Ten of nature's weirdest courtship rituals
Greater prairie chicken (Photo by Ron Knight/Wikimedia Commons)
Much like humans, other animals have evolved ways of wooing or courting potential mates, whether it’s singing a love song, doing a sensual dance or giving a thoughtful gift. With love in the air this Valentine’s Day, here are 10...
Top 10 blog posts of 2017
Bunchberry Meadows Conservation Area, AB (Photo by Kyle Marquardt)
Every year, Land Lines is filled with submissions from across the country, with tales touching on a variety of topics — from the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) stewardship work, to heartwarming accounts of conservation...
Identifying bats by their distinctive voices
Big brown bat (Photo by Brock Fenton)
Having studied bats for more than a decade, I have been fortunate to be able talk to students in their classrooms while doing bat presentations, or to landowners while I trapped bats on their properties. Everyone has a bat story. Everyone loves...
A soft spot for the infamous predator: Wolves
Gray wolf (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
The timber wolf, also known as the gray wolf, is common in northwestern Ontario, where I have worked and lived for nearly 40 years. Common, but not always safe. I have a soft spot for predators such as wolves. In part because they are beautiful...
On a quest for the alluring swift fox
Swift fox cub and its mum (Photo by Catriona Matheson, Cochrane Ecological Institute)
My unsuccessful search for the elusive swift fox has spanned nearly a decade.It was 2008, the winter semester of my first year at Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alberta, when I first learned about the history of swift foxes in Canada. The smallest...
The elusive wolverine: Beyond the X-Men character
The elusive wolverine. This individual was caught on camera making off from the bait station with a large piece of beaver carcass. (Photo by InnoTech Alberta and Alberta Environment & Parks)
When you think of a wolverine, do you think of an elusive, almost mythical creature with superpowers, or do you think of the comic book character? Most people have heard of X-Men, either through the movies or the comic book series, but few people...
Keeping my distance from a gentle giant
Moose on Mount Hereford, QC (Photo by MRC de Coaticook)
I have had a great respect for moose ever since a misadventure at Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, more than 20 years ago. While hiking along the popular Skyline Trail, my boyfriend and I came across several moose grazing on low...
Badgered into respecting the wild
American badger (Photo by Max Allen/Shutterstock)
It was my co-worker Emily's and my first day out in the field without a manager — the training wheels were off. We were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to impress the property land managers with a thorough property inspection. This...
10 species protected thanks to Conservation Volunteers, coast to coast
Juvenile burrowing owls (Photo by Lauren Meads)
So far this year, hundreds of volunteers from across the country have gathered to lend a hand for nature at events hosted by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). Whether it was removing invasive species wreaking havoc on a delicate forest, or...
Parasitism: The dark side of symbiosis
Sand steenbras infected with tongue-eating louse (Photo by Marco Vinci/Wikimedia Commons)
In nature, when two individuals of different species often live in close association with each other, this leads to a phenomenon called symbiosis. There are three types of symbiosis: Mutualism is a win-win situation for both organisms because...
