Look who’s up. Bears are being spotted in Jasper a bit earlier than usual this year. Prints have been spotted on the Pyramid Bench. But how do bears know when it’s time to wake up from their long winter’s nap? Unlike teenage humans, it’s not the smell of bacon and eggs that gets those big boys and g...

Photos by Simone Heinrich , Jasper Local wildlife photographer Although it may seem like this pair of bald eagles are pushing the season, showing up to their Medicine Lake home while we are still snowshoeing to Watchtower Canyon and skate skiing down the snow-covered mudflats below their sizeable ne...

After bison, moose are the second-largest naturally occurring land animal in North America. Nice try horses, you’re imported. Unlike other members of the deer family, moose have no white rump patch. They’re brown all over and darker underneath, according to the definitive guide to the Rocky Mountain...

Local photographer Simone Heinrich found this furry friend at Maligne Lake recently. Red foxes are part of the dog family. In the Rockies, red foxes are solitary during late fall and winter, living without dens in home ranges of 3.5-8.5 km-square, according to naturalist Ben Gadd’s Handbook of the C...

Advancements in monitoring technology have improved markedly since caribou were first monitored by VHF (very high frequency) radio in Jasper National Park in the 1970s. Back then, large, clunky radio collars were attached to a handful of animals in a herd. Using VHF receivers, researchers would hike...

Kendra Neef often finds herself exploring little-known corners of Jasper National Park. “I’m always keeping my eye out for cool stuff,” the local wildlife guide and photographer said. On April 15, very soon after the ice came off of Talbot Lake in the east end of Jasper National Park, Neef’s eye spi...

A freshwater ecologist specializing in Alberta’s native fish says a recently-issued Critical Habitat Order to protect Bull Trout in Alberta does not actually protect critical habitat or Bull Trout. David Mayhood is a director of the Timberwolf Wilderness Society , based in Pincher Creek, Alberta. Ma...

Author, conservationist and former superintendent of Banff National Park, Kevin Van Tighem, wants Albertans to reimagine themselves. At a time when social, economic and environmental changes confront and confound Alberta,Van Tighem, a fourth-generation Albertan, says we need better ways of rememberi...

A local writer and science communicator is taking a deep-dive into the growing world of podcasting. Jasper’s Niki Wilson is bringing her inquisitive nature, vast knowledge of Rocky Mountain biology and love of a good pine marten story to a new podcast series called Anthropomania . Jasper’s Niki Wils...