Gilbert Proulx

Alpha Wildlife Research and Management Ltd. · Science

We need your input. In the last 2 decades, the overall number of threatened vertebrates, invertebrates, vascular plants, and fungi and protists has nearly doubled, most mammalian megafauna face dramatic range contractions and population declines, wildlife habitats are being lost and fragmented, and wildlife programs and activities are plagued with...

Following the detection of wild pigs (Sus crofa) south of the Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area (BFT) in March 2022, we investigated how far wild pigs extended their range within the BFT during spring and summer 2022. From April to July 2022, we surveyed 33 km of trails throughout the BFT. We found wild pig signs (tracks, scats, rooting) in p...

On March 4, 2022 we found the carcass of a wild pig (Sus scrofa) in a road ditch, approximately 12 km south of the Blackfoot Recreation Area (BFT), which is adjacent to the southern border of Elk Island National Park (EINP), in north-central Alberta. Thereafter, we found signs of wild pig activities in the pastures of the BFT. The expansion of wild...

Although it is claimed by many that dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis sylvestris catus) are constantly captured in traps set for furbearers, trappers and government agencies claim that there are few such incidents. In this paper, we aim to assess the frequency of pet captures in traps set for furbearers, and the reasons for such captures. We...

In this paper, I review questions about the 5 Ws ̶ Who, What, When, Where, and Why ̶ of mammal trapping that I judge significant to better understand the pros and cons of mammal trapping: who traps mammals and who objects to such activities; who is responsible for professional and ethical mammal trapping; what is mammal trapping, the performance th...

The Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS) is a binding agreement that governs the use of trapping devices in Canada. The standards set out in the Agreement to improve animal welfare can be effective only if they are implemented by trappers. In this paper, we review the implementation of AIHTS trapping standards in Canada. We...

In this paper, we: 1) review the case of a northern raccoon (Procyon lotor) that suffered for approximately 4 h in a Conibear 220 killing trap set in a suburban area; 2) show how the citizens involved took action to learn about mammal trapping methods, critically evaluate opposing arguments provided, and ultimately bring about change at the municip...

The assessment of trapping systems according to stringent mammal trapping standards usually requires design improvements. Modifications that have been found effective in improving killing and restraining trapping systems should be used by progressive trap manufacturers and inventors. The objectives of this chapter were to identify changes to trappi...

In this paper, we set out the prerequisites for the development of killing and restraining trap systems to capture mammals for research, wildlife management and conservation, fur trapping, animal control, and any other activity involving the trapping of a mammal in a mechanical trapping device. We selected them with the main intent of developing ne...

In this paper, we propose standards for killing trap systems based on Proulx et al.'s (2022) prerequisites, which provide context and explanations for our approach. Our aim is to identify assessment protocols that are based on the scientific method, and that include evaluation parameters and threshold levels of acceptation, and laboratory and field...

In this paper, we propose standards for restraining trap systems based on Proulx et al.'s (2022a) prerequisites, which provide context and explanations for our approach. Our aim is to identify assessment protocols that are based on the scientific method, and that include evaluation parameters and threshold levels of acceptation, and laboratory and...

1. De Araujo et al. (Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13516) described the development and application of a wire foot snare trap for the capture of jaguars Panthera onca and cougars Puma concolor. Snares are a commonly used and effective means of studying large carnivores. However, the article presented insu...

Current mammal trapping standards uphold the use of inhumane trapping technology. For example, killing neck snares for the capture of canids, and rotating-jaw traps, and steel-jawed leghold traps for procyonids and mustelids, are being used by trappers despite decades of research showing that they are inhumane, and cause serious injuries and distre...

Human activities resulting in the extirpation of small carnivore populations-either directly through shooting, trapping, or poisoning of the animals, or indirectly through the control of prey or habitat destruction-have repeated themselves over space and time. Since the early 1900s, pest control methods in the Canadian Prairies and habitat loss and...

We review den and resting site terminology used in 121 scientific publications related to species of the subfamily Guloninae (hereafter Martes Complex, sensu Proulx and Aubry 2017). These indicate that the term den has been used both to describe structures used by females to give birth and/or raise their kits, or by both sexes to sleep or rest. The...

In Canada, little information exists on habitat use by Pacific martens (Martes caurina). In this study, we used remote video-cameras to study the distribution of the species in the Coastal Western Hemlock ecosystems of southern Vancouver Island. All video-cameras were set in May-June 2019 and February-March 2020. In 2019-2020, 32 video-cameras were...

The genera Martes, Pekania, Gulo, and Eira (the Martes Complex) share many life history traits and conservation challenges. In this paper, we discuss management and conservation strategies that can help address common concerns about the persistence of species in the Martes Complex in the face of increasing habitat loss and fragmentation, climate ch...

In 1999, after pressure from the European Union, an Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS) that would result in the banning of the steel-jawed leghold traps in the European Community, Canada, and Russia was signed. The United States implemented these standards through an Agreed Minute with the European Community. Over the last...

In east-central Alberta, livestock producers consider that wolves (Canis lupus) inhabiting the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area (thereafter referred as the Blackfoot Recreation Area), where forests are interspersed with pastures and farms, are a threat to cattle (Bos taurus). In order to better understand the wolf-producers conflic...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000193.].

Human activities resulting in the extirpation of small carnivore populations-either directly through shooting, trapping, or poisoning of the animals, or indirectly through the control of prey or habitat destruction-have repeated themselves over space and time. Since the early 1900s, pest control methods in the Canadian Prairies and habitat loss and...

In this review, we make the point that current checking times for killing traps and snares are inadequate or nonexistent in most North American jurisdictions. We use Conibear 120 rotating-jaw traps and killing neck snares as examples of trapping devices that may fail to consistently and humanely kill furbearers. Because these killing devices are no...

Long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata) are known to feed on mice and voles. However, in the Canadian Prairies, where Richardson’s ground squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii) are abundant (particularly during drought periods), long-tailed weasel predation on these medium-size rodents is poorly documented. In this study, predation by longtailed weasel...

The black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) is a Threatened Species with a Canadian distribution limited to southwestern Saskatchewan, in and around Grasslands National Park. If populations were to be decimated or depleted, e.g., by drought or sylvatic plague, an extra-limital black-tailed prairie dog colony in central Alberta could be a so...

Despite abundant focus on responsible care of laboratory animals, we argue that inattention to the maltreatment of wildlife constitutes an ethical blind spot in contemporary animal research. We begin by reviewing significant shortcomings in legal and institutional oversight, arguing for the relatively rapid and transformational potential of editori...

Recently, Stewart et al. (2017) investigated the origins of contemporary fisher populations in the Cooking Lake Moraine (CLM) of east-central Alberta, Canada, where fishers (Pekania pennanti) from Ontario and Manitoba, Canada were reintroduced in the early 1990s. To address this objective, Stewart et al. (2017) compared microsatellite alleles from...

Intolerable Cruelty is about killing neck snares that are used in Canada to kill thousands of red foxes, coyotes, wolves and non-target animals. This book discloses exclusive snapshots of long and painful deaths of snared animals, and reviews scientific findings related to their cruelty and non-selectivity. Intolerable Cruelty is also about the use...

The implementation of mammal predator killing programs is highly controversial and deserves discussion within the scientific community. In this opinion paper, I use specific examples to discuss the whys and hows of programs aimed at: 1) ensuring human safety and health; 2) addressing concerns of interest groups; and 3) safeguarding native and endan...

Although bounties are known to be an ineffective management practice to address human-carnivore conflicts, they are maintained by some Alberta rural municipalities (counties) to ostensibly reduce livestock predation by coyotes (Canis latrans) and wolves (Canis lupus). However, there are no data ascertaining these municipalities' claims that livesto...

Although bounties are known to be an ineffective management practice to address human-carnivore conflicts, they are maintained by some Alberta rural municipalities (counties) to ostensibly reduce livestock predation by coyotes (Canis latrans) and wolves (Canis lupus). However, there are no data ascertaining these municipalities’ claims that livesto...

In January 2017, we surveyed the distribution of boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in the northwestern region of the Mistik Forest Management Area (FMA), Saskatchewan, a region known for its extensive jack pine (Pinus banksiana) stands. A total of 209 individual caribou tracks were recorded along 10 transects totalizing 126,845 m....

The boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus), which is listed as threatened by COSEWIC since 2002, is found across Canada but its status is deteriorating due to habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, predation, weather, starvation, diseases and parasites, accidents, and human hunting, poaching and recreational activities. Nonetheless, in...

This letter was submitted by several scientists across North America in reply to a response from Alberta's S. Boutin regarding killing wolves under the guise of caribou recovery.

According to the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS), which was signed by the European Community, Canada, and Russia in 1997, killing devices used for the capture of canids and other fur-bearing nonhuman animals should render an animal irreversibly unconscious within 300 s. However, killing neck snares are not included in t...

Simple Summary In western Alberta, Canada, in order to recover the Little Smoky boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus) population, the provincial government announced a plan in June 2016 to create a 100-km²-fenced enclosure that would encompass part of the caribou population range. Within the enclosure, all predators and other ungulates will b...

This Special Issue contains three original contributions dealing with badger diet in a human-managed ecosystem, sett site selection in an atypical habitat (peat bog with coal pits) and badger setts' 3D topography, as well as a review of recent ecological studies on European badgers in the Western Carpathian Mountains. It also includes a technical n...

This Special Issue contains three original contributions dealing with badger diet in a human-managed ecosystem, sett site selection in an atypical habitat (peat bog with coal pits) and badger setts' 3D topography, as well as a review of recent ecological studies on European badgers in the Western Carpathian Mountains. It also includes a technical n...

In his News In Depth story “To save caribou, Alberta wants to fence them in” (22 July, p. [333][1]), W. Cornwall reported on a proposed 50-year-long project to create a predator-free, fenced, 100-square-kilometer landscape to farm caribou in the Little Smoky range. The program intends to kill

This paper reviews the distribution and status of a group of carnivores belonging to different sub-families of mustelids and skunks that have similar morphological characteristics and fossorial activities. On the basis of scientific literature and a questionnaire that was sent to wildlife researchers and agencies in countries where badger species a...

This study investigated the correlation between American badger (Taxidea taxus) hunting ground distribution and food habits, and the relative distribution and abundance of Richardson's ground squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii) in grasslands and annual crops of southwestern Saskatchewan. I hypothesized that: (H 1) the distribution of badger huntin...

In an effort to minimize injury and to not disrupt the behaviour of studied animals, non-invasive methods have become popular among wildlife researchers and naturalists. This chapter describes methods that may be used to study American (Taxidea taxus) and European (Meles meles) badgers without capturing and handling animals: 1) tracks and track sta...

BADGERS: SYSTEMATICS, BIOLOGY, CONSERVATION, AND RESEARCH TECHNIQUES This book is about 16 species of small to medium-sized carnivores that occur in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa: • American badger (Taxidea taxus) • European badger (Meles meles) • Southwest Asian badger (Meles canescens) • Asian badger (Meles leucurus) • Japanese badger...

Unintentional mortality of endangered carnivores due to non-selective trapping is important for conservation and warrants urgent attention. Currently, non-selective traps are being approved and used based on trap selectivity tests conducted according to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines. We review these guidelines and...

The recovery of a species at risk such as the boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) must start with the conservation of valuable habitats. Little is known, however, about habitats used by the Little Smoky caribou population inhabiting the Alberta Newsprint Company (ANC)’s Forest Management Agreement (FMA) area (143,932 ha), in northwe...

Although predation bounty programs (rewards offered for capturing or killing an animal) ended more than 40 years ago in Canada, they were reintroduced in Alberta in 2007 by hunting, trapping, and farming organizations, municipalities and counties, and in 2009 in Saskatchewan, by municipal and provincial governments and the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s...

To reduce predation on a woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou ) population threatened by industrial disturbance, a recent study in Alberta (Canada) used strychnine baits to kill wolves ( Canis lupus ). Strychnine should not be used to control wolves because it is: (1) inhumane; (2) in contravention of animal welfare guidelines; and (3) non-...

Although killing neck snares are used on traplines in Canada to capture gray wolves (Canis lupus), coyotes (C. latrans), and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), they are not subject to trap performance criteria set out in the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS). This paper reviews scientific information related to the humaneness and...

Many species at risk in Canada and globally are at or approaching a crisis, especially where little or nothing consequential is being done to prevent extirpation. Such is the case of endangered boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in southern Alberta, Canada. Expedient but inadequate emergency ‘fixes’ have been experimentally implemented to a...

late-winter habitat use by the Fisher, Pekania pennanti (erxleben, 1777) in northwestern saskatchewan was assessed in February 2009, 2011, and 2012. a total of 78 Fisher tracks were recorded over 60 300 m of snowshoe surveys. Fisher tracks were significantly less frequent than expected in Tamarack (Larix laricina [du roi] K. Koch) stands with > 40%...

Recent phylogenetic studies have shown that the genus Martes is polyphyletic with respect to the Fisher (Pekania pennanti), which is more closely related to the Wolverine (Gulo gulo) and Tayra (Eira barbara) than it is to the martens. We refer to the 11 species in the genera Martes, Pekania, Gulo, and Eira as the “Martes Complex”. Because the speci...

We re-investigated the occurrence and distribution of Fishers (Pekania pennanti) released in the Elk Island National Park – Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area – Ministik Lake Bird Sanctuary complex in the early 1990s. From March to November 2013, we set remote cameras in deciduous forests in areas where Fishers were originally releas...

Abstract : Strychnine and chlorophacinone (anticoagulant) are two major pesticides used in the control of Northern Pocket Gophers and Richardson’s Ground Squirrels in western Canada. Yet, scientific research has repeatedly demonstrated that these pesticides often failed to effectively control these rodent species and also had significant impacts on...

We investigated the use of a dorsally implanted radio-transmitter in four American Badgers (Taxidea taxus) in southwestern Saskatchewan. The dorsal radio-transmitter did not appear to affect the health or behaviour of the animals. When the antenna was stretched out subcutaneously along the animal's back, the signal could be received from about 1 km...

In an effort to better assess the impact of future timber harvest on wildlife, and to develop pertinent recovery plans for endangered species in specific locations, habitat queries (searches to retrieve data from a vegetation database) may be used to identify polygons (homogenous areas for specific forest stand characteristics) used by a species. D...

In an effort to better assess the impact of future timber harvest on wildlife, and to develop pertinent recovery plans for endangered species in specific locations, habitat queries (searches to retrieve data from a vegetation database) may be used to identify polygons (homogenous areas for specific forest stand characteristics) used by a species. D...

This paper reports a photographic record of a Cougar (Puma concolor) in the Ukalta Dunes Natural Area, approximately 55 km northeast of Fort Saskatchewan, in central Alberta.

This study describes the nocturnal hunting behaviour of American Badgers (Taxidea taxus) in areas inhabited by Richardson’s Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii) in southwestern Saskatchewan. Adult American Badgers searched for prey by zigzagging through clusters of Richardson’s Ground Squirrel burrows or by going back and forth between one e...

Heavy rains with strong winds in southwestern Saskatchewan from 20 to 29 May 2010 flooded fields where adult Richardson’s Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii) had recently been live–trapped. Natural mortality rates in six marked populations (n = 11 to 29 animals) ranged from 9.1 to 42.9%. The mean mortality rate of populations (28.9%) was si...

The Western Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis) is rare in Canada, and its distribution is believed to be restricted to south-central British Columbia and southeastern Alberta. Between 2008 and 2010, we identified Western Harvest Mouse hairs in 71 of 1424 scats (5%) of Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), Coyote (Canis latrans), American Badger (Taxidea...

Over the past decade, extensive poisoning campaigns have been conducted in southern Saskatchewan to control Richardson's ground squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii (Sabine, 1822) populations. Such campaigns might impact on predator abundance by decreasing prey levels, and also through secondary poisoning. Using spotlighting, we investigated the rela...

We investigated the use of a dorsally implanted radio-transmitter in four American Badgers (Taxidea taxus) in southwestern Saskatchewan. The dorsal radio-transmitter did not appear to affect the health or behaviour of the animals. When the antenna was stretched out subcutaneously along the animal’s back, the signal could be received from about 1 km...

During the 20th century, Martes taxonomy, evolution, biogeography, habitat, and populations were investigated extensively, and conservation practices were developed. During this period, human populations and lifestyles, socio-economics, and cultural and ethical values have changed. There has been a gradual shift away from traditional wildlife uses...

The Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis) is the smallest carnivore of Canada. Although it is found in many regions of the country, no ecological studies were conducted on this species. I found 17 papers published on this species in Canada from 1901 to 2012, and most of them (76.5 %) were published before 1960 and reported on the distribution of the speci...

Richardson’s Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii) prefer to establish their burrow systems in fields with shorter vegetation and good visibility. Between 2001 and 2009, warm weather and low precipitation, creating ideal environmental conditions for this species, were common throughout Saskatchewan. We therefore hypothesized that Richardson’s...

The objective of this study was to assess, using a capture-recapture program, the effectiveness of aluminum phosphide tablets for control of Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) in southern Saskatchewan grasslands, from April to July 2007e2009. Aluminum phosphide tablets were tested in study plots in moist or dry soil condition...

Richardson’s Ground Squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) are considered to be major pests in southwest Saskatchewan where recent population outbreaks have caused damage to grasslands, pastures and crops. Although it is known that poisons pose potential threats to wildlife, since 2008, southwest Saskatchewan farmers have used large quantities of 0....

This study verified the ability of a forest rating system to predict the winter distribution of Fisher (Martes pennanti) in the Sub-boreal Spruce Biogeoclimatic Zone of central interior British Columbia. Forest polygons (i.e., homogenous areas with similar forest stand characteristics) were classified according to their age and structural developme...

Strychnine has recently been made available in Canada under an emergency registration program for the control of Richardson’s ground squirrels. From 2007 to 2009, we tested the control efficacy of this poison using >1-year-old and newly produced strychnine on hulless oats, canary seed, and alfalfa pellets. Newly produced 2% liquid strychnine, mixed...

Fluctuations in rodent population densities in North America are a reality. Our understanding of the factors causing such fluctuations is incomplete; therefore, it is important to monitor populations to increase our understanding of natural wildlife communities so as to avoid substantial damage to agriculture, forestry, and urban infrastructures, a...

In the last decade, Richardson’s ground squirrel populations have reached epidemic levels in western Canada. A review of socio-economic conditions and field research findings suggests that such outbreaks are the result of many factors working synergistically on ground squirrel population dynamics and dispersal: 1) drought conditions, 2) poor grassl...