Did the COVID-19 lockdowns impact wildlife?
The COVID-19 lockdown impacted nature in many different ways, including giving us the opportunity to watch wildlife in our backyards. Our lead scientist on the Oak Bay and Esquimalt deer projects, Jason T. Fisher, and his lab also had the opportunity to see how...
When love is in the air
When love is in the air, bucks tend to be a bit single-minded. This piece found in Saanich News & Oak Bay News reminds us to be more aware of what bucks are doing, to avoid any unwanted interactions.
Declining mammal diversity: news from our research team lead
Dr. Jason T. Fisher featured in the Oak Bay News, Sept 9, 2021. page 11Dr. Jason T. Fisher, research lead on the Oak Bay and Esquimalt deer projects was featured in the Oak Bay News for his work with Alberta's Whitefish Lake First Nation. Read more about the great...
With a little help from my friends
Post and video by Oak Bay resident and UWSS supporter, Adam LeamySix months ago, we noticed that one of the deer that frequents our area had suffered a serious injury to its right rear hoof. Our worry was that the injury or the distress caused by it would put the...
It’s time for some Art in the Garden!
Click on the image for more info! Do you enjoy viewing lovely gardens, local music, and the work of local artists? Then you should consider attending this "Art in the Garden" event on June 27, taking place from 10 am — 4 pm rain or shine.
How lucky are we?!
Alina Fisher, BSc MA (Comms) PMP, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Victoria, was the most recent recipient of the Dr. Ian and Joyce McTaggart Cowan Scholarship in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. Alina has an extensive background in wildlife biology,...
Coming soon: slower (and safer) streets in the CRD
In recent months, Victoria and Saanich Councils have both approved applying to the provincial government for a three-year pilot project to reduce the default speed limit on their side streets (streets without centre lines) to 30 km/h from the current 50 km/h. The...
Camera thefts threaten innovative deer project
A series of thefts of vital research equipment in Oak Bay threatens the ground-breaking urban deer management project. Since early December, 13 specialized wildlife cameras out of the 39 associated with the project have been stolen from locations around the...
Lyme Disease and the Black-Tailed Deer on southern Vancouver Island
By Lynette Browne, DVM Image from medicalxpress.com Do you want to know about Lyme disease and the risk of getting this disease from ticks? For many of us that migrate here from Eastern Canada, we hear a lot more about Lyme disease as it is much more prevalent...
A few updates as we start the New Year
As 2021 has begun, we're wishing everyone a safe and healthy start to the New Year! Hunkering down With the darker, wetter days and nights, you may feel that you’re seeing fewer deer…the official term for that appears to be “hunkering down”! Like us, deer tend to look...
White-tailed deer in boreal landscapes
The native deer species here in greater Victoria is the Columbian black-tailed deer. But our lead scientist Jason Fisher and colleague Cole Burton have a new paper in the journal Ecology and Evolution on white-tailed deer in north-eastern Alberta. They found that oil...
Marking the end of 2020
Since our last blog post, we successfully completed our second season of immuno-contraception (IC)! Thanks to all of you who engaged in citizen science and helped us with locating the elusive does who needed vaccinating – almost all received their booster meaning...