Niki Wilson
As seen in:
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Covers:
environment, natural history, conservation, protected areas, environmental science, national parks, biology, cultural cognition
Writer . Host & Science Advisor #JasperDarkSky Fest. She/Her. Treaty 6 & 8. 🇺🇦 Not on here much anymore. Find me
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Articles by Niki Wilson
Community Centres
During WW II, the Legion operated mobile canteens. [Legion Magazine Archive] A collector coin released in tribute to the Legion’s centenary. [Royal Canadian Mint] On Aug. 17, 2024, I arrived back in Jasper, Alta., with my family after a month-long evacuation due to the July wildfires that burned a third of the town’s businesses and residences. Amid a drizzle, the smell of wet ash filled our car as we passed the charred husks of local homes.
Why ADHD goes undiagnosed in girls
Credit: Ben Michelman Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is harder to detect in girls than in boys. Julia Schechter, a clinical psychologist at the Duke Center for Girls & Women with ADHD in Durham, North Carolina, explains why girls with ADHD are harder to diagnose, and how undiagnosed girls face higher risks of bad outcomes than boys do, ranging from relationship issues to eating disorders and self-harm. What are the current rates of ADHD diagnosis in women and girls?
The year of the fire
At 3 a.m. on the morning of July 23, 2024, it was 27 C and too hot to close the car windows. Frail-bodied moths with white paper wings crawled in and made their frantic way across our gray-carpeted car ceiling. There were thousands of moths there under the bludgeoning bright lights of the highway rest stop. Next to me, my then 19-year-old son’s breathing finally fell into the rhythm of sleep, his forehead slicked with sweat.
Hospice of the Panhandle supports those with advanced heart disease
Every February, Heart Health Month shines a spotlight on the importance of cardiovascular wellness and the need for proactive management of heart conditions. For individuals in the advanced stages of heart disease, daily life can be challenging, filled with frequent hospital visits, symptom management struggles, and uncertainty. What if there was a way to break this exhausting cycle and receive expert care at home?
Can we beat back the boar?
When Ramona Maraj took on the role of ecologist at Elk Island National Park, Alta., in 2018, wild pig capture was not part of the job. Yet five years later, in March 2023, she found herself fixing a GPS collar around the thick neck of a sedated 136-kilogram (300-pound) boar. Seeing a wild pig in real life is like “watching a unicorn pop out of a bush,” says Maraj.
Hospice of the Panhandle celebrates Valentine's Week with sweet surprises for community partners
In a tradition spanning over 30 years, Hospice of the Panhandle is once again spreading joy and gratitude during Valentine’s Week, honoring our many community partners with special Valentine’s Week snacks. In the fast-paced world of healthcare, where compassion and dedication intersect, it’s easy for the tireless efforts of our healthcare and community partners to go unnoticed.
The Tyranny of Getting Ready
Pamela Anderson attended the British Fashion Awards last week and made headlines for not wearing makeup. A celebrity not wearing makeup at a highly photographed red-carpet event shouldn’t be a story, but it is because most women in the same position wouldn’t think of it. “I have no glam team or anything here,” Anderson told Vogue. “I was just like, ‘Why am I putting so much effort into this? Why am I in a makeup chair for three hours?’” Anderson is right.
Grizzly bear trails hikers in tense footage filmed in Montana
Take a hike in northwestern Montana’s Glacier National Park – even in the height of summer tourism season, even in broad daylight – and you might just find yourself sharing the trail with a grizzly bear.
Social-media use isn’t always a problem for children
Does frequent engagement with social-media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok affect the well-being of adolescents? Maartje Boer, who studies problematic social-media use and is based at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, says that for many teenagers, social media might not be as harmful as some adults fear. How do you define social-media addiction?
A discovery of colossal proportions: uncovering the ichthyosaur
On a summer day in 1989, paleontologist Don Brinkman sat waiting for a helicopter pickup with the rest of his field crew in the Wapiti Lake area of British Columbia. It had been 10 days since they’d been dropped there, a known hotbed for fossils of early Triassic marine reptiles that lived up to 250 million years ago.
Are Nature Documentaries Good For Nature? on Apple Podcasts
38 min From My Octopus teacher to BBC's latest hit The Green Planet, wildlife documentaries continue to draw millions of viewers. But are they good for wildlife? We discuss with top doc makers, and get the inside scoop on working with Sir David Attenborough. We also uncover one the biggest wildlife myths of all time (thanks Disney), and ask, is Tik Tok really where it's at for wildlife media? 38 min
The cat came back: Canada's cougar comeback
As Siobhan Darlington approached the tangled branches of a forestry slash-pile between Rock Creek and Grand Forks, B.C., her tracking gear beeped ever faster. A six-year-old female cougar named C10 that Darlington had been monitoring through a satellite-linked collar was beneath the debris. Three months earlier, Darlington had set up a remote camera at one of C10’s deer-kill sites and caught her and a male cougar taking turns rolling around in the dirt.
May/June 2021
Features THE COOL CALLING Glaciologist Alison Criscitiello is redefining the term explorer — and uncovering the secrets of climate change at the same time By Tim Querengesser Digital extra:Contraindications: Love, risk, community and adventure AMET* It means "awake" in Beothuk, the language and people who once called present-day Newfoundland home. Today, a unique collection of maps and art helps us understand a people’s story.
Did A Caribou Help Fly Santa’s Sleigh?
With caribou and reindeer populations declining across the globe, has old Saint Nick gotten more aggressive with his recruitment? It used to be that only reindeer flew Santa’s sleigh. But now, biologists at fRI Research in Alberta, Canada, wonder if Santa is recruiting caribou to help get the job done. Laura Finnegan leads the Caribou Research Program, and with her team conducts research to help land managers, industry and government protect caribou.
What are these animals doing? Viral TikTok videos explained
What are these animals doing? Viral TikTok videos explained During the COVID-19 lockdown, many online users turned to TikTok to alleviate their boredom. The video-sharing social networking site is crammed full of easily digestible clips, perfect for whiling away the hours. Unsurprisingly, many of these videos feature animals – both domestic and wild – but few explain the behaviours captured. We’ve gone ahead and done that for some of the most viral animal videos out there.
April 2020 - Alberta Views
Calgary’s Chinatown has been relocated twice—first in 1886, after a fire on Stephen Avenue destroyed half the neighbourhood, and again in 1910 when a CPR proposal to build a hotel in the vicinity [...]
Seeds in Silk Coats
As climate patterns change, growing enough food for an increasing global population will become evermore challenging. There is a need to develop technologies that enhance agricultural output without causing negative impacts on soil and surrounding ecosystems. Now, a group of scientists have created an environmentally friendly biomaterial that helps seeds grow in degraded soils.
Is Recycling Futile?
We Albertans find it hard to resist the allure of produce perfectly packaged in plastic clamshells. The containers are convenient—the strawberries, cherry tomatoes and blackberries are gloriously free of grubby-finger jabs and travel-induced bruising. But when the berries are gone and the clamshells sit yawning and empty, they cause real headaches for the people tasked with recycling them.
Animal Optimism | Natural History Magazine
Working toward tangible goals can have a positive effect on mood, making people feel happier or more optimistic. A new study found that New Caledonian Crows (Corvus moneduloides) experience a similar effect after tool use. An international team of scientists from the United States, New Zealand, and Germany investigated whether engaging in complex behavior enhances the mood of crows. First, they developed a way to gauge the birds’ mood.
Boar War - Alberta Views
By the time Greg Gilbertson became a provincial fish and wildlife officer for the Alberta counties of Woodlands and Lac Ste. Anne in 1998, calls for help in dealing with wild boar were part of the job. Ever since Eurasian boar farms were approved in Alberta in the early 1980s, the wily swine had been making a break for it, knocking down fences, tunnelling beneath them or simply finding openings made by outsiders hell-bent on establishing a wild pig population to hunt.
What Happens To Bats After A Hurricane?
Bats play a critical role in the ecosystem on the island of Dominica, but with climate change expected to spawn more severe hurricanes, understanding how the bats in this region are impacted by such extreme storms will be important to future conservation efforts. Bracyphylla cavernarum, fruit-eater bat. Photo by Lisa Sims.
Divorce in Canada Geese
Do monogamous animals ever split up? Certainly, but a recent study on Canada geese offers some new insight into why it happens among this particular species. Being a parent takes a lot of energy, just ask Canada geese. After their goslings hatch, both parents stick around for nine months to help their young survive the winter — a long time by some birds’ standards.
The math behind China’s fight against HIV
In China’s Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, a series of programs born from mathematical modelling have provided a valuable sociomedical lifeline to a region hit hard by the HIV epidemic. Part of an ongoing series of stories about innovative projects in the developing world, a partnership between the International Development Research Centre and Canadian Geographic. Visit the Charting Change website to read “The math behind China's fight against HIV ”.
Student Study on Porcupines in the 90s Informs Research Today
Porcupines might not seem like the best study animal for a group of high school students. With roughly 30,000 quills on their back, the idea of handling them is enough to make even a seasoned researcher carefully weigh the logistics. Photo courtesy Dick (Richard) Thiel. “They also have these nasty little incisor teeth that will take your finger off,” says retired wildlife ecologist Dick (Richard) Thiel.
Building water-stress resilience in Panama
Drought and water shortages have long been a fact of life in Panama, but as the climate continues to change, the Central American country is ramping up its efforts to conserve and manage the resource. Part of an ongoing series of stories about innovative projects in the developing world, a partnership between the International Development Research Centre and Canadian Geographic. Visit the Charting Change website to read “Building water-stress resilience in Panama”.
When Porcupines Live In Fear
Porcupines can live a long time — some up to 18 years. Yet it’s not always the carefree lifestyle one might assume given their prickly armor. Photo by Dragomir Vujnovic Mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats and foxes all occasionally hunt these spiky rodents. But in eastern North America, by far one of the porcupine’s most formidable predators is the fisher, a larger cousin of the American marten. There was a time when porcupines lived without fear of attack by these wily weasels.
Living With The Enemy - How Some Birds Keep their Young Safe
Every parent wants to ensure their offspring are safe, but certain birds have taken this desire for safety to a whole new level. Read on to see how some birds have taken to literally living with predators as a way to protect their young. The mouth of an American alligator is a yawning chasm spiked with 80 teeth that can clamp shut with the strength required to lift a small truck.
A feminist approach to open government
The term “open government” is synonymous with the idea of inclusivity, but as three female experts on the topic note, women and women’s issues are still vastly underrepresented in the open government movement. Part of an ongoing series of stories about innovative projects in the developing world, a partnership between the International Development Research Centre and Canadian Geographic. Visit the Charting Change website to read “A feminist approach to open government”.
Where the Seabird Guano Goes
With ocean plastics now present on a global scale, seabirds can ingest it almost anywhere and that’s not where the issue stops. Photo: Thick-billed Murres taken by Michel Gendron At the northeastern tip of Qaqulluit National Wildlife Area, (Baffin Island, Canada) two rocky pillars rise from the Arctic Ocean to a height of over 1400 feet. The orange lichen painted across the cliff sides brightens in contrast to the vibrant green grasses that cover the flat tops of these spires.
Are Table Scraps Influencing the Evolution of Darwin’s Finches?
Think sharing your junk food with begging birds doesn’t affect biodiversity? This study may make you think again. Photo by Luis De León Imagine you’ve just arrived on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. It’s 104°F (40°C), and the trip from the mainland was long — over 560 miles (900km). You could use a cold drink and a good meal. Luckily restaurants abound in the urban center of Puerto Ayora, home to 12,000 residents plus many of the over 200,000 tourists that visit the Galapagos every year.
Hot Flash News | Natural History Magazine
Females that live long, post-reproductive lives are rare in the animal kingdom. Until recently, reproductive senescence, or menopause, had only been observed in humans and in two species of toothed whales: killer whales, Orcinus orca, and short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus [see “The Menopause Monologues,” 6/15]. Research into the prevalence of menopause in toothed whales has been hindered by difficulties in accessing and observing wild populations.
The Legacy of Big Boy the Grizzly Bear
Mating season is one of the most dangerous times of year for male grizzly bears that roam between the Province of Alberta and Jasper National Park, Canada. As they travel hundreds of miles in search of a mate, they are at risk of poaching, accidental shootings, collisions with cars and trains, and sometimes fatal attacks from other males willing to fight to the death for a female grizzly nearby. It’s a tough place to make a living, where many bears die young.
Beehive fences and elephants: Tanzanian case study offers fresh insights
Katarzyna Nowak, University of the Free State When people cultivate food crops on or near wild lands it can be assumed that wild animals will eat them – what’s known as crop-raiding. Farms in the vicinity of protected areas can expect to be visited by a range of wild animals including birds, rodents, and large mammals like monkeys, bushpigs and elephants. Beehive fences can help improve human-elephant coexistence.
Getting Around the Bends
Getting Around the Bends The bends (also known as decompression sickness) is a condition by which nitrogen gas builds up in bodily tissues during underwater descent and can expand to form bubbles during ascent, with painful and even deadly consequences. Diving marine mammals are thought to avoid the bends through physiological processes related to the passive compression of their lungs as pressure increases with depth.
Protracted Custody
The survival of a heavily hunted species should select for fast reproduction and accelerated life histories. But when hunting regulations protect female reproductive status, other patterns of selectivity may evolve. In a recent study of female Scandinavian brown bears, Ursus arctos arctos, from a heavily hunted population in south-central Sweden, it appears that hunting management practices have changed female reproductive behavior in a relatively short time.
Improving Africa’s food-security, one woman at a time
Why African women should be playing a bigger and more equal role in achieving food security for the continent. Part of an ongoing series of stories about innovative projects in the developing world, a partnership between the International Development Research Centre and Canadian Geographic. Visit the Charting Change website to read “Improving Africa’s food-security, one woman at a time.”
Anthropocene: Geologists urge global recognition of new, human-influenced epoch
Radioisotopes begin to appear in the stratigraphic record after the first nuclear bomb detonation on American soil, the Trinity Test of 1945 (pictured). Geologists argue this evidence of human impact on Earth suggests a boundary between the current epoch, the Holocene, and a new epoch, the Anthropocene.
Back where they belong
But this year, the season has brought a sound not heard in the valley for more than a century, one that was once almost entirely lost not just here but across the great plains of North America. It is a low rumbling that vibrates in your ribs as much as it does your ears, and that intensifies as you get closer to its source. It is the sound of female plains bison communicating with their young.
Back where they belong
Spring in the remote Panther River valley in Alberta’s Banff National Park sounds almost exactly like you imagine it should. The air explodes with birdsong. The river, finally free of ice, roars along its course. Fat bumblebees hum by like tiny zeppelins, occasionally colliding with scorpionweed blossoms. A cool wind rustles the trees.
There may be a type of caribou that science never noticed
As you move north from the broad reaches of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada, spruce forests first give way to scrubby taiga, then to the hard, smooth rocks of the Canadian Shield, and finally to the southern Arctic. This is the Sahtú region.It is caribou country. The Dene and Métis people have coexisted with the caribou for millennia.Now it seems that these people may have known something about the caribou that science has, so far, missed.
This tiny creature can survive without breathing for 17 days
When it comes to ice age animals, mammoths get a lot of press. Sure, those hunks of curving ivory and cozy wool coats are pretty impressive. But where are they now?
Canadian Geographic: Educational Program Empowering Women in Rural India
Just outside the city of Muzaffarpur in the Indian state of Bihar, a middle-aged woman named Vibha works as a stonemason in a production plant. Without knowing the context, there would be nothing remarkable about this situation — after all, women are paid to work physical jobs around the world every day. But not here, where women don’t often have the education and training required to earn money for themselves.
Faculty, Beakerhead Science Communications School 2016
I’m really happy to announce there will be a new Beakerhead Science Communications School for science writing held in Jasper during the Jasper Dark Sky Festival in October. The potential for creative collaboration between these two amazing organizations is enormous – it’s a perfect fit. I will be faculty there along with a soon-to-be-announced group of accomplished science media professionals (scoop: Jay Ingram will be one of them:).
Wolverine babies filmed in the wild for the first time
Wildlife filmmaker Andrew Manske’s five-year mission to track down one of the world's most elusive carnivores hit a high note with a decidedly unintimidating sound: the soft cries of a baby. A baby wolverine, that is. Wolverine: Ghost of the Northern Forest - Baby WolverineWATCH THURSDAY AT 8 PM OR ONLINE: A wild baby wolverine. This is the first time this scene has EVER been caught on camera.
BBCEarth: Why Termites Build Such Enormous Skyscrapers
Across the forests and prairies of Asia, and vast savannahs of Africa, live secret societies of architects. They are masters of construction, their sophisticated and innovative green-energy designs perfectly capturing the current trend for environmentally friendly construction. And yet these architects don’t like to share their secrets: exactly how – and why – they build their towering constructions has until recently remained somewhat mysterious. Read more… Like this:Like Loading...
Why termites build such enormous skyscrapers
Across the forests and prairies of Asia, and vast savannahs of Africa, live secret societies of architects. They are masters of construction, their sophisticated and innovative green-energy designs perfectly capturing the current trend for environmentally friendly construction. And yet these architects don’t like to share their secrets: exactly how – and why – they build their towering constructions has until recently remained somewhat mysterious.Who are these master builders?
Os microrganismos 'bons' transmitidos durante o sexo sem proteção
Os mosquitos também são habitados por bactérias sexualmente transmissíveis que se espalham por seus intestinos, testículos e óvulos. Essa camada bacteriana serve de alimento para as larvas do mosquito, permitindo que elas se desenvolvam de dois a quatro dias mais rapidamente do que se ela não existisse. Uma revisão de seis estudos científicos descobriu que o GBV-C está ligado a uma redução de 59% da taxa de mortalidade dos pacientes com o HIV.
Mother Nose Best
Mother Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) alternate between nursing their pups for one or two days and then leaving them to spend days at sea hunting for food. When they return to their breeding grounds, they are confronted with the task of finding their young among thousands of pups. They use vocalizations primarily to locate their pups and scent for close-range recognition.
The Last Word On Nothing
My son’s new school supplies shine too brightly in the corner of my office. It’s the standard fare: glue sticks, soon to be dried out felt pens, a rainbow of highlighters, a cheap pencil sharpener made in China. The exercise books lay crisp and waiting to be filled with vocabulary tests and paragraphs about summer vacation. It’s kinda depressing. Summer holiday is the best time of year for me as a writer. No more having to get up and trade PJs for pants to drop my son at the school.
Surprising benefits of sexually transmitted diseases
Around the age when my interest in boys went from beating them at monkey bar tag to stealing smooches behind the high school, my mum had the sex talk with me. We talked about consent, respect, not getting pregnant and very importantly: “do not get a sexually transmitted disease.” No glove, no love. This was, of course, very good advice. It’s thought by the World Health Organization that worldwide, more than one million people a day acquire a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
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