Calgary Captured

Calgary Captured is made possible by the support of our generous funders: The Calgary Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment, and Alberta Ecotrust. Thank you!

About

Calgary Captured is a multi-year wildlife monitoring program run in partnership with the City of Calgary, Miistakis Institute, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, and Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society. The program aims to increase knowledge on our urban wildlife to inform development and management decisions, as well as to engage the community to spread awareness of wildlife.

Why?

The City of Calgary declared support for biodiversity conservation when it adopted the Municipal Development Plan in 2009 that contains policies which will shape how Calgary grows and develops over the next 30 to 60 years. The plan specifically recognizes greening the city with the objective to maintain biodiversity and landscape diversity and the integration and connection of ecological networks throughout the city. (Municipal Development Plan, Section 2.64)

In March 2015, Council approved Our BiodiverCity, Calgary’s 10-year biodiversity strategic plan and accompanying Biodiversity Policy. The plan is based on principles for the protection, development and management of Calgary parks and ecosystems in support of biodiversity. Our BiodiverCity aims to provide a framework for The City to foster more resilient, biologically diverse open space and neighbourhoods that support positive outcomes for Calgarians, visitors, wildlife and plant communities. The strategic plan builds on the City of Calgary Biodiversity Report 2014.

In the fall of 2016, The City of Calgary signed the Durban Commitment, becoming the third Canadian city, alongside the City of Edmonton and the City of Montreal to formally join an international program directed by Local Action for Biodiversity, a program representing local governments from across the world to improve biodiversity planning and management. By signing this commitment, The City acknowledges “accountability and responsibility for the health and wellbeing of our communities through protecting, sustainably utilizing and managing biodiversity and recognizing its role as the foundation of our existence.”

The City of Calgary, Urban Conservation have recognized an important data gap – we need to know where wildlife occur in the city to begin expanding our knowledge and understanding of local biodiversity to meet commitments outlined in the BiodiverCity Strategy and the Municipal Development Plan. To assess the terrestrial mammal diversity of Calgary we are undertaking a multi-year wildlife monitoring program in the city using motion activated remote cameras.

We need a more complete picture of how our wild neighbors are making use of our natural areas and patterns of wildlife presence across Calgary. Knowing where our wild neighbors are will inform conservation and management decisions about our open spaces and better manage human-wildlife conflict.

Some of the questions we will be exploring over the next few years:

• What species are occurring in Calgary’s parks system;
• Exploration of how human activities impact wildlife movement in parks (are species temporally displaced from trails);
• Validation of wildlife corridor modeling done for Calgary; and
• Long-term monitoring to assess trends and patterns of terrestrial mammals occurring in Calgary.

Who calls Calgary home?

Calgary supports a population of 1.2 million people but is also home to a diverse array of terrestrial mammals, including bobcat, moose, deer, coyote and skunks. There are occasional reports of black bears and cougars as well. While we can't directly measure populations with the data from our cameras, we can get a sense of which species are most common and where they are likeliest to be found. Finding out where certain species occur allows us to target future conservation and management efforts to ensure we can coexist with our wild neighbors.

How can humans and wildlife co-exist in a city?

People change the way wildlife use the landscape, but specific details remain unclear. Some species adapt well to humans, some are indifferent, and others tend to avoid us. By collecting incidental observation data on humans (what time of day do we use our parks etc) we can get a sense of how animals in urban settings react to humans. Humans are an integral part of the system, and the camera data will allow us to better understand our impact and inform co-existence strategies.

Why Cameras?

Our research includes a network of 63 motion-activated trail cameras, which automatically take photos of animals as they pass by. Camera technology gives us the ability to have many “eyes on the ground” and give us the opportunity to gather large amounts of data that would not be otherwise feasible with traditional field research methods. By establishing a camera network in parks throughout the City of Calgary, we hope to develop a more complete picture of our wild neighbors.

We Need You!

Calgary Captured enables you to join our team and help us classify trail camera photos by identifying the animals you see. By participating not only will you help us with the massive and very important task of identifying wildlife, you get a first hand look into who calls Calgary home and we hope you will enjoy looking at the diversity of wildlife in Calgary. We will use the results to better understand Calgary’s wild neighbors and to help inform our conservation and management goals within the City of Calgary.