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...
Time for a boost!
We've been busy giving immuno-contraception (IC) to the does in Oak Bay. Each doe gets an initial dose, and then a booster a few weeks later. That means that we need to give boosers to the does treated with IC this year (which is about 60 "new" does) and to last...
Compassionate conservation — yes even for rats and raccoons
by Anne Drummond In mid-June, the Saanich municipality voted to discontinue the use of anticoagulant rodenticides in all of their facilities. The motivation for discontinuing the use of these highly toxic rodenticides was evidence that owls, raccoons, and other...
Tweens of all species
Humans aren't the only species whose "tweens" that are itching for more independence but perhaps lack a bit of experience. Tween fawns aren't much different. While young fawns tend to stay close to mom, as they get a little older they start to become a little more...
Humming to the tune of Hummingbirds
by Anne Drummond It is 6 A.M. and only a tiny sliver of light on the eastern horizon to presage the dawn. There is 2 feet of snow on the ground and the temperature dropped to -8 C for the third night in a row. You are taking the freshly filled hummingbird feeders out...
On the Nature of Stewardship
by Anne Drummond We are living in strange and uncertain times; forest fires, floods, and other manifestations of climate change along with the social, economic, and ecological problems associated with an ever-increasing human population. Then the current COVID-19...
Pretty in pink: our control group
Now that fawning season has begun, have you seen a doe with fawns in your neighbourhood? This past fall, we undertook the second phase of the Oak Bay Urban Deer study supported by the District of Oak Bay and the Province of BC. Before the rut in 2019, the research...
Fawn season 2020
by Anne Drummond Along with warmer, brighter days and burgeoning vegetation growth, deer fawning season is beginning, with the first fawns already sighted in Oak Bay and other municipalities. One of our "control group" deer that did not receive immunocontraceptive in...
Collar Checks and Control Group Identification Completed!
If you saw the now familiar orange safety vests and a man carrying what looks like a rifle (he’s a wildlife veterinarian and it’s a dart projector!) you’ll know that our field team was once again out in the field this March. The purpose of the fieldwork was...
Deer Management Grant Funding
Dr. Jason Fisher, lead scientist of the Oak Bay Urban Deer Research Project. The current Oak Bay Urban Deer Research Project has been funded by the Province of BC and the District of Oak Bay, in partnership with the volunteer, non-profit Urban Wildlife Stewardship...