Survival of the Fittest

"She looks like a very healthy grizzly bear right now."

"Grizzly Bear 222 and her two cubs tucked themselves into a wet spot by the Athabasca River."

"She has been eating a mix of berries and clover on the edge of the Jasper Park Lodge golf course."

Parks Canada

 

"Most of the critters get out of the way."

"The number of animals [killed during wildfires] is usually pretty small. In general, it's not a major source of mortality."

"That regrowth [of a regenerated forest] is very attractive. Bears, elk, moose, deer all really thrive."

"These fires are highly beneficial in the medium term."

"It will be a couple of years before it's green and lush again. But not very long."

"The ecosystem has not suffered. The park [Jasper National Park, Alberta] is doing just fine."

Mark Boyce, wildlife biologist, University of Alberta

 

"Typically, the most affected are the slower-moving species, like turtles, badgers and elderly and very young animals who are unable to escape."

"Moreover, as wildfires often occur in late spring or summer, stress also delays the recovery and reproduction of the population."

Yellowstone National Park, report on 1998 wildfire 

Bear 222 and her two cubs were spotted shortly after the flames subsided. Officials say the bears survived by tucking away into a wet spot of land near the Athabasca River. (Parks Canada)

 

Despite the wildfire that is torching Jasper National Park, Parks Canada has issued a comforting notice to those concerned over the burning fate of the animals who share that forest as their natural habitat. Bear 222 and her cubs appear to be fine, and so too, evidently are other large animals in the area largely. Bear 222 is fitted with a radio tracking collar allowing her to be monitored since the wildfire began its blazing scorch of the geography at week ago.

The town of Jasper has suffered a catastrophic loss of a full third of its homes and buildings. Animals other than humans, we are assured are schooled by their very natures and experience, to protect themselves in a wildfire. "Fire is a natural process and we expect animals to find new places to live", assured James McCormick, human-wildlife coexistence specialist in Jasper.

That assurance is seconded by the University of Alberta's Mark Boyce, wildlife biologist who also stated that animals inhabiting Jasper National Park know how to react when their home is burning about them. Boyce co-researched and wrote results of a study that examined the effects of the Yellowstone National Park wildfire in 1998 when a third of the park had been burned. The study found that of the 17,000 elk in the park, about 350 only died in the blaze. "That's a pretty small fraction", he added.

 

Parts of Jasper survive, parts of Jasper are gone, and wildlife has moved into the town. CBC Edmonton joins a media tour of Jasper.

 

A paper published in the journal Conservation in 2023 listed the manner in which animals react to fire. Large animals tend to rouse themselves to escape the fire, heading elsewhere to conserve their lives. As for small animals their tendency is to seek salvage underground or in sheltered areas within the burn itself, like tunnels, stumps, root holes, pathways under most forest litter, and spaces under rocks. Birds on the other hand are able to take flight and leave the area.  Unfortunately, all animals suffer stress.

Once the flames die back, the burnt landscape begins to regenerate and as it does it provides haven anew for many species who speedily take advantage of the new tender green shoots of the regenerating forest, once the first grim months of ash and dead trees littering the once vibrant forest relents. It is a vacuum that nature abhors, nudging the natural survival responses of her creatures; animal and vegetative.

Grizzly Bear 222 and her two cubs survived the Jasper wildfire. Experts say wildlife know to dodge wildfires and adapt the the changed landscape. (Parks Canada)