Wildlife Science Articles

While using advances in technology for genetic research, scientists have unexpectedly found new species of animals.

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.

According to recent counts, scientists have described over 1.7 million species of animals, plants and algae.

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

Red-backed salamanders in eastern North America have responded to warming temperatures by losing their namesake red stripe.

The largest analysis ever undertaken of what makes the existence of amphibians most precarious finds a single characteristic predominates.

A four-lane highway has sent two groups of salamanders, living a mere 200 metres apart, down separate evolutionary paths.

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.

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

Endangered Species

Once an animal species drops below 50 individuals, there is little likelihood the species will survive in the wild without help from humans.

Information on endangered and extinct animals, including lists and descriptions of the rarest species, the most endangered species and the losses.

Research into the distribution of land animals in British Columbia, Canada finds that most species whose numbers are declining reside in the southern part of the province.

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.

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

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.

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

Forest Wildlife

Agriculture, forestry and especially oil and gas development have recently flourished across the forested landscape of northeastern British Columbia. In their wake, wildlife habitat has been restructured at an exponential rate.

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.

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.

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

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.

Fish

Fishing for tuna in the eastern North Atlantic took a heavy toll on marine animals during the 1990s.

Many of the larger fish in rivers of the western United States have mercury levels that exceed federal guidelines for safe human food.

Non-native fish are already implicated in the extinctions of five fish species in Canada and they threaten the continued existence of many others.

Forecasts indicate that bull trout will become extirpated from many portions of Alberta's Kakwa watershed within the next 20 years.