Do bears dance like nobody’s watching?
We have certainly captured some groovy rub-tree moves! This year marks the seventh year of remote camera wildlife monitoring in Jasper National Park.
Used for conservation purposes, remote camera images help us track wildlife populations over the long term, capturing them in the wild without human interference. The cameras have captured some stunning wildlife images.
Remote cameras are used worldwide in wildlife conservation and protection. In Jasper, grizzly bears are the key species for which we use remote cameras. Designated as a threatened species in Alberta, monitoring can help us detect important changes in the grizzly bear population so we can take action to conserve them.
It also gives us a behind the scenes look at some of their more entertaining behaviour.
Besides amusing wildlife selfies, remote cameras provide valuable insight into some of the park’s more elusive animals like wolverines, wolves, cougars and mountain caribou. Parks Canada’s extensive monitoring program, including data from remote cameras, has informed decisions about trail use, prescribed fire and species-at-risk conservation.
In Jasper, approximately 90 motion-activated cameras are mounted on trees along wildlife and hiking trails according to a research design. With no one actually behind the camera, these images offer a rare and privileged view of wildlife going about their everyday lives. Watch for these sometimes surprising and entertaining wildlife images on the ever popular “Caught in the Act” post on Jasper’s Facebook page.
Concerned about your privacy? So are we. Guided by national Parks Canada standards for the use of remote cameras, images are collected and managed by a small group of trained staff. Pictures of people captured on our cameras are deleted.
Images that show illegal activities that may have serious impacts on wildlife, or put the safety of visitors at risk may, however, be used for law enforcement purposes. Where remote cameras are in use, signs are posted at the trailheads.
Get out and enjoy Jasper’s trails this summer and watch for “Caught in the Act” on Facebook to see what the park’s wildlife is up to!
Parks Canada
Special to the Fitzhugh
