A picnic isn’t a picnic without a few unwelcome guests: ants marching over your gingham tablecloth and bees buzzing around the fruit salad. Before you shoo them away, you should know that pollinators, including ants and bees, are responsible for one of every three bites of food you eat.
 

By April Overall and Pam Logan

With temperatures averaging -20˚C from December to March, it takes real gumption to make your home in the Arctic. But many mammals, birds and aquatic species rely on this climate to survive. So why is some arctic wildlife on the brink of extinction?
 

By Leigh Edgar

Extinction isn't exclusive to species on remote tropical islands, or in the lush rainforests of South America. You might be surprised to learn that we’ve lost species in our own country. While the rates and causes of extinction in developed countries differ from those in developing countries, nations like Canada certainly aren't immune to species loss. Species that have gone extinct in Canada largely fell victim to a time when land was being conquered for human settlement, natural resources were being overharvested, and few – if any – conservation laws existed.

This past winter, several members of the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists (MVFN), situated in the northern half of Lanark County in Eastern Ontario, spent a cold wintry Saturday building bluebird boxes. They hope to establish a bluebird trail in the area this spring. The plight of the Eastern Bluebird has long been of interest to naturalists across North America, ever since the 1950s when man almost wiped them out with DDT. Another single deterrent to the successful nesting of these beautiful songsters was the introduction of the European Starling to our continent, a species that spread prolifically a century ago and assumed the bluebird’s natural nesting cavities. Building bluebird boxes and establishing nesting trails has been a constant quest ever since.  

By Stacey Scott

Every Halloween, troops of tykes make their way door to door in their most terrifying costumes, shouting, “Trick or treat!” in hopes of loading up on candy. But it seems tricks aren’t just for kids after all. Many wild creatures don spooky disguises, too –  but for some critters, trickery is their main defense against becoming a treat.