A local biologist held a two-day course on how to track wildlife in the snow.
On Friday, Joseph Litke’s class spent the whole day at Elk Island National Park studying the snow for signs of animals.
“The snow provides a chalkboard and anything that happens to walk across the chalkboard leaves a really nice little story, and if you know what you’re doing, you can tell what species are there,” Litke, a biologist at Fiera Biological Consulting, told CTV News.
The tracks can be used to make sure you don’t intrude on wildlife, and to stay away from scary encounters.
“It’s useful to be able to recognize the wildlife signs and go, ‘That’s a bear track. It looks fresh and maybe I should go back to my car and get my bear spray,’” Litke said.
The course is both for experts and beginners. Conservation scientist Aerin Jacob believes it would helpful for all Canadians.
“One of the great things about Canada is there’s so much amazing nature and wildlife here,” she told CTV News. “As Canadians, it’s really important that we learn about that and we learn how to live in this environment in ways that make us happy and healthy, but in ways that animals can be healthy as well.”
People from all over the country attended the course, and Litke is considering bringing it back.
With files from Regan Hasegawa
