ACTWS' Wildlife Spotlight Webinar Series
Welcome to Alberta’s Wildlife Spotlight Webinar Series, where we explore key conservation and species management efforts across the province. Each webinar focuses on a different species, from threatened icons like caribou and burrowing owls to species needing control, such as wild boar.
Learn about their current status, ongoing conservation projects, and management strategies through presentations and expert discussions. Participate in interactive Q&A sessions to discuss the challenges and solutions in balancing wildlife preservation with effective management.
This series is ideal for students, wildlife professionals, and nature enthusiasts interested in Alberta’s wildlife.
Past Webinars
To watch recordings, please click here.
1. Badgers In Your Backyard - More Than Just Big Holes
For many, badgers remain an elusive grassland mammal known mainly for the big holes they leave behind. Their numerous big holes, or burrows, and associated burrow mounds, can be a concern for those living and working in these landscapes – often resulting their removal. What is lesser known is the essential role badgers play in maintaining the health of native prairie. As an animal that predominately predates on rodents, the badger contributes to regulating populations of species such as ground squirrels, voles and mice. In addition to their role as a keystone grassland predator, badgers create habitat for a diverse array of neighboring species, including over 27 different Species at Risk (i.e., burrowing owls). Digging of burrow networks has many benefits that extend beyond habitat creation such as enhancing vegetative diversity and soil structure, mitigating water infiltration, and improving nutrient cycling. As such, historic declines in badger populations has had a negative impact on the ecosystems in which the badger exists. Finding ways to coexist with badgers will result in many positive benefits to grassland ecosystems and the species that depend on them, both the four-legged and two-legged.
Presenter Bio: Nikki Heim, former President of the ACTWS, is a wildlife ecologist based in Canmore Alberta. Nikki has spent the past two decades focused on better understanding and conserving terrestrial carnivores. Nikki has researched population dynamics of medium to large-sized carnivores, from bears to badgers, and strives to work collaboratively to find applied solutions to improve human-wildlife coexistence.
2. Addressing Human Wildlife Coexistence - A Case Study From the Bow Valley, Alberta, Canada
Human-wildlife coexistence is rapidly emerging as a theme in wildlife conservation. The term “coexistence” refers to a state resulting from a suite of strategies that have successfully balanced the needs of wildlife and humans. These strategies include managing human use in designated wildlife habitats, excluding wildlife from developed areas, and mitigating negative human-wildlife interactions.
Following the 2017 management removal, and the subsequent death, of a well-known grizzly bear frequenting the Bow Valley between Canmore and Banff, a roundtable group was formed to address human-wildlife coexistence issues in the area. A technical working group was also established, and they produced a report in 2018 (available at https://open.alberta.ca/publications/9781460140062) with 28 recommendations for addressing human-wildlife coexistence issues. These recommendations are grouped into six key themes:
Trans-boundary Management;
Wildlife in Developed Areas;
Habitat Security;
Food Conditioning and Habituation;
People Compliance; and
Wildlife Management.
In this presentation, we will discuss how the Human-Wildlife Coexistence Roundtable, the Technical Working Group, and the involved agencies and groups are tackling the challenges associated with implementing the recommendations outlined in the report. The work of the Human-Wildlife Coexistence Roundtable serves as a unique example of how agencies and communities can collaboratively identify and address a wide range of challenges associated with achieving human-wildlife coexistence.
Presenter Bio: John is the Human Wildlife Coexistence Team Lead for Alberta Forestry and Parks. He is a biologist with 30+ years experience working mainly with large carnivores like bears, wolves, cougars, coyotes and Amur tigers. Arriving in Canmore in 1992, John has an intimate knowledge of the local conservation successes and failures as the communities in the Bow Valley evolve, increasing the challenges in achieving Human-Wildlife Coexistence.
3. Beavers, the Complicated Neighbour with Extraordinary Abilities
When it comes to beavers, they are either loved or loathed; however, these passions shift depending on the nature of their interactions. As a key driver in wetland biodiversity and surface and groundwater water storage, they are an indispensable part of temperate ecosystems. Beavers are often described as a keystone species because of their broad influence on food webs, and as an ecosystem engineer given their ability to dramatically change their physical environment, in turn creating diverse habitats for many other species. However, their engineering prowess can negatively impact human infrastructure in costly and sometimes dangerous ways. Increasingly, there is an effort to mitigate human-beaver interactions using cost-effective approaches that provide ecological, emotional, and financial solutions.
Presenter Bio: Glynnis Hood is the Vice President of the CSTWS and a professor and ecologist at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus in Camrose, AB. Her research interests include aquatic ecology, wildlife biology, and human-wildlife interactions. For more than 20 years, Glynnis has integrated her research on beaver ecology with more focused studies of beaver management to enhance human-wildlife coexistence. She is the author of Semi-aquatic mammals: Ecology and Biology and The Beaver Manifesto, and her first children’s book, A Cabin Christmas.
4. Exploring the social stability hypothesis as it relates to human-cougar conflict in Alberta
It is well documented that increasing human populations and incidence, or risk of human-carnivore conflicts are related. Over the past 25 or so years, the human population in Alberta has grown from about 2,820,000 to 4,545,000 people, a 61% increase. During this same period, the range of cougars (Puma concolor) in Alberta has also expanded. We know that cougars can adapt their behaviour to successfully use habitat near human developed areas, but that human perception of risk is variable, and can influence our tolerance for living near them. Low tolerance for cougar occurrence often supports the use of sport hunting to reduce cougar densities, which is assumed will reduce human-cougar conflicts. However, there is a growing body of literature that contradicts the claim that increased cougar harvest reduces conflict with humans.
This emerging theory suggests that an older age structure occurs in cougar populations with low rates of harvest by maintaining both population stability and social structure. Using this management strategy provides sustainable and quality hunting opportunities and, it is suggested, will also minimize the frequency of cougar-human conflicts. In this webinar, we will review some recent literature and 13-years of cougar harvest and conflict data for Alberta to explore the social stability hypothesis.
Presenter Bio: Paul Frame has been the Provincial Carnivore Specialist for Alberta Fish and Wildlife for the past 10 years. In this role he helps manage grizzly and black bears, cougars, and wolves throughout the province. He recently led a 6-year cougar ecology study in the foothills of west central Alberta to help inform the sustainable harvest management of the species. Prior to landing with the Government of Alberta, Paul worked with bears, wolves, and other creatures in several jurisdictions in the western U.S. and Canada, as well as Nunavut.
5. Learning principles to support use of aversive conditioning to reduce human-wildlife conflict
Wildlife managers in protected areas have used aversive conditioning to teach animals to associate unpleasant stimuli (such as chases, noise, or pain) with human-use contexts. Learned wariness to people by wildlife is expected to reduce the risk of human-wildlife conflict and increase opportunities for coexistence. Despite a long history of use for bears and a few other species, general information is lacking for the design, implementation, and success of aversive conditioning programs, which limits their use as well as efficacy. One reason for this knowledge gap could be that wildlife managers typically receive little training in animal behaviour generally and learning theory in particular. In this talk, I identify six learning principles for effective punishment (another name for aversive conditioning) that are well-known to psychologists; evolutionary relevance, immediacy, initial intensity, consistency, unpredictability, and positive reinforcement for alternative behaviours. I illustrate the use, as well as limitations for use, of these principles with field studies from my lab involving black bears (Ursus americanus), elk (Cervus canadensis) and coyotes (Canis latrans) in urban settings and other human-use areas in Western Canada. I highlight the importance of individual variation, also known as personality, in the responses of animals to aversive conditioning and how this attribute could be included in the development of more effective techniques. I conclude by encouraging greater use of community-based conditioning programs to simultaneously refine implementation of these techniques while reducing conflict with wildlife.
Presenter Bio: Colleen Cassady St. Clair is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. She and her students study the way wildlife use and move through human-dominated landscapes, which frequently involve human-wildlife conflict. They seek novel solutions to those problems by combining ideas and methods from animal behaviour, wildlife management, and conservation biology. Recent projects address coexistence between people and coyotes in urban areas, train strikes on grizzly bears, bird mortality at industrial sites, and habituation to people by various species.
6. Wild Boar in Alberta
This presentation will provide an overview of wild boar in Alberta. Hannah will review how they got here, what we know about their current distribution, and the threat they pose to agriculture, the environment, and the health of both animals and humans. Hannah will also talk about the collaborative actions the Alberta Government and other partners are taking to protect Alberta from this destructive invasive species.
Presenter Bio: Hannah McKenzie graduated from the University of Alberta with an MSc in Mathematical and Statistical Biology and an MSc Applied Mathematics. Prior to taking on her current role as Wild Boar Specialist, Hannah worked with the Fish & Wildlife Policy branch and the Aquatic Invasive Species program. She lives on an acreage east of Vegreville with her husband, dogs and chickens.
7. Beyond the Heat: Winter Ecology of Alberta's Short-Horned Lizard
Many people think of reptiles as summer animals limited by the availability of heat and thus Alberta has low diversity. Despite this assumption, the heat required to be active, find and digest food is likely less limiting that the threat of winter mortality. Winter ecology is much less studied that active season ecology and almost never quantified in Canadian reptiles. All this while there is no lack of winter here. The greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) is Alberta’s only lizard. In Canada, it lives in the harsh “badlands” and river valleys of the southeastern portion of the province where air temperatures can range from 40C to -40C. These lizards appear to be very habitat specific and one novel observation suggested that snow may be a limiting factor for this species. I will discuss my research looking at the habitat used by this species to overwinter and present some of my preliminary data on the conditions they experience. These data will provide insight into the needs of the species, their physiology and the risks posed by shifting precipitation patterns.
Presenter Bio: Nicholas Cairns is the the Curator of Non-avian Vertebrates at the Royal Alberta Museum. Nicholas has a deep interest in natural history and loves solving biological puzzles, trying to understand how animals make a living where they do. He feeds this interest by delving into questions of ecology, behavior and biogeography. Beyond intrinsic knowledge, when possible he uses the information derived from these questions to inform conservation. Nicholas has a taxonomic bias towards reptiles and amphibians but has experience with taxa as varied as bees and tiger sharks. He is also a husband and father of two trying to raise little naturalists in the Northern Great Plains.
8. Little Owl on the Prairie. The Burrowing Owl Head-starting Program
The burrowing owl is a small owl that spends its breeding season on the Canadian prairies. With as few as 270-300 breeding owls in Canada, the burrowing owl is one of the most endangered bird species in this country’s grassland prairie. Habitat loss and fragmentation from prairie to crop conversion, fewer burrows on the prairie, low spring return rates from migration, and very few young making it to maturation are all contributing to burrowing owl declines. The Wilder Institute and partners are committed to restoring burrowing owl numbers using a conservation technique called head-starting to increase return rates and recruitment into the Canadian population. Lacey will give an overview of the project as well as go over some challenges and preliminary results.
Presenter Bio: Lacey Hébert is a Conservation Research Associate with the Wilder Institute/ Calgary Zoo and has been working on their Burrowing Owl Head Starting Program since 2017. Lacey leads and coordinates the burrowing owl field work. Lacey also contributed to the Zoo’s other conservation projects including Swift Fox and Greater Sage Grouse monitoring. Lacey has a Bachelors of Science with a Major in Wildlife Biology from McGill University.
9. Let's Make Green MW's and Hoary Bats Co-exist
Hoary Bats in Canada are recently classified as Endangered, primarily because of losses from wind energy turbines. In Alberta, a collaborative project between biologists and industry created a “what-if” family of systems models linking bat population and turbine operations. Their function is to help policy makers reduce regulatory risk, while conserving Alberta’s bats. The key value of the models is their simplicity, their ability to immediately simulate and compare wide-ranging options of turbine operations (numbers, sizes, locations, deterrence, cut-in speed), and thereby help understand trade-offs between bat population trends and energy economics.
Presenter Bio: Michael Sullivan is an ecologist working with the Alberta provincial government in Alberta. For his 40+ year career as a conservation scientist, he has worked on caribou recovery, fisheries management, landscape-level cumulative effects, and darn near every other topic that requires systems-thinking to find ways to let furry, feathery, and finny critters live in peace with human development. His preferred habitat is a snow cave overlooking some lonely Rocky Mountain valley, but he is usually found near the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton, guiding graduate student and fellow biologists along this interesting and valuable trail.
10. From Concept to Conservation: Implementing Native Trout Recovery Projects
In Alberta, all three native stream trout species have experienced declines, leading to their designation as species at risk. However, recovery of native trout populations is challenged by the complexity of addressing cumulative effects that vary across space and time. We developed a novel semi-quantitative cumulative effects modeling process that quantifies threats using stressor-response curves standardized to a common response scale. This approach integrates population-specific inputs and generates recovery action hypotheses tailored to each population, providing actionable guidance for management. We applied this process in a case study focused on bull trout recovery in Rocky Creek, Alberta, testing hypotheses through a before–after control-impact design. Expanding this framework, we conducted a multi-species modeling initiative across the East Slopes region to support prioritization and planning of recovery actions at a broader scale. This information was then synthesized at facilitated workshops with partners to collaboratively set priorities, brainstorm solutions, and deliver targeted projects. This integrated approach maximizes the likelihood of improving trout populations through informed, cooperative efforts.
Presenter Bio: Jessica Reilly grew up in Alberta fishing along the Eastern Slopes with her dad. Today, she works as a Provincial Recovery Specialist for the Government of Alberta, specializing in conservation genetics, cumulative effects management and partnership development. The work she is representing has been supported by many provincial fisheries biologists and colleagues from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Freshwater Conservation Canada, UBC, and Simon Fraser University.
11. Conservation Actions for Burrowing Owls in the Canadian Prairies
In Canada, the Burrowing Owl is an endangered under the Species at Risk Act. The number of breeding pairs declined 90% during the 1990’s despite voluntary protection of over 37,000 hectares of the species habitat on private grasslands. Low recruitment exacerbates the Burrowing Owl’s decline in response to habitat loss; typically, only 3-4 young fledge from the average clutch size of 9 eggs. Food supplementation experiments indicated that the wild food supply was inadequate for this species to reach its reproductive potential in some years. Migration and dispersal are important ecological processes and understanding them is a requirement for species conservation efforts. Studies of movements of Burrowing Owls using banding, VHF telemetry, stable isotopes, geolocators, and satellite transmitters demonstrate that annual dispersal is a second factor driving the owl’s decline in Canada. Supplemental feeding at nests in Grassland National Park has helped increased the recruitment of fledglings in a cost-effective way. This talk summarizes 30 years of research into the population dynamics, breeding biology, migration and dispersal of this species in Canada, Texas and Mexico and suggest considering supplemental feeding of nests to be incorporated in recovery action plans and further research at the larger landscape scale,
alongside with protection of critical habitat. Greater international cooperation and direct conservation actions on the ground are needed to achieve recovery of this species across the northern Great Plains.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Geoff Holroyd’s interest in birds developed as a teenager when he was an active volunteer starting in 1961 and later as chairman of the Long Point Bird Observatory. He earned his MSc and PhD from the University of Toronto for his studies of the foraging strategies and diet of swallows. He retired in 2012 after 36 years with the Canadian Wildlife Service including studies of peregrine falcons and burrowing owls, and chairing their national recovery teams. His 20 years of research on the endangered burrowing owls included studies in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Texas and Mexico. He is now chair of the Beaverhill Bird Observatory. He coauthored the new
book ‘Wildlife of the North’ in August 2023.
12. Sand Dune Habitat Restoration and Ord’s Kangaroo Rat Translocation
Ord’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ordii) is an Endangered species under the federal Species at Risk Act and Alberta Wildlife Act. Population monitoring indicated significant population decline since listing. A reduction in habitat quality is considered a major contributing factor to the apparent decline. Several once productive habitats had small populations of kangaroo rats or were extirpated. To restore habitat, prescribed fires were conducted between 2018 and 2022. Prescribed fires significantly increased the amount of available habitat for Ord’s kangaroo rat and facilitated an increase in population size and distribution. It was necessary to re-populate two restored habitats with translocations because they were extirpated. Translocations were completed over three years (2020-2022). Soft-release methods were used (artificial burrows, supplemental food and acclimation cages). The translocations are deemed successful, and self-sustaining populations have been established at previously extirpated sites.
Presenter Bio: Sandi Robertson is a Wildlife Biologist with Alberta Fish and Wildlife Stewardship in Medicine Hat. Her work focuses on Species at Risk and land use. She is the recovery lead for several at risk species, including Ord’s kangaroo rat, greater short-horned lizard, prairie rattlesnake, and prairie plant species. She has a BSc from the University of Alberta, and a MSc. from the University of Calgary. Ord’s kangaroo rat was the focus of her master’s thesis.
