N.B. student’s passion for photography brings awareness to animal conservation

A high school student in Moncton, N.B., has found a way to combine his passion for protecting wild animals with his love of the lens through a high school program called “The Idea Centre Moncton.”

At only 17 years old, Harrison Trimble High School grad Nick Poirier, said he is willing to wait hours to get the perfect photograph.

The Idea Centre Moncton program allows high school students in the Greater Moncton region to pursue the development of their own business or social enterprise.

“When I learned about how skilled of a photographer he was and how passionate he was about conservation we just knew that this would be a perfect fit for him,” said Gerard Reinders, the course instructor.

Poirier said he decided to combine his passion for photography with his love of wild animals to start a social enterprise that he hopes will foster change in his community.

“When I started photography I just started it for fun and then I started to notice some problems,” he said, referring to his favorite subjects, Canada’s wild foxes.

“When I photograph urban foxes I noticed there is a lot of feeding happening and a lot of foxes became dependant and a lot of people don’t know that that is the worst thing that you can do for a fox,” said Poirier.

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Municipalities across Canada discourage fox feeding in urban parks and communities because the animals can become an urban nuisance, said Poirier.

“There is a lot of instances where the foxes have to be relocated and even put down,” he said.

So, to protect the foxes and to create awareness for wild animal conservation he is sharing his images on social media and is also raising funds for the Atlantic Wildlife Institute.

“I have also started a conservation account called wildlife NB on Instagram,” he said.

The Grade 12 student will study bioveterinary science following high school and said that he hopes to work as a conservation officer or even a vet one day.

For now, he said he is focusing on polishing his photography skills trying to share his passion for wild animals and contain it all at the same time while trying to get the perfect shot.

“I think I shake a little too much that I end up missing the shots but I get pretty excited.”