Background Articles

Many hikers in Southern Alberta head to the trails in spring equipped with bear spray, singing or saying hey bear, woah bear, to warn the animal they're around the corner. Elders and knowledge keepers from Stoney Nakoda Nations have their own approach, and lessons to share when it comes to co-existence.

The musk oxen attract a lot of tourists, and generate a lot of traffic into reindeer areas.

The big animals that roam Alaska’s largest city are carrying bacteria that cannot be killed by commonly used medicines.

At the world’s northernmost year-round research station, scientists are racing to understand how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing — and what those changes may mean for the planet’s future.

Arctic species are currently under multiple pressures and several are red-listed. Adaptive ecosystem-based monitoring and management applied to the critically endangered arctic fox in Finnmark, illustrates how such pressures can be uncovered and potentially mitigated.

Researchers will be stepping up their efforts to track chronic wasting disease in Saskatchewan's north.

The Copper River Basin in Alaska has experienced less reliable snow and ice conditions in recent years, impacting winter activities such as trapping, hunting, and gathering firewood. This study, based on nine oral interviews with local residents, reveals that crossing rivers has become more treacherous and difficult, with significant changes in ice conditions observed since the 1970s. Decreased snowpacks and increased shrub growth have also posed obstacles for accessing winter trails, requiring individuals to cut through forests. These changes, combined with socio-economic and technological factors, have affected the way people engage in winter activities in the Copper River Basin. Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of climate change's impact on winter activities in Alaska and the Circumpolar North.

The government of Nunavut has once again flipped its position on resource development on caribou calving grounds, now supporting a "prohibition of development within calving grounds and key access corridors, with seasonal restrictions on activities in post-calving grounds."

Questions still linger about what caused the bear to kill a woman and her baby — but more important for Wales is the question of how to move on.

A video of the reindeer on the steps of the wind turbine has caused wonder. Aren't the animals intimidated by wind power anyway? Here are some reasons why it is so difficult to find clear facts and secure figures.

A new variant of bird flu has recently infected both sea lions and mink. Health authorities around the world are now monitoring that it does not begin to infect humans.

Another species of deer has been detected suffering from chronic wasting disease in Manitoba according to the province.

The pack killed all the black-tailed deer on the island and another established pack back on the mainland was preventing their return. Scientists assumed they would die off from starvation.

Research shows Beavers are relatively new to the Seward Peninsula and push farther north as climate change occurs.

The nation's six million feral pigs are destroying crops and preying on endangered species. But the most serious threat they pose is to human health.

Despite the negativity toward using and selling fur, Indigenous people say fur can be a sustainable, respectful and even luxurious material for clothing, accessories and art.

Vancouver Island is known for its predatory wildlife, such as black bears, coastal wolves and cougars. Many towns and villages sit in areas with high populations of predatory wildlife, making interactions with humans often inevitable, unless effective coexistence management is in place.

A wildlife biologist at Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge presented his findings after studying the kill-rate of moose by wolves in the Yukon Flats.

Rain began to fall on the already snow-covered Yamal Peninsula, an Arctic region of northwest Siberia, in November 2013. Rain fell for the next 24 hours.  As rain saturated the snow, the temperature dropped below freezing, turning the precipitation into a thick, icy crust. 

The arctic fox population across the Nordic region has declined for decades, but recent data suggests cross-border cooperation between Finland, Norway and Sweden is helping turn things around. Arctic Fox dens and cub population is highest in all three countries.