About

What should the relationship between humans and animals be within an ecological network of animate and inanimate nature? Historically the spaces and management of designed landscapes articulated socio-cultural relationships of people to animals, both wild and domesticated. This same consideration can reshape public spaces to allow for the fruitful co-existence of animals and urban dwellers during a time of diminishing biodiversity and mass extinction.

Wild Winnipeg is the wildlife monitoring component of a larger research project called Looking at people, Looking at animals created to examine the shifting relationships people have had with animals over time and potential implications for designed urban landscapes.

A concentration of infrared wildlife cameras have been distributed within a Winnipeg neighborhood to capture animal activity. We aim to show how the lives of urban animals parallel those of people and to heighten awareness of urban biodiversity over a period of two years from June 2020 to June 2022 through a combination of field research and public participation.

Our research aims to:

• Establish a web-based public outreach process that engages city inhabitants in documenting animal encounters in Winnipeg.

• Establish an urban wildlife monitoring program in Winnipeg.

• Develop a case studies series focused on urban habitat regeneration and design.

• Develop guidelines for species-specific urban habitat prototypes.

• Evaluate computational methods for automated data collection and interpretation.

• Evaluate the capacity for collaborative public projects to strengthen awareness and commitment to biodiversity.

• Design and construct a series of Research by Design habitats as a basis for long-term field research.