I was driving on a snowy Maligne Road a number of years ago—one of those crisp winter days that make you glad you live in Jasper—when I spied a set of wolf tracks crossing the road. I stopped for a better look, and I had just crouched down to look at the tracks when I heard howling nearby. In my min...

A number of years ago I happened to be driving through Hay River, NWT . It was noon, so I grabbed a sandwich at a local coffee shop and sat myself down on a park bench to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Within minutes, five or six Common Ravens had gathered around me in a perfect semicircle and fixed me wi...

Moose are huge! With a dark-brown body, super long legs, large head with an elongated nose, generous lips and big ears...there is just no mistaking a moose.   Males (or bulls) can weigh up to 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) and grow a heavy set of antlers every year which are shed after the mating seas...

Sweet-smelling smoke curls from a smudge bowl. Outside of a tent erected near Jasper National Park’s Snaring River, alpenglow bathes the mountaintops in pink hues. Inside, an historic ceremony is about to take place. Elders from the Simpcw First Nation and elders from the Stoney Nation cup the wafti...

Parks Canada law enforcement wardens have initiated a poaching investigation after two bighorn sheep carcasses were discovered in Jasper National Park. On Tuesday, October 17, wildlife officials and wardens responded to a visitor’s report of a bighorn sheep’s carcass found near Jasper Lake, off High...

Two First Nations have signed an agreement with Parks Canada to carry out a traditional hunt in Jasper National Park. The two nations, whose traditional territories overlap the Rocky Mountains, are reawakening their relationship with each other and the landscape, said Stoney Nation spokesperson Barr...

A few years ago, I was helping Jasper National Park’s conservation biologist, Brenda Shepherd, conduct a survey for Black Swifts at Athabasca Falls. Black Swifts nest in canyons and even behind waterfalls. They leave the nest before sun up and don’t return until nightfall. Surveying for Black Swifts...

What’s it going to take for Jasperites to start managing their wildlife attractants responsibly? All this fall, once again, bears have been running amok in Jasper. Morning and night—and even in the bustle of midday—bears are darting in and out of residential neighbourhoods, feasting on the easily-ac...

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article said the caribou breeding facility had a $14 million budget. The budget has been increased significantly since that number was first reported and as of October 3, 2023, the investment from the federal government was $38.2 million. Parks Canada has sa...

Parks Canada wildlife specialists euthanized a black bear cub after it was seriously injured in what appears to be a railway incident. For the last four weeks, a recognizable black bear family, comprised of a mother and her three cubs, had been frequenting the Jasper townsite. The family was easy to...