Crowsnest Pass wildlife camera-monitoring project finishes first year

Last year, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (N.C.C.) started a wildlife camera monitoring project called Linking Landscapes.

Since then, 21 volunteers have helped to install and monitor 37 remote cameras in the Jim Prentice Wildlife Corridor. They’ve collected nearly 450,000 wildlife images so far.

“We’re looking at the different animals that are present there, but also their distribution and how they are moving out throughout the landscape,” said Sean Feagan with the N.C.C.

Driving through Crowsnest Pass, there are many opportunities to view wildlife but close encounters can lead to deadly consequences for animals, especially on stretches of highway prone to vehicle-wildlife collisions.

“That’s a massive problem not just for wildlife but also for people. It’s dangerous, it causes expensive damage and it’s bad for wildlife,” said Feagan.

The N.C.C. has partnered with the Miistakis Institute and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute on the project, using high-tech wildlife cameras to collect data.

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“There’s such diversity in the past, and the number three bisects at all and they can’t cross, and so many die,” said Monica Zyla, a volunteer with the study.

Within this stretch of Highway 3 are two large bridges and three small culverts. The project has found animals can use these areas to avoid highway traffic and cross to the other side, indicating the potential to modify these structures to improve safe wildlife movement.

“Many Albertans are familiar with the large wildlife overpasses in Banff National Park and one is under construction in Canmore. I think it’s a great question whether or not something like that could be built in the Crowsnest Pass,” said Feagan.

Citizen scientists with the project have spent more than 333 hours managing their cameras and identifying species.

“I can tell you that on some of these winter days, and when the wind is blowing, it’s really not so much fun to walk out, but the rewards are immeasurable,” said Zyla. “I just want to help gather that data so that we can make that effective case to build the overpasses or underpasses.”

Feagan said they’ll spend two more years collecting data to determine where animals are versus where wildlife collisions happen, with the end goal of helping mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions in the future.