The world’s smallest inhabited island, affectionately named Just Room Enough Island, has barely enough space for a single building. The island is about one-thirteenth of an acre, only moderately larger than a standard tennis court. The Sizeland family purchased the tiny island in the 1950s. It has only a single house framed by a tree, some … Read more
A 3.8 magnitude earthquake near Sidney, B.C., rattled parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver Thursday morning. Earthquakes Canada reports it happened just after 4 a.m. PT. The earthquake’s centre was about 11 kilometres east of Sidney, B.C., and about 75 kilometres south of Vancouver. Collin Paul, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said the earthquake was … Read more
Five bison are dead after two vehicles hit them in a national park east of Edmonton early Thursday morning, Parks Canada says. RCMP are investigating the incident, which killed three bison and injured two others so severely they had to be euthanized. It is the most calamitous collision the park has recorded, according to Dale Kirkland, superintendent … Read more
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it. A rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a … Read more
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the southern tip of B.C’s Haida Gwaii on Sunday, followed by a series of aftershocks. According to Earthquakes Canada, the tremors were felt in Sandspit and Masset in the Haida Gwaii archipelago, parts of northern Vancouver Island including Port Hardy and Gold River, and as far as Terrace and Kitimat … Read more
Some time more than 30 years ago, a single Chinese peach blossom jellyfish made its way into a lake in British Columbia. Exactly how it arrived is not clear, researchers say — perhaps it was in aquarium water — but decades later, thousands of genetic clones of the same organism have been spotted in 34 waterways around the province. … Read more
When aquatic botanist Meghann Bruce found an invasive species nicknamed zombie plant in the St. John River in 2015, she only found it in one spot. She actually stumbled upon Eurasian watermilfoil while doing a botanical survey of the river for another project. As part of that study, she explored 171 sites between the Mactaquac Dam … Read more
Wildlife researchers are optimistic for the future of the critically endangered Vancouver Island marmot species, after they counted a record 86 wild-born pups this summer. The Vancouver Island marmot, which is endemic to its namesake, is one of the country’s most endangered species. The Marmot Recovery Foundation estimates there were fewer than 30 in the wild about 20 years … Read more
A beluga whale that was suspected of spying for Russia after being discovered in Norwegian waters five years ago has been found dead, according to the non-profit organization that had been monitoring the whale. The body of Hvaldimir — a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin — was spotted floating in the … Read more
As of Aug. 13, fishermen in New Brunswick were forced to pull their traps and stop fishing on 35 separate occasions this year after North Atlantic right whales were spotted. But a new pilot program in the southwest is trying to keep lobster and crab boats on the water. Crab fisherman Greg Beckerton and two lobster fishermen, Judson Mitchell and … Read more
