Our annual Living With Wildlife conference has evolved into a new Compassionate Conservation Webinar Series. Each year The Fur-Bearers will host a week of webinars themed on wildlife co-existence, including presentations from scientists, advocates, government officials, and other experts. Recordings of all webinars from the 2017 series are available to view online for a small donation by clicking here.
Despite knowledge that indiscriminate killing of coyotes is ecologically damaging, ineffective and inhumane, it remains North America's defacto conservation management tool. We need a new paradigm that considers animal welfare and strives for co-existence. Understanding human motivations to co-existence or killing is vital to achieving this goal. This talk covers preliminary results of in person interviews with rural residential and agricultural landowners in the Foothills Parklands region of Alberta, and summarizes experiences, beliefs, gender differences, and the role cultural norms as they pertain to outcomes for coyotes.
Dr. Shelley Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Canada. With an emphasis on wolves and coyotes, she has 25 years of research experience spanning canid ecology, human-wildlife conflict, road ecology, and spatial analysis. Shelley leads the Canid Conservation Science lab (www.ucalgary.ca), founded on the principles of Compassionate Conservation.
In 2007, Martinez California USA was surprised to find beavers living in the city creek. Officials were worried their dam would cause flooding and recommended trapping. Heidi Perryman worked to convince the city to install a flow device instead and started the beaver advocacy group Worth A Dam. Now she teaches other cities how and why to co-exist with the important ecosystem engineer.
Heidi is a child psychologist who became an accidental beaver advocate when a family of beavers moved into the creek near her home. Now she lectures about beavers nationwide and maintains the website martinezbeavers.org which provides resources to make this work easier for others to do.
Getting educational information to the public is a significant aspect of animal non-profits – but inaccurate headlines, misinterpretation of behaviour, and catch phrases that don't tell the whole truth can hurt advocacy campaigns – and the animals. This presentation will explore media sensationalism, common issues in content development, and tips on how to show compassion – as well as fact.
Michael Howie is a former award-winning journalist who is the Director of Digital Content for The Fur-Bearers and hosts/produces Defender Radio: The Podcast for Wildlife Advocates & Animal Lovers.
This talk will explore how various seabirds and shorebirds use the urban environment as productive breeding habitat. Gulls will be the main biological family of focus, with particular attention paid to the urban centres of the Salish Sea region, including Vancouver and Victoria, BC, and Seattle, WA. Many species of gull have made densely populated urban centres their permanent nesting locations, but current laws protecting these habitats sorely lag behind our modern understanding of the relevant urban ecology. In the Salish Sea region, Glaucous-winged Gulls nest on rooftops in a variety of locations, Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants have built large colonies on steel bridges, and Black Oystercatchers now frequently attempt to rear young on public and private jetties. Drawing from recent and current research, we will explore the reproductive dynamics and distribution of these species in the urban environment, and indicate the unique challenges these populations face in the context of extreme human interaction and insufficient legal protections that are largely designed for non-urban breeders. Recommendations for education and outreach, as well as for legal efforts, will be discussed.
Dr. Edward Kroc is a statistician at the University of British Columbia. He has studied urban gulls for years, particularly their reproductive habits and success. In joint work with Dr. Louise Blight of the BC Ministry of Environment, he has attempted to understand how gulls adapt to and thrive in the urban environment by studying their spatial distribution and population dynamics in the Salish Sea region, as well as along the California Pacific coast and eastern Canada. Dr. Kroc is currently a postdoctoral research and teaching fellow in the Department of Statistics and the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education at UBC.
A summary of recent significant legal rulings impacting animals and strategies for advancing animal interests through the legal system (primarily US).
Tony is a nationally recognized litigator and trial attorney who joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund after a 15-year career as a partner with the largest law firm in the world. Tony's path to the Animal Legal Defense Fund began when he was a young associate encouraged by a colleague with a passion for animal law. Tony went on to work on several pro bono cases with the Animal Legal Defense Fund before he joined as full-time staff.
There is a toxic trio of poisons still being used to kill carnivores in Canada despite being banned from many other countries; strychnine, compound 1080 (sodium monoflouroacetate), and sodium cyanide. These toxicants are indiscriminate killers, endangering everything on a shared landscape and posing a risk to wildlife, biodiversity, pets and even people. These killing agents are are inhumane in that they cause extreme and prolonged suffering, and the fact of the matter is that better alternatives exist to manage wildlife responsibly and with compassion. It is beyond time for Canada to step-up and stop using these toxicants. I will discuss the rationale behind attempting to ban these substances across the country as well as provide an outline of non-lethal alternatives that can prevent conflicts among people, livestock and carnivores.
As the Executive Director of Wolf Awareness, Sadie Parr's work is centred on promoting wolf and large carnivore conservation through scientific research, education, and informed advocacy. Parr is active in campaigns in Western Canada to end wild canid bounty programs and wolf reduction experiments, alternatively promoting compassionate conservation and wildlife management based upon a foundation of ethics as well as scientific evidence and ecology. Much of Parr's work involves providing accurate information and public education regarding wolf biology and behaviour, and focusses on solution-oriented and non-lethal methods of co-existence and co-flourishing where people and natural predators overlap.
Young people have the power to create a better world for themselves, the environment, and the animals. But we have to empower them and provide the tools so they can learn to make compassionate choices. Join The Fur-Bearers' Executive Director and humane educator Lesley Fox as she explores available lesson plans, movies and documentaries, books, activities, and outlines to help parents and teachers include humane education and compassionate thinking in the lives of children.
Whether you're a wildlife rehabilitator or a part-time advocate, supporting non-human animals can be physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. For mental health and healthcare workers, this is recognized as 'compassion fatigue.' Understanding what compassion fatigue is and learning how to recognize it is only the first step in keeping yourself, and those around you, healthy and happy. The various strategies for managing stresses, gaining a deeper understanding of what self-care really is, and learning how and when to walk away are vital.
Kate Rizzuto, B.A., is a Concurrent Disorders Outreach Counsellor. Kate's experience in the mental health and healthcare industries combined with her personal connections to The Fur-Bearers and other advocacy efforts make her the ideal facilitator for this webinar.
Adrian Treves has bee an analyst of ecological data on predators for 25 years. He earned his PhD at Harvard University in 1997 and is now a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and founder of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab. His research focuses on ecology, law, and agroecosystems where crop and livestock ownership overlap carnivore habitat. He has authored more than 100 scientific papers on predator-prey ecology or conservation.
It's a common sight during the summer in Canada's mountain parks - a horde of vehicles stopped on the road, filled with excited people, anxious to get a glimpse/photograph of one of Canada's majestic wild animals. It makes sense of course - there is nothing like seeing Canada's wildlife thriving in their natural habitat. It is natural to want to observe our wildlife, but it is important to understand the impact we as observers can have on an animal's behaviours, well-being and environment. Join wildlife photographer Kerri Martin, www.kerrimartinphotography.com, for some tips, strategies and insights into how to observe wildlife in a safe, respectful and unobtrusive manner.
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