7th Annual Trail Love – Give Back Fundraiser
There is something truly special about Kananaskis Country that inspires Albertans and visitors to explore its wonder. For over 25 years, the Friends of Kananaskis Country’s programs have provided opportunities for people to give back to the trails and wild spaces they love. They help others to experience a meaningful connection with Kananaskis Country. This year, our superstar volunteers have worked over 3,000 hours on trail projects and the stewardship of Kananaskis Country!
Friends of Kananaskis benefits from an operating grant from the Alberta government which covers approximately 40% of our annual operating costs. The remainder of our costs are paid in large part by individual donations, as well as other grants. Your generous donation is so important for our work in maintaining and improving Kananaskis Country.
From November 15 - December 11, show your 'trail love' and help FKC raise $20,000 in support of our programs
|
|
|
MEET SOME OF THE 'FRIENDS'
 "I'm honoured and thrilled to have worked with FKC for a decade as a volunteer and now as a staff member. During my many travels in Kananaskis I'm continuously amazed by the trails, landscapes, and wonderful people that I meet.
The enthusiasm of our volunteers and supporters is simply incredible. Their passion for Kananaskis Country is inspiring and makes every Trail Care day a great day!"
- Bruce Gleig, Trail Care Supervisor
 "Friends of Kananaskis Country are a valued partner with Alberta Parks, instrumental in engaging the community to give back and help steward Kananaskis. The passion and dedication FKC contributes to its programs and volunteers is inspiring. The Cloudline Trail is my new favourite trail; a successful collaborative project and super fun trail with lots of yahoo’s while biking!"
- Nancy Ouimet – former Executive Director and current volunteer
 "For generations our families have enjoyed the majestic beauty and exhilaration of being out in the mountains. Volunteering with FKC has been one of the most fun and rewarding volunteering activities that we have done. We get to spend time in nature, learn what it takes to create and maintain those amazing trails, while meeting fantastic people and giving back to something we always loved."
- Anne and Chris Kean, volunteers
Help us reach our $20,000 goal!
|
|
|
Winter Safety Day Returns!
Alberta Parks put on Avalanche Awareness Day for several years, but cancelled it due to COVID and budget restrictions. With support from Alberta Parks, the Friends then tried to take the event over. We expanded it to include ALL winter safety info, and attempted to hold it in January 2022 – but COVID got in the way, and it was cancelled less than a week from the scheduled date.
Once again, Alberta Parks is bringing the event back, and The Friends are helping! We’re thrilled to be partnering with Parks staff to hold this event again. Together, we’re going to make the event bigger and better. We’re still early in the planning stages, so BOOKMARK THIS PAGE. We’ll update it with more info and event schedules as they are finalized! Until then, visit this page to see our own winter safety tips.
|
|
|
He looks disappointed that the larches behind him haven't turned yet. Photo courtesy of Alberta Environment and Parks
C R I T T E R P A L O O Z A !!! -- Our Christmas Gift to You
by Derek Ryder, IGA Interpretive Guide
Eleven times a year in the newsletter, we publish one interesting photo from the Alberta Parks ecology research cameras in Kananaskis. However, in the last year alone, we received over 70 of them. Many, many awesome images are going unseen.
With thanks and permission from the kind folks at Alberta Forestry and Parks, and in recognition of the ~40 or so member volunteer team who service the cameras and catalogue the literally millions of photos taken each year (of which I am proud to be a small part), here's a whole lot of cool animals for you to be impressed by. As always, keep an eye on the date and time stamped on each photo.
I'll also give some camera project updates through this, just to give you an idea what the team is up to these days.
There's this spot in the Bow Valley on an official trail that's popular with animals like Bighorn Sheep...
|
|
...and Black Bear moms with their kids.
|
|
We're always on the hunt for "rub trees" – trees where animals scent mark, and leave their calling cards in the forest. They're communicating with potential mates and rivals, marking territory, and the like. The tree on the right in the above photos is often rubbed, as is the one below. Because, according to Grizzly Bears: "When ah itches, ah scratches"
|
|
What's new in the Kananaskis Research Camera biz these days?
The amazing Sandra Code, fabulous Alberta Parks person and mainstay of the Camera team, retired in March of this year. Sandra was an exceptionally fun person to volunteer for, and without her hard work, the camera projects just would not have happened. Being a critical role in the human-wildlife conflict, ecological research, and volunteer management spaces, it was essential that she be replaced.
Enter our new leader, Sean Konkolics. Sean joined the Alberta Parks Human-Wildlife Conflict team as the Human Wildlife Coexistence Coordinator. He came from Banff National Park where he was a member of the wildlife management team. He's got a strong background in wildlife ecology and biology, and loves analyzing the types of data we collect.
On the camera side, we deployed a bunch of new cameras to monitor how the redesign of the Spray West campground will affect wildlife movements. That redevelopment includes the creation of wildlife "trails" that lead around the campground, and areas where habitat was (and will be) enhanced for wildlife to encourage them to stay away from the campground area. This is a bit of new ground, so we're monitoring it to see if this strategy works.
Coyotes do a lot of scent marking. Sometimes, they even do it right in front of our camera.
|
|
They have other ways of scent marking, too. Or maybe this one is just itchy.
|
|
Baby animals are always a lot of fun. Farther down, we'll do ungulate babies. But bear babies? The furriest. However, capturing bear kids without mom always makes us wonder: where's Mom?
|
|
This little Black Bear looks lost and seems worried about being all by itself.
|
|
We would MUCH sooner see this: mom WITH the cubs. In this case, it's 104 and her two, 2022, young of the year.
I wish I could tell a good story about these, but I can't. The pic below is from July 2022. In early 2023, 104 still had these two with her. But in May, she dumped them and went on a date with a male. This isn't particularly unusual; at least one theory says female grizzlies do this to protect their cubs from the males, who would kill the cub. But that didn't work in 2023. Not only did 104 not reconnect with these two cubs after her "date", the cub on the left was killed by Grizzly 175 this summer. Interestingly, 175 is 139's daughter. 139 is 104's daughter. The cub on the left in the photo below was killed by her own niece. It's tough growing up as a Grizzly Bear.
|
|
This family of Black Bears was VERY active around Canmore all summer. They wandered through the Grassi Lakes parking lot, and were frequently seen in the Canmore Nordic Centre, Quarry Lake and elsewhere.
|
|
Here they are again, only 13 days later, and not too far away from the previous picture.
|
|
The kids in this family are a little more grown up!
|
|
Let's play a game. Three shots, three bears, same camera. All shots within 3 days of each other. Pic 1: Obviously a grizzly.
|
|
Pic 2: less obviously a Grizzly, but still a Grizzly, just not as big.
|
|
Answer: Black. Yes, you can see claws, but compare them to the claws in the first Grizzly pic. No hump. Larger ears, also the ears are set farther back.
This is probably a more "typical" looking black bear, though like the one above, it's cinnamon, not black.
|
|
There's colour variation in Black Bears? Heck yes. You can even see it in black and white night shots.
|
|
Grizzly bears come in a lot of shapes and sizes, depending on age and time of year. It's interesting to consider bear sizes with the month in which they're seen. This is a late May bear. Not a bad size. But compare it to the next bear.
|
|
This is one BIG CHONK of a Grizzly, especially for early-May. We often have big males who "visit" from far off lands. It interesting to the Bear Team (of which I am proud to be a part) that these big males – and this is almost certainly a male – start appearing in mid-May, stick around for 4-6 weeks to breed with the females, then just DISAPPEAR. This pic is just north of the Nakiska area. After mid-June, there were basically no reports of a honkin' big male that would match this big boy's description.
"Where did he come from, and where did he go? Where did he come from, my Cotton-Eyed Joe?"
|
|
This picture is a real (though small) camera project success story.
Cameras are placed in a scientifically designed hexagonal grid pattern. The size of the grid is derived from home range spaces of the species you're interested in, plus a lot of other things. Once you have a grid, you need to find a camera location in each grid cell. Ideally, this is done randomly. However, in practicality, we have to service these cameras, so they are "randomly" put in the grid cell close to the way that we can access the area. To do this, we get into a space using GPS, then wander around to pick a specific camera location site. We put the camera up, and hope we got it in a good spot.
This camera was installed as soon as the snow was gone and we could access the area. This Grizzly was one of the first things caught on the camera. We picked good!
|
|
A rule of thumb for you all while in the woods: don't "Psss Psss Psss" if you see a Cougar. It might not be alone – and they don't like skritches and tummy rubs anyway.
|
|
Everyone thinks cougars are nocturnal, but we get them day and night on the cameras. They're big fans of human use trails, too. Here's one out for a stroll on a popular trail on a Friday afternoon.
|
|
Think about the pic below when you're out skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre. This was 2:15 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
|
|
This location is a VERY popular trail, and interestingly, literally steps from the Trans Canada Highway, too. 12:40 pm, Thursday afternoon.
|
|
Still, these days, a LOT of Bow Valley camera work is targeting capturing wildlife use on wildlife trails. Yes, we still have about 50% of our cameras on human use trails; that's intentional. All camera work results in statistical data analysis. The folks who work the data spend a LOT of time programming in "R", an industry-standard statistical analysis software package. Splitting camera locations between wildlife and human use trails can tell you which the wildlife prefer, and at what threshold of human use wildlife avoid trails.
There's some human use on the wildlife trail below, but not much (we humans are everywhere, even where we're not supposed to be).
|
|
This year, no Bobcat pics to compare to the Lynx as we did in last year's Critterpalooza. Remember: Lynx have feet the size of their head, and walk with an elevated rump.
We ALWAYS get Lynx at this site, year after year.
|
|
|
Those are cross country ski tracks that this Lynx is walking in. Try to avoid walking in XC tracks. It makes it unsafe for the skiers. Still, Lynx have such big feet that they don't leave much of an impression in the snow in the first place.
|
|
The camera location below is quite productive. It's the same location as the picture of 104 and her cubs above.
|
|
Staying with the same camera location: Yes, these next two pics are 7 days apart, but does this wolf know whether it's coming...
|
|
...or going? Do you think it's the same wolf in each photo? This is the challenge with remote camera work. Unless the animal is unique enough to be identified through colouration, pictures can tell you OCCUPANCY (that a species is present) but not ABUNDANCE (how many of a species is there).
|
|
Staying with that same location, a prickly one!
|
|
And STILL at the same location, a Red Fox!
|
|
Foxes are indeed sly. The foxes we capture in the Bow Valley tend to be nocturnal, showing adaptation to living with people. The ones deeper in K-Country, away from people, tend to be more diurnal. My, what a fluffy tail this one has!
|
|
Still, we do get daytime shots of foxes in the Bow Valley corridor.
|
|
|
By the way, have you donated to our Trail Love – Give Back fundraiser yet?
Time for some ungulates, and it's always good to start with cute baby pics – like this Doe and her two fawns.
|
|
"Conventional Wisdom" says Elk separate from the herd to calf, and don't return until the calves are big enough to fend for themselves in the herd. So you would think it rare to capture this scene: not just one or two, but FOUR elk calves, and not a mom in sight.
|
|
But the Moms are never that far away (picture taken just 12 minutes after the one above).
|
|
Moms are NEVER far away when the babies are hungry (even the larger babies).
|
|
Rutting season is SUPPOSED to be September, not mid-August. I don't think this HUGE racked bull Elk got the memo. Interesting that he has a rack so well developed in August, showing no signs of velvet.
|
|
Let's just reminder ourselves that Moose are also VERY big, and also develop VERY large antlers.
|
|
Lady Moose are also large. Proof positive that you can grow to 1,000 lbs just by eating vegetables.
|
|
Speaking of eating... CAUGHT IN THE ACT!
|
|
We think that remote camera traps are a non-intrusive way to observe wildlife. We're sure they don't know we're watching. Then we catch things like this.
|
|
Did you know Bighorn Sheep could fly?
|
|
I repeat this every year: if you see a camera, please ignore it. Don't pose for it, don't wave, don't stand in front of it, don't moon the camera, don't dance or sing (we rarely shoot video), and don't go to the bathroom in front of it. We who classify the images have seen it all. We delete pictures of people as soon as you're counted. By hanging out in front of the camera, you fill up the card that we need to see the wildlife. Lots of pics of people = lots of time spent deleting pics of people, which just wastes the precious time of the classifiers. Thanks!
We actually see a lot of Marten on our cameras. You can find out why on our website here.
|
|
Marten come in a bunch of colour variations. The one above is classically coloured: light brown with an orange chest. But this one is much darker.
|
|
We close out this year's CRITTERPALOOZA with two special shots.
It is super rare to get elusive Wolverine on camera. They're always in a mad hurry. That there's an exposure-wrecking snow patch in this picture didn't help. Accordingly, this photo was edited to make sure the Wolverine was visible.
|
|
And finally, while the pic below is JUST a Coyote, it's so much more – and we have so much more for you. This is one of the many cameras that monitors the various ways wildlife cross the Trans Canada Highway. Wildlife crossing structures are proven to enhance connectivity and reduce both wildlife mortality and collisions. We're excited to see the Stoney Wildlife Crossing nearing completion; it should have a real impact on restoring the Elk population that's been decimated by highway collisions.
So we have an added extra BONUS feature. No, we don't take videos generally, but DO take videos at the wildlife crossing structures. Follow THIS LINK and you'll get to watch a 5 minute compilation video of some of 2023's crossing structure activity. You'll see:
- Wolves,
- Sheep,
- Sheep being chased by Coyotes,
- a LOT of Grizzly Bears and cubs,
- a 3-legged Black Bear,
- Cougars,
- baby Elk and Deer, and
- a whole lot more!
Lorane Lemoine, one of Alberta Parks' Human Wildlife Conflict Interns, spent quite a while putting this together, and some of the videos even have sound!
|
|
Once again, thanks to Alberta Environment and Parks, and especially Senior Wildlife Conflict Specialist John Paczkowski, for allowing us to share these photos. Special recognition to Sandra Code of Alberta Parks and now Sean Konkolics for their past and ongoing heroic work that keeps the Ecology team moving forward while simultaneously doing a lot of the classification duties. Once again, a tip of the hat to the ~40 volunteers who visit the cameras to collect this data 12 months of the year, rain or shine.
Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays, enjoy Pancha Ganapati and Omisoka, Happy Hanukkah, and Season's Greetings from our Friends family to yours. Stay safe, stay healthy and stay connected with us, your friends and family, and Kananaskis through the season.
|
|
|
A Sheep with somewhere to go. Photo courtesy of Alberta Environment & Parks.
From our Website this month
Interested in learning more about various aspects of K-Country? Our Website section called "About K-Country" is the place to go. Here's some material you'll find up there of note:
- For Remembrance Day each year, we post a story of a mountain in K-Country that is actually a memorial to a fallen soldier. In 2020, we posted the story of Mt. Farquahar. In 2021, we told the story of Mt. Buller. In 2022, the story of Serbian Field Marshall Radomir Putnik and the mountain named after him, Mt. Putnik. For 2023, it's about Rear Admiral Sir Horace Hood, and his ship, the HMS Invincible, both of which have peaks named after them.
- Winter Safety – Winter introduces a different set of wilderness safety issues than summer does. In 2021, we partnered with Kananaskis Public Safety to create a winter addendum to the 6-part safety series we ran in 2017. If you play in the wilderness in the winter, this is a must read. While we posted this on our website in the fall of 2021, it's worth reviewing again. And come join us on January 20, 2024, for Winter Safety Day!
|
|
|
|
|
