Our results

This project has been ongoing for almost 10 years now! Over that time, we’ve learned a lot about the species in Wapusk National Park, but many more questions have come up.

The longer the trail cameras are deployed the more questions we have. The trail cameras run year-round and provide us with information even when no humans are around to operate them. The cameras occasionally must be dug out of the snow, but in general, they run all year. This gives us the opportunity to compare data between years, and the more years of data the more long term questions we can evaluate.

What do we know?

We now know that Wapusk National Park is the only place where polar, grizzly, and black bears co-occur. All three bear species have appeared on our cameras. For more information check out this article. You can also read this scientific paper that was published using some of our trail camera data.

We know there is a huge diversity in animal species in Wapusk National Park. There are many different species that walk past our cameras and with that, we can perform many different types of analyses that evaluate species richness, diversity, and abundance. These species parameters can then be used to investigate how they respond to changes in the environment and increased human presence.

The trail cameras are set-up at three different research camps along the Hudson Bay coast. Therefore, we can study differences in species captured between the camps from year to year and within the same year.

Public engagement

An important part of our project is engaging students, locals around Wapusk National Park, and beyond in our research. We have had great success incorporating local knowledge into our research and we continue to work towards greater community involvement in wildlife research.

Student participation is equally important in our work. Several student groups assist in both data analysis and data collection. Encouraging this student participation has diversified our research group and strengthened this project with new perspectives. Check out our "Education" page to get students involved.

Amazing moments captured

Using trail cameras to research wildlife in the Arctic can take your breath away. We have captured some truly amazing images of animals in their natural habitat. Try classifying some of our images because you never know what you will come across.

Recent publications

Clark, D., Barnas, A., Brook, R.K., Ellis-Felege, S.N., Fishback, L., Higdon, J.W., Manning, K., Rivet, D., Roth, J.D., Trim, V., Webb, M., and Rockwell, R. 2022. The state of knowledge about grizzly bears (Kakenokuskwe osow Muskwa (Cree), Ursus arctos) in Northern Manitoba. Arctic 75(1): 105-120. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic74922

Clark, D. A., Brook, R., Oliphant-Reskanski, C., Laforge, M. P., Olson, K., Rivet, D. (2018) Novel range overlap of three ursids in the Canadian subarctic. Arctic Science, 5(1): 62-70, https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2018-0013

Laforge, M. P., Clark, C. A., Schmidt, A. L., Lankshear, J. L., Kowalchuk, S., Brook, R. K. (2017) Temporal aspects of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) occurrences at field camps in Wapusk National Park, Canada. Polar Biology, 40: 1661-1670, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-017-2091-6