A research project monitoring urban wildlife in and around Regina will officially continue into its second year in the Queen City.
The project aims to understand the types of wildlife found within the city.
collaboration between Royal Saskatchewan Museum And University of Regina Launched in the fall of 2021 with 17 biodiversity monitoring stations located around the city.
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“We’re hoping that completing the project will further our understanding of how wildlife in urban environments changes over time,” said Ryan Fisher, Royal Saskatchewan Museum curator of vertebrate zoology.
“We have our first year of data, and hopefully it provides us with a baseline and we are looking forward to registering wildlife for many years to come.”
The stations remained active for periods of one month in each of the four seasons, capturing images and recordings of large mammals, bird songs and bat calls.
A gray partridge is shown outside in the snow in an image captured by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.
Courtesy of the Government of Saskatchewan
According to a press release from the government of Saskatchewan, the songs of 41 species of birds were recorded over the fall and winter periods and researchers are currently listening to recordings from the summer when the city has the most bird species.
“Cities like Regina can provide valuable habitat for wildlife conservation and management,” Fischer said. “So far the project has recorded 13 species of mammals on cameras, ranging from moose to white-tailed deer to American mink.
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The museum’s research covers several locations in the city.
The stations are evenly distributed in the heart of Regina, on the edges of the city and in some more natural areas outside the city limits.
“This design helps researchers understand how different levels of urban development affect wildlife,” Fischer said. “During the past year, trail cameras were activated for over 50,000 hours of surveillance and microphones recorded over 500 hours of audio recordings.
“[It’s]a lot of information for a team of researchers to wade through.”
In the second year of the research project, the museum plans to expand to new areas of the city to obtain even more data.
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