magazine / jf03
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January/February 2003 issue |
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A wily survivor
Whether dodging ecological pressures or the viewfinder, coyotes elude predators and filmmakers
alike. They are exceptionally challenging animals to capture on film, says documentary
field producer Tadzio Richards. "It’s not simply that they’re wild animals — they’re
also shifty animals that emerge and move into your view. You turn a corner, and suddenly
there they are."
Richards spent three months filming coyotes for the CG Presents documentary
"Shapeshifter," which
traces the path of North America’s "top dog" from the urban parks of Vancouver
to the valleys of Yellowstone National Park and to its surprising appearance on Prince Edward
Island.
Likely unknown on Prince Edward Island until the late 1970s, the first coyote was caught
in a fox snare near Souris, P.E.I., in 1983. Biologists aren’t certain how the wild
dogs ended up on the island but speculate that they traversed the 13 kilometres from Nova
Scotia across Northumberland Strait on sea ice. The newly introduced species is a danger
to livestock, says wildlife biologist Sarah Field, and is creating some fear among islanders. "Many
people are scared of having a large predator on the island," she says, which hasn’t
been the case since the last black bear disappeared from the province in the 1950s.
There are now between 1,000 and 4,000 coyotes on Prince Edward Island, says Field, and the
population continues to grow — testament to the coyote’s remarkable resilience.
Jodi Di Menna
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Happy trails
A covered bridge spanning the Rivière Gatineau at Wakefield, Que., is one of hundreds
of attractions along the Trans Canada Trail in the province. A new map produced by Canadian
Geographic guides you along Quebec’s 1,400 kilometres of trail, from the Gatineau
Hills to the New Brunswick border. It is the second in a series of maps to be published on
the Trans Canada Trail.
Reaching
for the top
Bernard Voyer has made a career of challenging his inner and physical strength. The intrepid
Montréal-based adventurer has skied to the North and South poles and climbed the seven
summits — the highest peak on each continent — including Mount Everest (right).
Only a few people in the world have managed such a feat. In 2000, The Royal Canadian Geographical
Society awarded its Gold Medal to Voyer for his accomplishments.
This spring, Voyer will relive his arduous treks to the two poles and the top of Everest
with audiences in Ottawa. He will touch on the physical and mental preparation required to
carry out expeditions in such extreme geography and will share stories about the lands and
the people he has encountered along the way. His multimedia
presentation will be held on
April 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Centrepointe Theatre in Ottawa. Tickets go on sale March
17, 2003.
Billiards and geography
Alan O. Gibbons’ introduction to The Royal Canadian Geographical
Society began after
the Second World War in the billiards room of Ottawa’s Rideau Club. In one of his first
tournaments there, he competed against one of the club’s leading players: Charles Camsell,
the founder and first president of the RCGS. Gibbons won, much to his surprise.
The competitors struck up a friendship. "Charles Camsell was a father figure to me," says
Gibbons. Over time, Camsell whetted Gibbons’ interest in the Society, and Gibbons joined
the Board of Directors in 1975, serving for more than a decade during one of the most trying
periods in the Society’s history.
At the time, the Society was struggling to survive. For eight years, Gibbons played a key
role on its finance committee, which guided the Society through difficult times, then unprecedented
growth. His diligence and fiscal savvy have been recognized with the 2002 Camsell
Award,
for outstanding service to the Society. The award is named after Gibbons’ billiards
partner, who died in 1959.
Having a field day
 Margaret
North has always been most at home teaching in a bog, attired in gumboots. "To do geography
without doing fieldwork is a wasted opportunity," says the retired senior instructor
emerita of geography at the University of British Columbia. During her 38-year career, North
rarely missed an opportunity to show her students how to apply what they learned in the classroom
to the world surrounding them. As a specialist in vegetation mapping, she often lectured
in the bogs and forest on the campus’s fringe.
An accomplished academic, North dedicates much of her spare time to promoting the teaching
of geography in North American schools and to developing geography in social studies curricula
for British Columbia schools. She also recently created a website on field activities for
teachers (www.geog.ubc.ca/activities).
Her outstanding commitment and leadership have earned her the 2002 Geographic
Literacy Award from the Canadian Council for Geographic
Education.
North receives $5,000 (U.S.), donated by the National Geographic Society’s Grosvenor
Canadian Geography Education Fund. She plans to give half of her award to the Pacific Foundation
for Understanding Nature Society, which raises funds for the environmental education programs
of the North Vancouver Outdoor School.
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