A man who shot a black bear while hiking with a firearm in Jasper National Park has been fined $7,500. On August 6, 2022, Serge Painchaud of Edmonton was hiking with two friends on the Overlander Trail, a popular hiking trail along the Athabasca River, east of the Jasper townsite. The group was hiki...

Bears on the golf course, bears by the creek, bears in the campgrounds. Mid May to mid-June is the time of year when bear sightings in human use areas are common. And although this spring is less hectic than 2022, when two sub-adult grizzlies were using the townsite to avoid larger boars, make no mi...

“Hey Mark, check out these little loons!” Garth, a Parks Canada resource conservation staffer, had just walked into my office. On his camera were photos of a couple of small, black, fuzzy loon babies. Rescuing injured, lost or otherwise needy birds was not all that unusual for Parks staff, but the l...

Grazing happily on the greened-up lawn at a local cabin resort last week, a five-year old grizzly bear was blissfully unaware—or at least unfazed—by the presence of interested onlookers, including photographer Simone Heinrich , who had her telephoto lens trained on the young adult bruin.  Heinrich w...

As grizzly bears are peeking, visitors' excitement for a wildlife encounter is peaking. But so are wildlife warnings in Jasper National Park.  It's spring. Grizzly bears and black bears are out of hibernation and gorging themselves on Jasper National Park greenery. Because that nutritious vegetation...

All over Jasper National Park, bears are waking up…and they’re hungry. Wildlife photographer Simone Heinrich spotted this black bear—her first such sighting of the season—late in the evening, just as the sun was setting. It was snacking on the sticky buds of low hanging balsam branches and not reall...

“Hold on!” the pilot yelled. We had been surveying arctic caribou from a Dehavilland Beaver (often referred to as the best bush plane ever built). This particular aircraft’s “tundra tires” allowed its pilot to land just about anywhere, but our makeshift landing strip would be a real test. The ridget...

Photos by Patrick Barker for The Jasper Local An elk that fell through a partly frozen lake in Jasper National Park was given a new lease on life by Parks Canada staff. An elk fell through spring ice on Lac Beauvert April 17. // Patrick Barker On April 17 at approximately 5 p.m., a bull elk fell thr...

For ruffed grouse, winter in the Rockies can be a grind This ruffed grouse is getting some good lift off to get to those tasty rose hips. But wait, don’t they have wings for that? They do, but…a ruffed grouse’s wing feathers are designed to give them quick and powerful bursts of flight—maybe you’ve ...

“Mark, are you absolutely sure you need more photos of those grey birds sitting on grey rocks?” My wife was in the kitchen of our Jasper condo, clutching a steaming cup of coffee while watching me prep my gear for yet another day of photographing American Dippers. Advertisement inquires: andrea@rave...