What's new // Raincoast updates
Notes, details, updates and miscellaneous thoughts.
Guest Blog by Anne Casselman at Scientific American.
I land in the Great Bear Rainforest to hit the ground running to report a series of stories for Scientific American on local research on grizzly bears…
By Anne Casselman, Scientific American
Poor salmon runs along British Columbia’s central coast rainforest since 2003 have spurred scientists to gauge the fish’s nutritional impact on grizzly bears…
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
When conservation officers respond to a bear or cougar in a populated area, the animal will usually be shot rather than relocated, says B.C.’s top conservation officer…
Here are a few more of my favourite pictures and moments from this past field season…
Amazing. The most overused word in my current vocabulary. Every day at the Raincoast Field Station has been absolutely amazing. I feel as though every Canadian should have a right of passage of sorts, to experience this coast in person. It’s a place near impossible to translate through photos or words. Its a wonderland of…
Apart from our passion for science, one of Raincoast’s aims is to inspire a wide audience about this very special area of the BC’s coast. In pursuit of this goal, every year we invite a range of guests to come stay with us to experience the area and our work first hand. Some of these…
Often the best gifts are those received when you least expect them. I have been known to be comically talented at not seeing wildlife– when I explicitly set out to view carnivores and other wildlife I am remarkably good at JUST missing them. As such, being lucky enough to be blessed with wildlife encounters when…
As many parents will agree, youngsters have a way about growing up fast. One day, they are tiny; the next day they are taller than you. One day, they seem so new to the world; the next it seems like they run the world. The research crew had one of those observations this week in…
In addition to our research questions, fieldwork provides many other opportunities for learning. Last week, our bear field crew had the inspiring experience of participating in Discovery Week at Bella Bella Community School. During this week, youth discover culture, science, health and the environment through hand-on activities as diverse as seaweed picking, crab fishing, cheese…
After an almost 24-hour trip from Victoria to Bella Bella and a 3-day stint of preparation and decompression, today was the first day back in the field for the BSI (Bear Scene Investigation) crew. Today’s doses of sun followed yesterday’s 50+ mm of rain quite nicely, and made for a great reintroduction to our coastal…
For large carnivores in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest April marks the start of the spring recreational hunting season, and signals a time to start dodging bullets from “sportsmen” wielding high-powered rifles in search of “trophies.”
Island Tides April 7-April 20, 2011
The notion that animal welfare applies to wildlife has escaped most people, including animal welfarists and conservationists alike…