U of S team leads wildlife monitoring project in Saskatoon

Deer, moose, cougars and even bears have been known to frequent Saskatoon from time to time, but what other wild visitors do we have?

A research team at the University of Saskatchewan is attempting to answer that question with the launch of a surveillance project.

Thirty-four cameras have been strapped to trees across the city to photograph the different critters and animals that are coming and going.

“We are really interested in this whole wildlife question. What’s out there?” said Ryan Brook, associate professor at the U of S’s College of Agriculture and Bio Resources.

“We really want to start documenting what we’re seeing in the city.”

The U of S project is part of the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), which has dozens of cities — mostly in the United States — compiling and sharing similar data with each other.

So far, Saskatoon and Edmonton are the only Canadian cities participating.

“This design is such you can start to compare across cities and say, ‘What are the overall patterns in North America of how wildlife respond to things like golf courses or cemeteries?’ ” Brook said.

“(There are) so many interesting opportunities to pull all these data together and ask some really important and useful questions.”

The cameras will be snapping pictures 24/7 for the next number of years and Brook is excited to see what pops up.

“(We’re) always interested in invasive wild boar which can be a real problem and we know in the U.S. they have really moved into cities as well,” said Brook, who has done extensive research on feral pigs that he believes will one day outnumber people.

“We know they occur right close to Saskatoon and may at some point move into the city.”

Brook said the data will be invaluable to better understanding animal patterns in urban areas and could be used to shape wildlife policy and environmental studies.

The plan is to share some of the images on social media and involve the public and schools this winter.