Dry, hot, temperatures playing a factor in increased animal sightings in Calgary: experts

CALGARY — Animals in the sky and on the ground need water to survive — but the dry days and summer heat have made it hard for them to scope out a drink.

So much so that many people are seeing animals come into the inner city as they try to find a drink and wet vegetation.

Western Canada residents are no stranger to extreme summer heat, we see the heat in many ways, but the most significant is in wildfires.

“It’s been a very warm start to the summer, we had a historic heat wave at the end of June that really brought some warm temperatures,” said Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“We’ve had a lack of precipitation so far this year across Western North America to be honest and so that has led to wildfires in multiple areas, Southern B.C., Northern Saskatchewan.”

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The animals that live in these now burning forests are moving away from their homes in search of water and better vegetation, and for some animals, the closest water is in and around Calgary.

“Many animals will look for better, wetter vegetation, also sources of drinking water, so they will move to better areas and I think we might witness this within the city limits,” said Marco Musiani, a biology professor at the University of Calgary.

June is typically the wettest month for the Calgary area, but this June we only saw about 26 per cent of the expected precipitation. The ongoing drought will push animals of all kinds into the same area, something that inner-city Calgary has already seen.

Musiani says it’s difficult for scientists to prove, but the influx of coyotes near the Bow River could be because it’s a source of water, and beavers.

“They produce in wet areas and in these wet areas, they of course have an abundance of vegetation around them and that vegetation attracts herbivores, and herbivores attract carnivores,” said Musiani.