Wildlife monitoring project to continue in Regina

Researchers once again will be trying to find out what kind of animals hang out in Regina.

The Regina Urban Wildlife Research Program is run by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) in conjunction with the University of Regina.

Started in the fall of 2021, the project is designed to see what kind of wildlife can be found within the city and which parts of the city provide important habitat for wildlife.

“What we’re interested in is understanding how wildlife responds to urban development,” said Dr. Ryan Fisher, the RSM’s curator of vertebrate zoology.

The RSM set up 17 monitoring stations around the city, with trail cameras to watch for large mammals and microphones to record bird songs and bat calls. The cameras are motion-sensitive, so they trigger when an animal walks past.

The stations operate for one-month periods in each of the spring, summer, fall and winter.

So far, the project has recorded 13 species of mammals on camera, from moose to white-tailed deer to American mink. According to a media release, most of the large mammals were recorded at night, when humans aren’t as active.

Gray partridges. (Government of Saskatchewan/Submitted)

Microphones also captured the songs of 41 species of birds in the fall and winter periods, the release said, and researchers now are listening to recordings from the summer when more species are in the city.

“We get some more secretive (species) like the bobolink, which nests and breeds in Wascana Park but it’s actually an endangered species here in Canada,” Fisher said.

The monitoring stations are located in the middle of the city, on the edges and in natural areas outside the city’s boundaries.

“As we go into the future, we know the city is probably going to change and what this study will allow us to do is see how the animals respond,” Fisher said.

The museum said the trail cameras were active for more than 50,000 hours of monitoring and the microphones recorded more than 500 hours of audio recordings.

According to the museum, the project will be expanding into other areas of the city this year.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Brett Lubkiwski