Category Archives: Animals

Animals, Indigenous Nations

In Sheet’ká, Łingít fishers share herring harvests with a surprise influx of grey whales

By Amy Romer, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.

Growing up, Yanshkawoo (Harvey Kitka) never saw many grey whales in the waters of Sheet’ká Sound.

The Łingít (Tlingít) Elder and subsistence yaaw (herring) fisherman recalled harvesting gáax’w (herring eggs) in his territories before “Alaska” became a “U.S.” state in 1959. It was a time when yaaw were plentiful and sightings of whales were rare — just a handful at most.

“There was food everywhere,” mused Yanshkawoo, tracing a slow circle in the air with his hand — a gesture toward the abundance the ocean once held. He sat at a crowded café in Sheet’ká (Sitka), his voice calm but thoughtful.

“They had no reason to come into the Sound back then.” 

But things changed in 2019, when fishers, researchers and community members began noticing an influx of grey whales, an order of magnitude larger than in previous years.

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Animals

Signals in the dark: How Comox Valley volunteers monitor bats against a devastating disease

By David Flawse, The Discourse, , Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In a flurry of wings, six mother bats drop from their roost and take to the half-lit sky. 

“Wow!” says Heather Thomson. “They’re early tonight.” 

Thomson, program manager for the Cumberland Community Forest Society, sits with five other citizen scientists in folding camping chairs near a rural Comox Valley home on June 18. 

It’s a clear, still night, and they’re tucked into sweaters while positioned under three bat boxes.

The six bat enthusiasts are here for the B.C. Annual Bat Count, an initiative launched in 2012 for researchers to monitor bat health across the province. 

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Animals

BC’s sunflower sea stars are now endangered, but rays of hope remain

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Sunflower sea stars clinging to life in BC’s cold-water fjords are officially on the edge of extinction, a scientific advisory panel is warning.

A once-abundant predator of the sea floor along the Pacific coast, stretching from Alaska to Baja California, Pycnopodia helianthoides, has been assessed as endangered by the federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

While disheartening, the decision isn’t unexpected and could offer a margin of hope for the survival of the massive, vibrant sea star, said Alyssa Gehman, marine ecologist with the Hakai Institute. 

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Animals, Politics

‘No end in sight’ for systematic killing of BC wolves to save caribou

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Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The BC government spent a decade killing wolves to protect caribou. Now, critics warn that despite questions about its effectiveness, ethics and impact on the rest of the environment, the government is moving to make the wolf cull a permanent part of its strategy. 

Launched as a short-term emergency measure in 2015, the decade-long wolf cull is a morally outrageous tactic to divert public attention from the root cause of caribou declines — the province’s failure to significantly address habitat destruction — said Pacific Wild co-founder Ian McAllister.

“Wolves are just paying the ultimate price for total government negligence, and there’s no end in sight,” he said.  

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Animals

Biological Wonders – The Quadra Project

Below are six biological wonders that should help to confirm the sophisticated intelligence of nature. They are a mere sample of what we are discovering about the animals and plants that share this planet with us, a reminder that is particularly appropriate since our behaviour has initiated the sixth major extinction event in Earth’s history.

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