Seven caribou calves born in first year of breeding program The Caribou Conservation Breeding Centre has begun achieving tangible results with the birth of seven healthy calves in its first year of operation. Jean-Francois Bisaillon, program manager of the Jasper Caribou Recovery Program for Jasper ...

Staff at Jasper’s caribou breeding facility are gearing up to officially welcome its first animals. The 2024 Jasper Wildfire burned some of the $38 million facility’s perimeter fencing, as well as much of the surrounding forest. Otherwise, however, the centre remained largely undamaged by the fires....

Upheaval and change One of the most successful TV shows of the past several years has been Succession, a darkly funny drama about an exceptionally dysfunctional family of rich “one percenters” and their competition to succeed the ailing father as CEO of a huge corporation. In ecology, the word succe...

This is the time of year when competition is on everyone’s mind. The NHL and NBA playoffs have just ended, the 2024 Euros are underway and the Paris Olympics are just around the corner. Everywhere you look, people are straining and sweating to reach the podium or lift the cup (sadly, my Toronto Rapt...

“Mai, tuktumia’tuit!” That means “Wow, look at all those caribou!” (I think… my Inuktitut has not improved after 30 years of inactivity). It was a cold but sunny morning in late winter, somewhere along the treeline about 100 km west of Arviat, Nunavut. Peter, Joe and I were travelling by snowmobile ...

Three campers and a dog-walker have court dates after hiking into areas of Jasper National Park closed for caribou conservation. Parks Canada law enforcement staff responded to two separate incidents on the same day, according to media spokespeople for Jasper National Park. On the afternoon of Febru...

The first time I saw an elk in Jasper, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones was topping the charts. No, this photo is not from 1965…the author just converted it to sepia tone to make it look "old timey." // Mark Bradley It was 1965, and we were in the middle of a family vacation to th...

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...

A mother black bear and her cub have been captured and removed from the Jasper townsite by wildlife officials. It’s a second-to-last-ditch effort to give these bears a chance at living their life in a more natural environment, said JNP’s resource conservation manager, Dave Argument. The last resort ...

Parks Canada is reminding the picnicking public to remain vigilant in bear country. On Monday, July 24, a family of grizzly bears approached a family of visitors who had just laid out their lunch on a picnic table at Lake Annette. When the bears got close, the people bolted, leaving their food and e...

“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...

Jasper National Park wildlife officials have destroyed a black bear after the animal attacked and killed a visitor’s dog. The animal demonstrated predatory behaviour and showed little regard for being in close proximity to humans, Parks Canada officials said—factors which led to the decision to euth...