Mammals – Science Articles

A species of marmot unique to western Washington state is rapidly declining, recent surveys confirm.

Wildlife carcasses litter the sides of rural roads.

Infectious diseases have contributed to at least 31 extinctions worldwide and currently jeopardize 43 threatened mammal species.

Large mammals have retreated from four-fifths of the earth's landscape during the last five hundred years.

Bighorn sheep and cougars normally coexist peacefully. But once a cougar learns how to ambush wild sheep, that could begin the demise of a small, isolated herd.

An isolated population of bighorn sheep suffered from decades of inbreeding until the herd was genetically rescued.

The Arctic's warming climate has prompted Alaskan polar bears to avoid using pack ice for maternal winter dens.

Even when two kilometres away, someone riding an all-terrain vehicle can cause elk to head for cover.

Wind and storms affect how deadly wind energy turbines are for bats.

Tall wind turbines that generate energy are killing bats more than birds.

Marine Mammals

Scientists have published results of the most comprehensive survey to date of whales, dolphins and porpoises off the United States' west coast.

Exceptionally high levels of PCBs have been measured in sea otters that died along the California coast of infectious diseases, suggesting that accumulating toxins compromised the mammals' immune systems.

Diurnal variations in the diving behaviour of British Columbia killer whales raises questions regarding the possible effects of boat traffic, distribution patterns of salmon, and whether whales rely on vision for capturing prey.

An assessment of 34 species of seals, sea lions and walrus finds that certain natural environmental factors link with a species' vulnerability to extinction.

Endangered Species

From field observations it appeared that Vancouver Island marmots frequently were not surviving hibernation, causing their drastic drop in numbers.

Wolverines have disappeared from many parts of North America over the last century, and recent research shows that some of the remaining populations continue to plummet.

Hunting took a huge toll recently on the cougar population straddling the international border between BC's Kootenay region and northern portions of Idaho and Washington states.

Forest Wildlife

Mice and shrews living in isolated remnants of old-growth rainforest are smaller than their counterparts in large tracts of pristine forest.

The deep-green coniferous forests lining the valley bottoms of Jasper National Park arise from people manipulating wolves, elk and wildfire over the past century.

Habitat characteristics such as tree age, crown closure and fallen logs, point to how well-suited a forest is for fishers in winter.

The first data collected on habitat use by short-tailed weasels in Canada's western mountains finds they prefer damper forests, with open canopies.

Martens living, uncharacteristically, in a young deciduous forest in northern British Columbia tend to use features commonly occurring in older forests.

New research calls into question previous conclusions that moose in the Rocky Mountains need large areas of mature, closed-canopy coniferous forest to survive snowy winters.

Mountain caribou do not always return to the same forested site each winter.

Grizzly bears and black bears sharing the mountains and forests of British Columbia's upper Columbia river basin keep to different types of vegetation and terrain.