Joe Silva started his Masters with Dr. Stan Boutin in Fall 2018. He is investigating lichen regeneration in recently burned forests of northwestern Ontario. Here he stands in a black spruce bog, after collecting samples all day.
Baby snowshoe hares might be the cutest babies out there!! The Kluane Predator Prey Team spent 6 weeks this spring tracking snowshoe hare pregnancy in the Yukon. The data will help test what factors might be influencing the snowshoe hare-lynx population cycle.
Photo by: Sean Konkolics
The summer field season brings warm weather but it also means you have to watch out for animals, like this female black bear! Our graduate students and technicians have special training and gear to deal with situations like this. Get ready for bear season!!
Photo by: Clayton Lamb
Freshly hatched Common Nighthawk chicks and a soon-to-hatch egg. Photo by Elly Knight, in the Richardson Burn near McClelland Lake in Alberta.
Aerial view of the Kluane Red Squirrel Project’s remote field camp in southwestern Yukon, Canada. Being a wildlife biologist can take you to a lot of quaint camps like this.
Photo by: Mike Peers
Ever flown in a helicopter for fieldwork? Here, PhD student Clayton Lamb hitches a ride up to the alpine to look for Grizzly bears. Helicopters can be a really efficient and FUN way to get to difficult back country sampling sites!
Photo by: Clayton Lamb
With the spring breeding season right around the corner, here is a photo of three Ferruginous Hawk chicks during a routine nest check last summer. Nick Parayko is studying these amazing raptors, in southern Alberta, for his Master’s project under Dr. Erin Bayne. Looks like fun!
Photo by: Nick Parayko
Boutin lab members, Sean Konkolics and Mike Peers, lead Edmonton families for a wildlife snow-tracking workshop hosted by Nature Alberta’s: Nature Kids program. The group spent a few hours in Strathcona Science Park looking at different wildlife tracks including coyote, fox, red squirrel, and snowshoe hare. Even though it was a chilly -16C, this was a great opportunity for kids from the city to learn about animal tracks, while getting outside in the winter! 
Mike shows the families a spot where a coyote killed a snowshoe hare.
The City of Edmonton in the distance.
Special thanks to Nature Kids coordinators Alyssa Bohart and Emily Dong.
Photo credit: Alyssa Bohart
Every fall the Beaver Hill Bird Observatory in Alberta catches and bands owls. Here a graduate student has an intimate moment with a Saw Whet Owl as it is released from the station. Banding birds helps biologists track their movements and estimate population numbers.
Photo Credit: Sean Konkolics
Winter will hit soon in the north. Young lynx like this one have to grow up quickly during the summer and fall so they can help hunt for snowshoe hares and other small prey in the winter.
Camera trap photo by Darcy Doran-Myers.