Grizzly mother and cub in front of the bighouse on the Koeye river.

A bright-spot for bear conservation

On this episode of the Future Ecologies podcast, Doug (Muq’vas Glaw) Neasloss and Kyle Artelle illustrate the issues with the NAM by telling the story of provincial management of grizzly bear hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest. However, they also illustrate an alternative to the NAM, a decolonial model rooted in Indigenous sovereignty that has made the Great Bear Rainforest a bright-spot for bear conservation .

A wolf prances across the ice with all four feet frozen in time floating above the ice, a chart floating in the distance.

Recommendations towards greater transparency in the science, science communication, and values-driven processes of natural resource management

A new paper, published by a team of researchers including Raincoast scientists, dives into the tangle of cognitive bias, institutional agendas, human interests, and pays special attention to the role of undisclosed value judgments.

A rhinoceros and juvenile rhinoceros stand in the brown grass of the Botswana flats.

Evidence, values, policy, and the advance of science

Last month, a group of scientists published a letter in the journal Science that advocated for trophy hunting, arguing that the practice can help safeguard biodiversity. In today’s issue of Science, there are six response letters, and Raincoast scientists (Drs. Kyle Artelle, Chris Darimont and Paul Paquet), contribute to three.  Our team argues that there…

A wolf rests on the beach in the Great Bear Rainforest, with a chart from Figure 1 overlaid.

Research: Publication reform to safeguard wildlife from researcher harm

Scientists from Raincoast Conservation Foundation, University of Victoria, Alpha Wildlife Research & Management, and University of Saskatchewan reviewed more than 200 peer-reviewed academic journals that commonly publish wildlife research, evaluating the presence and comprehensiveness of ‘Animal Care’ requirements of authors. The study, “Publication reform to safeguard wildlife from researcher harm,” published as an open access article…

A giant pile of bison bones loom over a person standing beside it.

Research: Differentiating between regulation and hunting as conservation interventions

Wildlife conservation literature and public discourse, too often gloss over the important difference between hunting and the regulation of hunting. This is so common that there is a persistent, misinformed idea that extinctions have been avoided through the act of hunting. Historically, the regulation of hunting, not hunting itself, has averted extinction…

A collage of images and graphs from a published peer reviewed article on salmonid species diversity and bear health: Hakai, Raincoast, University of Victoria, and Spirit Bear Foundation logos at the bottom.

Salmon species diversity predicts salmon consumption by terrestrial wildlife

Research by scientists at Spirit Bear Research Foundation, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and the University of Victoria, led by Christina Service, shows that salmon species diversity – the number of spawning salmon species available – is far more important and positively related to salmon consumption in coastal black bears than biomass abundance…

Journal of Mammalogy cover for research published on mismeasured risks of poaching due to bias.

Mismeasured mortality: correcting estimates of wolf poaching in the United States

This research tests and rejects the long-held idea that data lost when known animals disappear were unbiased, under conditions common to most, if not all, studies using marked animals. Published government estimates are affected by the biases discovered. And so government estimates of systemically underestimating risks of poaching…

A man driving a boat with the cbc logo on the dashboard.

Wildlife management isn’t rocket science (but it should still be other kinds of science)

Do wildlife management policies in North America consistently rely on good evidence? Do management wildlife agencies commit to hallmarks of science in their methodologies? When governments defend hunting laws and regulations by touting science, should we accept their claims at face value? Listen to Carol Off and Kyle Artelle discuss…