Despite the fact the Karl is now officially retired, it was still a busy summer in the lab.

Later on, Karl and Blaire journeyed to Prince Edward Island for the annual Canadian Herpetological Society meeting, which was held in a beautiful resort near the ocean. Almost immediately afterwards most of the lab (and some recent members) rendezvoused at the BC Chapter of the Wildlife Society for presentations, good times, and hot springs (because the meeting was at Harrison Hot Springs resort). PJ took home the runner up award for Best Poster Presentation, which was amazing considering as an undergrad he was competing against MSc and PhD students. Good stuff..

At the end of October, Karl and Sheri Watson, with the help of Doug Ransome and Kara Atkinson, and the entire senior cohort in Natural Resource Sciences, ran the 30th (!!!!) year of small mammal fall inventory work, in an around Kamloops. Thirty years is hard to fathom. We celebrated with a pancake-and-sausage breakfast barbecue on Karl’s carport, along with of course the obligatory trap-cleaning. Thanks to ALL the people who helped! Kara (see up above) will now be adding the 29th and 30th year of data to her models, and a really landmark paper will be forthcoming!

And of course, before summer, mid-summer and somewhere-after-summer in there we found time for occasional get-togethers like shown below.

Johanna is interviewed on her work for Cabin Radio. Check it out – you can read her story or listen to the podcast.

Our annual lab Mid-winter Celebration came a bit early this year to accomodate people fitting in travels for their thesis work in the early part of December. It mattered not as a good time was had by all. Although the pre-dinner moment for reflection included the Christmas Toad poem, the highlight of the evening was Kara and Robin absolutely SHATTERING the historic record time for assembling the giant Grey Squirrel floor puzzle. Kara and Robin knocked nearly 20 seconds off the previous record (Dana and Michelle) that dated back to 2018. Astounding. Happy holidays everyone!

Our dynamic-duo fisher team (Mae and Shannon) have been actively involved in helping reintroduce a set of fisher kits orphaned through the death of the mother (fortunately,Shannon’s radio-telemetry work on the mother had previously revealed where the kits were stationed). The BC Wildlife Park has played an important role in this as well, housing the kits and helping prepare them for a life back in the forest. See this article for more information.

https://www.100milefreepress.net/news/orphaned-fisher-kits-return-to-wild-in-south-cariboo-7617634

In September, current and former members of our lab met in Sidney, BC (on Vancouver Island – NOT THAT Sydney). It was a great meeting so kudos to the organizers. Karl delivered the Plenary Talk, and Chloe, Kara, Lindsay and Caroline presented as well. Recent lab grad Jade joined up with us too. Pictured below from L –> R, Kara, Chloe, Karl, Jade and Lindsay.

Lindsay, Calen and Karl together attended and presented at the 10th international World Congress of Herpetology in Kuching, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. Many amazing new critters were seen through field trips, although the ultimate goal – the King Cobra – eluded us.

For her thesis work on bighorn sheep, Larisa has been selected for a prestigious Together For Wildlife scholarship, administered by the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund. Click HERE for the full story on her work.

Two big events in our lab unfolded during the first week of June. First off, Chloe received the TRU Master’s Medal in Environmental Science as top graduate in the program, with her thesis on rattlesnake movements and juvenile ecology. Two days later, Jade successfully defended her thesis on the road ecology of the community of snakes at our White Lake study site. Congrats to both!