A team of researchers from across North America have created an atlas of key sea duck habitat sites, an important source in aiding future study and conservation efforts. The atlas aims to heighten awareness of where sea ducks live, and to serve as a tool in evaluating future environmental assessments. 

Fifteen sea duck species can be found across North America, representing over a third of all duck species breeding on the continent. Canadian species include eiders, scoters, mergansers and goldeneyes; along with buffleheads, long-tailed ducks and harlequin ducks. Many sea ducks sport colourful and ornate crests, meaning they’re admired amongst photographers and birdwatchers alike.

Despite their popularity, sea ducks remain the most poorly understood group of waterfowl. Evidence also suggests that numbers of several sea duck species are on the decline. In Canada, the eastern populations of harlequin ducks and Barrow’s goldeneye ducks are listed as Species of Special Concern. 

The atlas identified 85 sites as offering key habitats for these birds. Nic McLellan, one of the researchers involved in its creation, called it “a significant first step” in sea duck conservation efforts. 

Mosquitoes, please

Yukoners! An entomologist (a scientist who studies insects) at the University of British Columbia has an unusual request to make of you. And it isn’t your money he’s after, or your time. 

It’s your mosquitos!

Dan Peach is studying the northward movement of the insects as global temperatures rise due to climate change. To help with the study, he’s asking Yukon residents to send in mosquitoes they’ve smacked or swatted to help identify the presence of different species in the territory. 

Peach and his team have noted more than 30 different kinds of mosquito in the Yukon, but he estimates that there are at least half a dozen more. Not all species in the territory feed on humans — some feed on plants, and one or two on frogs and reptiles. 

The impetus for the study stems partly from a concern that travelling mosquito populations could bring bacteria and disease to other regions. West Nile virus, present in southern B.C., could spread slightly further north as temperatures rise.

Yukoners can send in dead mosquitoes to the Ben Matthews lab at:

UBC Zoology

4200-6270 University Boulevard

Vancouver, B.C.

V6T 1Z4

Peach hopes that anyone who sends in an insect will include their address or the name of the cross streets where they killed the mosquitoes, as well as the date.

Marten mission

Plans to protect the once-endangered Newfoundland pine marten have proven successful, with authorities now recommending that its current status as threatened be downlisted further to vulnerable. 

The Newfoundland pine marten is a subspecies of the American pine marten, which can be found in forests across Canada. It is one of the 14 land mammal species native to Newfoundland. For their dens and nesting sites, pine martens use hollow trees, stumps, logs and rock crevices, making them particularly vulnerable to deforestation. 

The species has been protected since 1934, before which it was regularly trapped for its fur. Shelley Moores, a Senior Manager of Wildlife Research with the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture, notes that populations started to rebound when changes were made to snares, and when serious action was taken to protect the pine marten’s old-growth habitat. Everyone, she says, from residents to trappers and even forestry and mining companies, got on board with the efforts. 

Fin, mais pas fini!