Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Sep 10/01) - The North is going through myriad changes.
Never mind the political and social changes associated with governmental devolution and Nunavut's recent split with the Northwest Territories.
 Bob Bromley |
"There was a dragonfly that appeared in Pond Inlet two years ago," said Bob Bromley with Ecology North, which acts as a non-governmental watchdog over environmental issues.
"The kids saw it for the first time and were afraid of it."
On the outset, a dragonfly sighting in the High Arctic seems relatively innocuous within the overall scheme of things, but Bromley warns that such interlopers -- among others -- herald ecological changes to the Northern landscape that are both difficult to predict and potentially dangerous.
Bromley said biologists are ever conscious
"I think there should be interest in monitoring these kind of changes," said Bromley. "We know there's going to be ecological changes associated with climate change and that's a cause for concern.
"Eventually we'll have to adapt. It would be better to stop it, but we can't in the short term."
Birds, insects, mammals, plants and fungi -- there have been numerous observances and encounters in the North involving all kinds of different fauna.
Some species are not necessarily foreign to the NWT but have been moving to areas within the territory that are not normally considered part of their range or haven't been living there for decades.
"We've had pelicans here before on the (Kakisa) river, four of them," said Chief Lloyd Chicot of Kakisa. "I don't know what for."
Pelicans are more commonly found on the Slave River, more than 200 kilometres away.
But Chicot and other residents have also noticed visiting wildlife that, until recently, have never been seen in the area before.
"I've seen the magpies," said Chicot. "We've been getting them the last couple of years."
Chicot has also heard of cougars and white-tailed deer further up near the Mackenzie Highway, but he said none have been sighted within the vicinity of Kakisa yet.
"Where you're getting development they're coming out further," said Chicot. "But not around here."
Further up the highway from Kakisa is the larger municipality of Hay River. The town has both plenty of development and alien species of wildlife venturing into its boundaries.
Acting supervisor of runway maintenance David Gauthier said since coming to work there 12 years ago, he doesn't remember a single year without seeing coyotes at the airport.
"They've been here as long as I can remember," said Gauthier. "I see them at least once a week."
The local population has become so successful at adapting to the airport grounds -- despite regular patrols by runway personnel -- that they have established dens nearby.
Tales abound of wildlife visitors to the South Slave region: deer at the Hay River Golf Course, cougars devouring pet guinea pigs in Fort Smith, hummingbirds visiting backyard honeysuckle trees.
It is to be expected that most foreign fauna sightings occur along the NWT's southern edge, but there have been many sightings further North as well.
"Robins are now all over the Arctic," said Bromley. "When they appeared in Sachs Harbour, they didn't have a name for them."
"We're getting more prairie birds up here, such as the ruddy duck and hooded mergansers, gadwalls, and American coot. They are in generally good populations, at least as far as the North Slave.
"It could be a combination of drought and habitat loss in the prairies, so they 'overfly' their normal prairie habitat, and come up to the stable wet lands of the boreal forests. The populations persist because of the longer and warmer seasons we're getting."
Caribou biologist for Renewable Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development Anne Gunn has a term for such visitors.
"They're biologically called vagrants," said Gunn. "These are species that expand their range and begin breeding in small numbers.
"Thirty years ago there were very few sparrows in the North but now they're flourishing.
"There are sporadic deer showing up, and a deer was seen crossing the Ingraham Trail. I don't have any recorded reports of white-tailed deer sightings before 1990."
The increasing influx of animal visitors to the North has not gone unnoticed by the brass at the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.
Last year, the department completed a large, comprehensive report on NWT's wildlife -- NWT Species 2000 -- in anticipation of proposed changes to the territorial Wildlife Act when the legislative assembly resumes sitting this fall.
"We'll be keeping track on alien species through this report," said the manager of intergraded resources management, Ron Graf.
"We're taking part in a national commission right now called Alien Invasive Species. Most of this is looking at animals moving in from outside of Canada, but this relates to animals coming from down south as well."
For now, biologists are simply trying to get a grasp of the North's changing environment before more serious ecological problems develop.
"Bringing in new species sometimes throws everything out of whack," said Graf. "There have been some successful ones, like rainbow trout, but some have been a problem."
