusions, I’m going to walk through a real-world example from my own research on golden-crowned kinglets, one of North America’s smallest passerines.
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Deadly Fungus Adds to Bat Conservation Concerns
BY CORY OLSON
While bats have a remarkable ability to manage energy reserves, only a few can withstand the devastating impacts of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease caused by a fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, that grows on bats during hibernation, which will lead to more frequent arousals during the winter, depletion of energy stores, and eventual starvation.
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The Long and Winding Road to Caribou Recovery in Alberta
Recorded Presentation
Speaker: Dr. Richard Schneider
Host: Nature Alberta
Delta Dawn with the Wolves of Wood Buffalo National Park
BY ERIN MCCLOSKEY
Wood Buffalo National Park was established in 1922 to protect what remained of Canada’s wood bison. Today, exactly 100 years later, the park supports a population of approximately 3,000 bison, which coexist alongside their natural predator, the wolf. The core range of the park is quite possibly the only place where bison are wolves’ primary prey.
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Exploring the Amazing World of Ants
BY JAMES GLASIER
Ants are an integral and ever-present part of Alberta landscapes. Besides being resilient, ants are diverse, numerous, and ecologically important. In this article we take a deep dive into the ants of Alberta.
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Action for an Icon
BY RICHARD SCHNEIDER
Why do Alberta’s Caribou Keep Declining, and What Can We Do About It?
Despite the woodland caribou’s high profile and the millions of dollars we’ve poured into research, the caribou’s story is one of progressive decline. Here, Richard explores the key challenges that make caribou conservation so difficult and provides an unvarnished perspective on what needs to change.
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The Recovery of Trumpeter Swans in Alberta
BY NICK CARTER
Historically, trumpeter swans were found throughout Alberta. But by the early 1900s, the species was near extinction, mainly because of overhunting. Through concerted conservation efforts, the population is now well on its way to recovery – an amazing conservation success story.
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