Linking landscapes — remote cameras used to monitor wildlife movement in the Crowsnest Pass
The Nature Conservancy of Canada is using remote wildlife cameras to gather information on wildlife movement and help develop management strategies in the Jim Prentice Wildlife Corridor in the Crowsnest Pass.
“There are a lot of issues at play here,” said Emilie Brien, NCC natural area manager for the Castle-Crowsnest Watershed.
“We have animal safety, and protection of the environment, but we also have people safety."
Highway 3 through the Crowsnest Pass is located within a low-elevation valley where wildlife movement is limited by roads, development and human activity.
Animals that try to cross the highway risk mortality or injury and pose a significant safety concern for people that live in and travel through the region.
Brien and a team of 17 volunteers have installed about 40 wildlife cameras throughout the corridor. The cameras are triggered by movement and work 24 hours a day, in all light conditions.
“So we have really good images from the night, from the day, winter, and summer,” said Brien, adding the unobtrusive cameras allow them to observe wildlife behaviour in their natural habitat.
According to the NCC, almost all of the wildlife species in the foothills and mountain regions of Alberta use the Jim Prentice corridor, including ungulates (elk, deer, moose and bighorn sheep) and carnivores (bear, wolf, wolverine and cougar).
“We’re excited to see the variety of animals that have been captured on these cameras so far,” said Jensen Edwards, national media relations manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
“It just goes to show how biodiverse and how rich this area of the Crowsnest Pass is for wildlife.”
Cameras set up in the Crowsnest Pass by the Nature Conservancy of Canada captured an array of animals. (Courtesy Nature Conservancy of Canada)
Monitoring wildlife movements with camera traps will help better understand future conservation and stewardship needs, which will, in turn, result in maintaining healthy wildlife populations in the area.
By pinpointing the areas of highest use, this data will also generate information leading to recommended strategies in mitigating animal and vehicle collisions on the highway.
Besides the risk to human and animal life, collisions along the highway also include costs for damaged vehicles, hospitalizations and highway cleanup. According to the Alberta Motor Association, these collisions are one of the leading causes of comprehensive damage claims to vehicles, with the average claim topping $8,000.
"I think living in the mountains we have such a responsibility to wildlife,” said Monica Zyla, a volunteer with the project.
“I get to help collect the data that will inform good decisions going forward and I am able to go outside to a new place with such purpose and learn more about my own neck of the woods."
Brien said the first cameras were installed in the fall of 2020, and they have added more this year.
Not all of the cameras are located on NCC land; the organization is working with many landowners and multiple partners to make the project happen.
A number of companies have also provided funds for the project, including Canadian Pacific, Canadian Western Bank, TC Energy and TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.
The project is scheduled to continue for three years, which Brien said is important.
“Animal behaviour can change a lot between seasons or different weather patterns, so if we do it over multiple years it will give us a way better idea of what is going on,” she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.