Blog
Documented Dessication
As all of us have witnessed, this was a particularly harsh summer in terms of heat, drought, and a seeming -- albeit perhaps a case of climate change hypochondria – increase in extreme weather events, too. These environmental afflictions attrite the urban environment, putting strain on its flora, fauna, the human population, and infrastructure. Our cameras effectively documented this in photos captured, which act as an extended time-lapse that spans the whole summer. Animals were less active as there was a reduced frequency of sightings into late July, and vegetation was observed wilting drastically, as was the case with the burdock surrounding camera #9. It would seem as if our cameras have witnessed a manifestation of the increasingly volatile climate forces acting on the earth. Slightly disconcerting at the least, it would appear that observable change in the outdoor urban environment, or broader, the environment, is burgeoning.
How Much Wood..?
Look up on those rocks! It’s a mutant rat! It’s an autotomized beaver! It’s… a woodchuck?
On the same camera characterized by the romping fox kits, we now see a woodchuck(!) - Marmota monax - clocked for the first time since August 6th of last year. Camera 4 has become a favourite amongst our team for capturing a unique array of species, yielding very interesting behaviours and interactions to be sure. As was said in the blog post on the foxes, it comes as a pleasant surprise that such a high quantity of animals can be observed here, in such a busy pedestrian locale. Further to our delight, now an arguably more elusive species has shown herself, hirsute as ever. We’ve all got our fingers crossed for that autotomized beaver to come strolling by – any day now.
Coyotes in January
It seems fitting that with an increase of coyote sightings over the last couple of months reported within Winnipeg, our cameras begin to capture images of these mid-sized carnivores for the first time. Two events have been captured under the cover of darkness in the cold month of January along the river’s edge. Both events occurred within a week of each other at two separate camera locations along a 4.5 km stretch of river. The same coyote perhaps?
But what does this mean for the people, the animals, and the future of the urban environment? These are the questions that drive our research and help us to understand how the urban environment acts as a mediator for the interaction between wildlife and humans. Generally, coyotes in Winnipeg are not as rare of a species to be wandering our back lanes or forested parks as we may have previously thought. As our earlier blog post Animals in the News shows, coyote sightings have been widespread across Winnipeg and have occurred at all times of the day. A recent research article found that most U.S. cities have a substantial coyote population co-existing with humans. The success of these populations has been attributed to the animal’s urban behavioural adaptation which includes becoming more comfortable with humans in closer ranges, decreased roaming distances, and a more investigative/curious demeanor(1).
However, with Winnipeggers being generally unaccustomed to seeing coyotes in parks and riparian areas. What does an increase in sightings mean for the future of this co-habitation? There’s the potential for an increase in conflict between pets and coyotes as they get more curious and less cautious around humans. Alternatively, it could lead to a boost of interest and excitement towards these animals as well as a general understanding that coyotes are a part of Winnipeg’s urban wildlife population.
Co-existing with coyotes requires a cautious attitude that includes keeping yourself and your pets safe by taking preventative measures such as keeping dogs on leashes and not leaving any food scraps or other garbage around that may attract them to your yard. Noisemaking and walking sticks can be used as deterrents to protect yourself from them and being aware of your surroundings are all important methods for keeping yourself safe.
Here are a couple of recent news articles about coyote sightings in Winnipeg with some helpful information about what to do if you encounter one yourself.
https://news.umanitoba.ca/stay-alert-for-wildlife-on-campus/
1: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38543-5
-Matt
The Social Life of Small Urban Forests
While we often capture groups of the same species—usually the mother and her offspring, whether it’s a fox and her kits, a raccoon or deer with fauns, we rarely observe interactions across species. Each seem to use urban spaces at different times; even as they walk the same routes. But here, a raccoon is just one second behind a deer; it rears up and peers at it before deciding to turn around. The deer does a double take at the raccoon, turning around to watch it disappear into the brush.
-Kamni
The Log Bridge
The space of urban rivers supports co-habitation between a range of species, each with different patterns of use and occupation. One of our cameras is set up on a riverbank and looks out onto a large fallen tree. This fallen tree is a dynamic device, providing a kind of animal infrastructure for the squirrels, birds, raccoons, and the odd house cat. In both summer and winter conditions, during the day and at night, individually, or with their young, these animals, especially the raccoons, can be seen using it as a vantage point, a platform to reach the leaves of the tree directly overhead, but most importantly, as a bridge and walkway used to walk back and forth, sometimes leaving behind wet paw prints during both the high water of spring and during low water.
A lesson from these photos of the raccoons’ interaction with the log could be their unconditional usage of it as a landscape element. The log knows no program; neither do the raccoons. This is arguably a non-human understanding of space, but in a shared space like that of urban rivers, and perhaps more and more in urban public spaces like parks or plazas moving forward, implications of our co-habitation should be recognized, and even celebrated by design! We must acknowledge that we share this outdoor space with animals, and thus, their perspective should be considered commensurately. This log then, aptly symbolizes an animal’s perspective on the landscape, reflecting their use of it, as well as how it is equally important as a human’s.
Foxes at Camera 4
Recently, one of our cameras has captured a family of foxes: two adults and a litter of four pups. The foxes were observed running back and forth, climbing, hunting, foraging then eating, playing, and one even approaches the camera to investigate. Being the elusive creatures we know them to be, you may be surprised to hear that mere hours separate our (stationary) camera’s vulpine encounters with human and even automobile ones. It surely makes one wonder about the animal activity going on behind our backs – under our noses, even – in places we understand as busy, public, and in some cases, distinctly human. Where do these animals fit into the equation of the human occupation of these spaces; or, walking this train of thought back a little further, what has caused this division between human and animal in our obscured mutual occupation of the same kinds of space?
Field Notes
Behind the scenes here, I’ve been working on field notes that document information like plant identifications and their average density, relationships with the immediate context visualized in a transect, with atmospheric drawings that attempt to capture the visio-spatial experience of the site. There is an impressive diversity across our camera sites: the items being documented in my drawings combine into definitive site characteristics that lend themselves to comparison, allowing us to learn more about the sites in cross-reference to one-another. Drawing interpretations of nature is not unlike something I’d be assigned to do in one of my classes during the school year, so this is great practice for performing site analysis.
OSY
Summer 2021
Hello all!
Gearing up for Wild Winnipeg’s second (so far, blistering) summer of research, in this first blog post of 2021, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Owen Swendrowski-Yerex. I’m a landscape and urbanism student going into my last year at the University of Manitoba. As the research assistant with Wild Winnipeg, this summer I’ll be maintaining and collecting data from our trail cameras, helping with data visualization and interpretation, spearheading our community outreach efforts, as well as making blog posts. Within the coming weeks, we will be populating this project webpage with recent animal sightings, further blog posts relating to urban wildlife and landscape architecture, and opening up the participation tab, asking the greater community for their animal-encounter testimonials, photos and narratives. I’m very much looking forward to the work ahead of us as well as to hear from you, the people, out in Wild Winnipeg!
Animals in the news
A key research question emerged in the beginning stages of our project: where should we place our cameras? The challenge was finding sites that could produce good results which would ultimately determine the success of the project. We did a preliminary study to identify where different wildlife have been seen and reported in Winnipeg. We turned to different news outlets to gather a collection of articles of reported wildlife sightings within the last five years to give us reliable data. The news articles and stories were then added to a map and located geographically within Winnipeg, which gave us a visualization of the pattern of wildlife sightings in the city. The interactive map below links the location of different stories about wildlife sightings in Winnipeg with their respective news articles.