Nature's Big Year

Lauren: It happened overnight to a scale that we simply could not create ourselves.

I think lockdown was an incredible opportunity to look at the human footprint on nature.

(birds calling) Nicola: I was shocked and completely amazed at how many species changed their habitat use during the pandemic.

So the lockdown was a very unexpected, controlled experiment.

What happens when you put the world on pause and nature reboots?

I was absolutely floored by our results.

The super interesting part of this story is what we saw in wolf activity.

Whoa!

What is that?

There is evidence that birds changed their songs in lockdown.

(bird calling) We were able to get a sense of how quiet cities can be.

It's changed my-- my research perspective.

Jason: It's changed how we view ourselves and the world around us.

Nicola: Nature's resilient, and many species can recover if we give them that chance.

Jason: It's like driving into a postcard!

Yeah, exactly.

We finally made it.

The pandemic really put a little bit of wrench in our works in terms of getting these cameras.

When these things are-- Narrator: Jason Fisher and his colleagues have waited months for this day.

Before the pandemic, they set up wildlife cameras across Alberta's Bighorn Backcountry.

Jason: This is a remarkable place.

Because it's home to one of the last intact vestiges of the large mammal community south of the boreal forests.

Narrator: Scientists wanted to know how these iconic species are coping with human activity in the Bighorn.

(engine rumbling) The cameras have been their eyes in the forest, triggered by infrared sensors.

Sandra and I thought we would start at the very southwest tip of the grid over here.

Sandra: Lots of grizzlies in this area!

Laura: Yep, hopefully not too many broken cameras.

(Laughing) Sandra: Yeah, they love to mess with them.

Laura: Let's go!

Narrator: Lockdown delayed camera retrieval by a couple of seasons.

And that's created an unexpected opportunity.

Jason: We had cameras running during the lockdown, and we'll be able to see through this time period, changes in animal activity.

It's a tremendous experiment we can-- we can learn from to try to make something good out of this bad.

Narrator: Normally, the animals here share their space with a lot of people.

But when the pandemic hit, fewer humans came here to work and play.

So we're gonna head this way to this site, you two head that way to that site.

- Sounds good.

- All right, stay safe!

Narrator: They're especially keen to find out what the apex predator was doing during lockdown.

Jason: We're keeping a really special eye on what's happening with wolves in this landscape.

Narrator: If wolves started hunting more by day, with fewer people around, it could affect the whole ecosystem.

Jason: As wolf activity changes, as they change their use of the daytime, we'd expect those changes to cascade down into things that wolves eat.

Hey, there it is, at long last!

Sandra: What happened here?

- (Jason groaning) - Check that out.

It's the infrared flash panel that's been smashed out.

Sandra: Ripped it right off, hey?

Ripped it right off.

I've seen bears do this and I've seen wolverines do this.

Sandra: Got to get the angle right on these cameras.

Narrator: They're hoping it happened recently, that the camera was working through lockdown.

Jason: Hey, my team's way ahead of me, you're downloading already.

– Laura: Oh, yeah-- - Jason: This is great!

– Sandra: That's a sheep.

– Jason: What do you got?

– Laura: Is that a sheep?

- We got a bighorn sheep!

That's good, our camera are-- they were out for at least a month before it got smashed.

Yeah.

- Hey!

- Wow!

Sandra: Finally, a carnivore!

A baby black bear!

That's fantastic!

Sandra: There's two of them!

Jason: Two of them!

Oh, she's got doubles.

(all laughing) Narrator: Turns out, the broken camera worked for months, well into lockdown.

Whoa, what is that?

Oh, that's probably the thing that got the camera.

– Sandra: Yep.

- Is that a paw scratching it?

- Looks like it.

- It is!

Looks like there's a pad right there.

Yeah, it is.

Looks like a paw pad.

It's, like, right across.

Oh, he just rips it right apart.

- There it is.

- There it is.

Jason: Now we know, mystery solved.

So it was a black bear all along.

- It was a black bear.

- Mm-hmm.

Jason: I'm just so grateful these cameras kept rolling.

Narrator: They'll examine tens of thousands of images.

And there'll be a surprising twist, animals and humans doing unexpected things.

(waves crashing) In the early days of lockdown, the turtles had Juno Beach pretty much to themselves.

During the pandemic, the beaches were shut down during the early portion of sea turtle nesting season, and so we were really curious to see kind of what impacts that would have on our nesting population here.

Narrator: For the threatened Loggerhead, it's one of the most important nesting sites on the planet.

Researchers are out here every morning during nesting season, looking for signs in the sand.

Looks like we have a false crawl up here.

All right, let's go check it out.

Narrator: A "false crawl" means a turtle came ashore but returned to the sea without laying eggs.

Sarah: So, definitely a Loggerhead false crawl.

Justin: That can happen for any number of reasons.

She might get scared by human presence on the beach, there may be some artificial sources of light that may spook her.

Narrator: They patrol 15 kilometres of beach, comparing the number of false crawls to nests with eggs.

Justin: So, the lockdown was a very unexpected, controlled experiment.

What we were able to do was examine the difference in nesting success of Loggerhead sea turtles when the beaches were closed.

And then compare that afterwards to when the beaches re-opened and humans were allowed to come back on the beach.

Sarah: We just got word that there's a turtle that's finishing up nesting down south of us.

Narrator: Most turtles lay their eggs at night and return to the sea by morning.

This one's running late.

Justin: These animals are truly incredible and they're gonna do that, you know, half a dozen times or more in a single season.

And so, if I was gonna compare to something as a human, I guess a triathlon would be something similar.

Narrator: After dark, the nest action accelerates.

Let's go find some turtles.

All right, let's go find some turtles.

She's doing well.

She's almost got a full chamber of eggs, so she's at the end of her nesting process, which she's probably happy about.

Narrator: In the year of the pandemic, Loggerheads made almost 17,000 nests on Juno Beach.

And there were fewer false crawls during lockdown.

So, during the pandemic, we did see that nesting success was significantly higher than when the beaches re-opened.

What we found was that Loggerhead turtles nested twelve percent more successfully in the absence of humans on our beaches.

Narrator: Twelve percent is a big deal for a threatened species.

Every successful nest means about a hundred eggs each with the potential to hatch and become a breeding adult.

That was really encouraging to see and it tells us that maybe there are some management things that we can put in place to further protect the sea turtles here.

Simple things like closing down the beach just at night and just during the peak of nesting season could really help these animals.

Justin: In the absence of humans, these animals are able to nest more naturally, like they have been throughout their, you know, tens of millions of years of-- of evolutionary history.

(bleating) Narrator: During lockdown, hoofing it up main street was a breeze for wild goats in Wales.

(bleating) So was city sunbathing for sea lions in Argentina.

And hedgehog walkabouts were a whole lot safer.

Lauren: I think lockdown has definitely provided the opportunity for people to appreciate nature that's around them and very close to home.

Narrator: And research from the pandemic could help save one of Britain's most beloved species.

Hi, Rosemary.

Shall we put your box in place?

Yes, please.

This is perfect for the hedgehogs, because this is naturally where they're going to be wandering around.

I think the UK loves hedgehogs for a number of reasons.

They are so charismatic, just their lovely faces, their bumbling around looking for food, it's just so endearing.

Narrator: During lockdown, some gardeners made their yards more hedgehog friendly.

The little omnivores need all the help they can get.

So, the hedgehogs in the UK are declining just as fast as tigers in all of Asia, so it's really quite staggering.

Narrator: They're red-listed as vulnerable to extinction.

So, we put some food inside.

Narrator: Lauren sets up live traps for her research, and offers tips on how to help hedgehogs.

So over here, just-- just by the hedgerow, that's perfect for them because they can really build up all these leaf litters and build a wonderful nest.

Narrator: Lauren's trying to figure out exactly how big a role traffic plays in the hedgehog's alarming decline.

Where are we gonna put this?

Narrator: She works with local citizen scientists, who reported a dramatic drop in roadkill during lockdown.

Lauren: We noticed about a two-thirds decrease in hedgehog roadkill.

Lockdown was a remarkable time for wildlife and hedgehogs in particular.

Overnight, the roads almost went quiet.

Roaming around these villages and towns was a lot safer for hedgehogs.

Narrator: She tracks them after sunset... ...when hedgehogs like to forage.

Lauren: When I find a hedgehog, I do a health check, to see if it's got any external illnesses or anything like that.

As well as this, I will determine its sex.

I do that by bouncing the hedgehog in my hands and looking at its belly, and that gives a really good indication of the general population structure.

Narrator: This little female gets an ID tag, and she's on her way.

The less glamorous side of my work is driving around and looking for hedgehog roadkill.

This is to give us an idea of how many hedgehogs are killed in the UK every single year.

I think I see some roadkill ahead.

Narrator: This part of the job is CSI work.

Lauren: This is a GPS unit and I'm making a note of the coordinates.

And that's really important because we want to know where the hedgehogs are being killed.

Is it on the big roads?

Is it on the smaller roads?

Narrator: The GPS data also revealed some interesting activity during the pandemic.

Lauren: Over lockdown, they're using roads much more than we would expect.

I've seen them crossing roads, I've found them just at the side of the road minding their own business, so I think the quieter conditions makes them feel a bit safer to roam around.

Narrator: Comparing their movements during and after the pandemic will help Lauren pinpoint where hedgehogs are most at risk.

Lauren: Roadkill data during lockdown, it will be really quite fascinating.

It'll show us just the difference that it could be in quieter roads.

It'll show us the impact of traffic volume on roadkill, rather than road type perhaps, 'cause the roads are exactly the same, but the only factor that's different is the traffic volume.

So, looking at the impact of lockdown is really critical to get a long-term perspective.

Narrator: And perspective leads to action that can save hedgehog lives as roads get busy again.

This could be road signs, this could be road tunnels or speed bumps, so there's lots of different ways to mitigate for this.

But we need precise numbers in order to know where and when and how to act for hedgehogs.

Jim: My feathered friend here is Rusty.

And she's gonna help us learn a few things today.

Narrator: Feathered friends were a bright spot in many people's lives during the pandemic.

Jim: There's been quite an uptick in the number of people interested in nature, and birds in particular.

That's been one of the positive outcomes of the pandemic.

There's a third eyelid.

She does it really fast, but you can-- see that?

Narrator: For the Snadden family, lockdown was a time for outdoor learning.

Dave: What did you see on the way home - from school the other day?

- An eagle!

- Our eagle.

- It was really big.

Biggest one I've ever seen.

Narrator: And they saw more birds than usual.

Especially eagles, ravens, crows, pileated woodpeckers.

Owls, we've noticed more of.

Narrator: In the fields and forests, Jim was also seeing unusual things.

During the lockdown period, we noticed that in the winter, the owls were further south and further west than we would normally find them in a given winter.

Narrator: He's been keeping track of Manitoba's great grey owls for more than three decades.

And three new.

So, she's essentially four years old or older.

The great grey may be one of the species that have changed their behaviour in relation to the change in human behaviour in the pandemic.

I'll take her.

Narrator: Jim and his wife Patsy, a fellow biologist, have caught and banded more than 3,000 owls.

- She looks great.

- Great shape.

Jim: Well, good luck, and hopefully we'll see you one day, again.

Narrator: Normally, great grey owls spend the winter around here, then head north in March, to mate and nest in the boreal forest.

But in the year of the pandemic, they stuck around a lot longer.

Jim: That year during the lockdown, the owls were persisting in this area for a much longer period, well into June and even early July.

And so that was very atypical.

And of course, we like to speculate that it's somehow related to a change in human behaviour, but we really couldn't quantify it.

Narrator: A team from the University of Manitoba has quantified bird movement during the pandemic.

So what we're gonna do out here is just keep an eye open for bald eagles.

Narrator: Their study reveals massive changes during lockdown.

I was shocked and completely amazed at how many species changed their habitat use during the pandemic.

Narrator: The team investigated how 82 bird species across North America responded to changes in human activity.

I think I just picked up an eagle!

(camera snapping) Oh, that's great!

Nicola: So as bald eagles were migrating north, they took advantage and actually moved from counties that had lower lockdowns to the counties that had the strongest lockdowns and the least traffic.

Narrator: In regions with strong lockdowns, bald eagle numbers increased by 40%.

So I've been doing conservation biology work for about 20 years and I've never studied anything that had such a large impact on a whole bird community.

Got a list of species we think we'll see here today.

Narrator: They used a citizen science program called eBird to collect their data.

Nicola: We used more than 4.3 million observations of birds, and those were donated by more than 80,000 different volunteers.

Michael: There were many more barn swallows closer to roads.

Narrator: Populations of barn swallows, a species at risk, tripled near roads during lockdown.

There were twice as many ruby-throated hummingbirds near airports when travel was restricted.

(bird singing) And many other species, like the white-throated sparrow, flocked to places with stricter lockdowns.

Nicola: So we see changes across the whole bird community.

They're really tremendously large, substantial changes.

And it's amazing that we had this opportunity to learn from the lockdown.

Narrator: If lockdown changes where birds hang out... Can it also change how they sing?

Chris: It was remarkable when lockdown happened here because overnight, we lost aircraft noise and traffic noise.

I could hear a blackbird singing quite closely.

(chirping) (birds singing) And I realized it was actually singing from the top of a cypress tree at the bottom of our garden.

(bird singing) So that immediately prompted me to get my microphones out.

Narrator: Chris Watson has an incredible ear.

He travels the world with champions of nature, like David Attenborough, recording sound for wildlife films.

During lockdown, Chris turned his attention to his own backyard.

(bird singing) Chris: Adjacent to the cypress tree is an old, gnarled apple tree, which must have been there 40 or 50 years, and that provides plenty of perches to fix a microphone to.

(bird singing) As soon as I started to listen to this blackbird in close-up, I realized two things.

First of all, there was a really beautiful clarity to the song.

(bird singing) But they also seemed to be singing, I wouldn't call it more loudly, but more vigorously.

This bird had a real sort of power to it, a sense of energy and urgency which I just really wasn't used to hearing so clearly in blackbirds.

(bird singing) Narrator: Chris noticed another change.

For the first time, he could hear other male blackbirds in his neighbourhood.

(birds singing) They're usually drowned out by traffic noise.

(bird singing) Then I suddenly had this idea that perhaps the blackbird in our garden was being prompted to sing more vigorously 'cause it realized it had competition.

(bird singing) Narrator: Miya Warrington is keen to test Chris' idea.

I study how birdsong is affected by everything around them.

Narrator: Miya's a Canadian working in the UK.

She's recorded and analyzed birdsong all over the world.

Miya: I took Chris' recordings and then I turned it into a sonogram.

And then from there I was able to look at different things, like different pitches and different timings.

- Hi, Miya!

– Miya: Hey!

I think I see the apple tree behind you.

Is that it?

Yeah, well spotted, Miya.

I'm really interested to hear what Miya has got to tell me as a bio-acoustician.

Narrator: Miya compared Chris's lockdown recording to another he made when traffic returned to normal.

Lockdown or not, male blackbirds deliver two different messages within one song.

So we have this part here, the "doo-doo-doo-doo, doo!"

(bird singing) And that's very melodic.

And that is actually the message to the female that says, "Hey, sweetie!"

And then you get this little crunchy bit here that's like "Khhh!"

(bird singing) And that's actually for the rival males.

So, your male is actually saying, "Buzz off!"

That's remarkable.

I didn't realize that was happening simultaneously.

Narrator: In normal times, when there's traffic noise... And here's a lot of background noise.

Narrator: There's a space between the songs.

Here it comes... (bird singing) Tshhh.

Okay, so let's hear what he's doing during lockdown.

- (bird singing stridently) - Tshhh!

Tshhh!

Very close together, those two.

- (bird singing stridently) - Tshhh!

Again... Blackbird in lockdown, you notice that his songs were shorter and they were closer together and they were coming on top of each other.

Narrator: But something even more interesting was happening.

Miya: The coolest bit here is actually with the buzzes.

So you're gonna listen to it one more time.

Let's focus on the buzz-offs.

- (bird singing angrily) - Tshhh, tshhh!

Two of them.

Two buzz-offs.

The buzzes right at the end here, they were crunchier, they're wider ranges and they were buzzier.

Why is that so during lockdown, do you think?

- The crunchier the buzzes are-- - Yeah.

Miya: The more aggressive the bird is being.

It's the difference between saying "Hey, hey, buzz off" versus "Buzz off!"

(bird singing) So, Miya, do you think my description of the birdsong being more vigorous was correct?

I'd say they were singing more vigorously.

So, lovely job!

Perhaps the blackbird males were hearing more rivals and they, therefore, were singing more vigorously in order to proclaim their territories and to repel those rival males.

(bird singing) Chris: One thing lockdown made us all do was listen.

(bird singing) And become more aware of our environment.

And that's one thing I'm hoping that we'll hang onto, that we've realized how good it is when we don't have continuous background noise disturbing us.

Erica: So, during the heart of the COVID-19 lockdown, I was biking across the city, trying to get an understanding of where it was quiet, where it was loud.

Narrator: When the pandemic shut down work at her university, Erica Walker's research on noise pollution took a new direction.

Just really got me to thinking about the soundscape and was quiet equitably distributed.

Narrator: She measures how noise affects our health... And which communities it hurts most.

Erica: You know, like, it was quiet in my neighbourhood, but I was really curious about how quiet or loud was it in other neighbourhoods.

(car horns blaring) Narrator: Places like Chelsea, across the river from Boston.

(siren wailing) A noisy industrial city.

Erica: I would definitely rank Chelsea as being the loudest city I've measured in to date.

(jet engine roaring) Narrator: Planes from Logan Airport create constant disruption.

Two of its runways point right at Chelsea.

Sara: I've definitely had experiences where I've, like, been talking to a friend or talking to a co-worker and a plane flies overhead and we have to just like-- kind of just like right now-- but we have to like pause our conversation or, like, be yelling at each other to finish our conversation.

You actually feel like you have to duck, even though you obviously-- you won't get hit by them.

It does feel like they're so close and so low and so loud.

(jet engine roaring) Thank you guys for coming out today.

Narrator: Lockdown brought out the social justice warrior in Erica.

One of the missions of our work is to provide the city with the data that you need to go to your federal government, to go to your local government, to go to your state government to demand action.

(siren wailing) Narrator: Erica believes noise is a public health crisis in Chelsea.

Erica: Noise impacts us all, but it impacts low-income communities more because they don't have the resources to fight it and people know that, so they dump all of their acoustical garbage right at their front door.

Narrator: At the start of the pandemic, Chelsea got a break.

Erica: So, planes that were previously flying every two minutes were now not flying at all.

Narrator: A rare opportunity to measure silence.

Erica: So, during lockdown, I was really interested in understanding how quiet Chelsea could be.

Narrator: How quiet it could be, if some planes diverted to runways not pointed at Chelsea.

She and a colleague set up a monitoring station on the roof of City Hall.

Erica: And we were able to capture one-second increment grabs of the sound environment.

Narrator: She compared decibel levels during lockdown with those she'd gathered here before the pandemic... And took her dramatic results to Chelsea's City Hall.

We're really excited to hear what you've found.

When we analyzed our data, we saw that sound levels decreased by up to 14 decibels.

(waterfall thundering) So, imagine taking the roar of Niagara Falls... And reducing it to the sound of a rain shower.

(gentle rain falling) Narrator: Airport officials took notice.

I was able to speak to the airport authority last week and they were very interested, in particular, our results about low frequency sound.

Thank you so much.

This is super helpful for us.

What this study does is it brings it back to the residents.

It says, actually, this information is for you to use and for you to advocate what's best for the community.

So, I think it's a very important tool.

Erica: I'm really hoping that the data that we collected will empower the residents of the city of Chelsea, and that they'll use this data to fight back.

(birds squawking) Narrator: A different kind of noise signals a massive fall migration on the St. Lawrence River.

Trying to locate one specific snow goose among hundreds of thousands takes a special kind of patience.

I often think about, like, the different geese that I see and each one is-- has its own story.

You know, I have a kind of a connection with them.

(squawking) Narrator: Thierry wants to know if lockdown led to a baby boom.

This morning, he's tracking a GPS tagged goose known as JX to see if she has goslings.

What you have to look for is the colour of the individuals.

The adults will be all white, whereas the young will be mostly greyish.

Narrator: So far, JX is eluding him.

(squawking) Thierry: So, there were a lot of goose families here, but now they all left, and the one I'm looking for as well.

So, I'm following her.

Narrator: The geese are arriving from the arctic, where they nested over summer.

(squawking) So, Thierry, do you think there's more young than there used to be, like, one, two weeks ago?

Uh, yeah, I would say so.

Narrator: Thierry and his boss collect reproduction data to help manage the goose population.

More arrived recently in this big flock.

Narrator: As the geese migrated north during spring lockdown, regular field work was cancelled.

(squawking) (speaking French) But Pierre got permission to capture a few geese to test them for COVID.

There was no sign of the virus, but they discovered something else.

Thierry: We-- We saw during the lockdown that the geese had a better body condition than previous years.

Basically, you're looking underneath the tail right there, and you can see the amount of fat that's, like, kind of increasing from here to there.

Narrator: The geese were fatter because hunting dropped off during lockdown.

Less gunfire means calmer geese with more time to feed.

Thierry: A fatter goose will be able to use more energy to create the eggs.

Our hypothesis is that since the birds were in a better body condition because of the lockdown, we thought that they would have better breeding success, thus more young in the population in the fall.

Narrator: That's why he's trying to find JX.

Back in the spring, she was outfitted with a solar-powered GPS collar.

They know she made it to the arctic, that she stayed in one spot long enough to lay eggs.

Pierre: We have GPS location every five minutes.

An individual that is not moving for 28 days is definitely incubating.

Thierry: Oh!

Pierre: What?

I think I got the grey collar.

No way.

Is it JX?

I'm not sure.

Wait.

I'll zoom in a little bit.

Yeah, it seems like it is, yeah.

Yeah, JX!

There it is!

Narrator: Mission accomplished, but JX has arrived without goslings.

Thierry: Yeah.

Something must have happened.

We didn't see any young on this one.

I have an arrival of two adults and three young.

Two, three.

Narrator: The scientists are left wondering what exactly happened in the Arctic over summer?

(squawking) Because of lockdown, they were not there to monitor nesting season or find out what happened to JX's brood.

Pierre: Probably predation after hatching had occurred.

So, that's an option.

The other option is during migration the young were unable to follow the migration.

That's happened as well.

Narrator: But lockdown was a game changer.

Pierre: It's changed my research perspective.

It's amazing how they can react so fast.

Narrator: The fat flock of 2020 showed that an entire species can adapt almost overnight when humans stay home.

(squawking) Many cities around the world saw unusually blue skies during lockdown.

Cora Young suspected that might solve an air pollution mystery on the other side of the planet.

Cora: Specifically we're looking at India where the air quality is very terrible and where we expect that the economic shutdown will have a big effect.

Narrator: In New Delhi, the world's most polluted capital city, the lockdown effect was dramatic.

Cora: It's almost a controlled experiment which we never have the opportunity to do in the real environment because we can't go shutting down society.

Narrator: The chemistry of New Delhi's air pollution has stumped scientists for decades because there are so many different sources.

Cora: If we can tease out the factories from the backyard industries and sort of pull apart this chemical soup, um, and figure out what's really impacting air quality.

So, how many air monitoring stations do they have?

Narrator: Cora and her team tapped into lockdown data from pollution monitoring stations in India.

Their research revealed something completely unexpected.

Cora: I was shocked.

I was absolutely floored by our results.

Narrator: Pollution did drop off, with one glaring exception.

Cora: The ozone was much, much higher during the lockdown than it had been before.

This was very surprising.

My first instinct was better double check this.

Make sure that I haven't made a calculation error somewhere.

Hey, Trevor, come see this.

What are you looking at?

Ozone data.

We live in a two atmospheric chemist household, which means that we can bounce our ideas off of each other.

So that's really surprising.

Cora: We had these blue skies, but just because the sky is blue doesn't mean that the air is clean, unfortunately.

Narrator: Ozone, an invisible gas, jumped by 30% during lockdown.

Up in the stratosphere, it protects us from UV rays.

But at ground level, breathing it in is like a sunburn on your lungs.

The idea is that when you get a sunburn on your skin, there's an oxidation reaction, and the same type of thing happens in your lungs when you're exposed to ozone.

Narrator: It's linked to everything from asthma to emphysema.

As smog from factories and traffic dropped off, more sunlight got through.

And sunlight is one of the ingredients to the formation of ozone.

Narrator: So, lockdown created unique conditions that accelerated production of a harmful pollutant.

Cora: I might have expected to see maybe a slight change, but this was a huge, huge change.

It was really quite shocking.

Narrator: Cora learned that other cities like London and Los Angeles also saw unexpectedly high ozone levels during lockdown.

Cora: And that can be really important for regulators.

If they want to improve air quality, you have to know how ozone is forming in order to regulate it properly.

Narrator: Otherwise, we'll be trading one pollution problem for another.

Cora: If the pandemic hadn't happened, we never would've known about this.

Sandra: This makes me really wonder, are the wildlife going to respond differently after another year?

Narrator: It's been half a year since Jason Fisher and his team returned from Alberta's Bighorn back country.

Laura: Yeah, here we have a nice group of wolves coming through this camera.

Sandra: How many photos on average do you think there are per camera site?

Narrator: They've analyzed more than 75,000 images from the camera traps.

Nice.

Laura: One group of bears might trigger 200 photos.

That's a lot of data.

It's a lot of data to get through.

Narrator: Their research has taken an unexpected turn.

When we went into this, we thought we were looking at a system under lockdown.

Instead the opposite happened.

Narrator: In the summer of the pandemic, thousands of campers flooded into the Bighorn.

Jason: Everywhere where there was a creek side or a patch of ground to put an RV or a tent was occupied.

Narrator: Land use is not regulated here like it is in provincial parks.

Jason: And because the infrastructure isn't here to support all those campers... (rumbling) ...it led to a lot of noise, people were chopping down trees for campfires.

So, completely changed the tables on what we were studying, you know, partway in.

Narrator: The data revealed some species did whatever they could to escape the human hordes.

Jason: So, grizzly bears, for instance, are naturally very shy of humans, and so we see them moving off of the areas where humans are.

Lynx are also notoriously shy, reclusive animals, and so we see them shifting off of where humans were.

To see them moving away from those areas with lots of human activity suggests that they're trying to adapt to what is a pretty unusual situation.

Narrator: But wolves did something different.

Got a wolf coming in at this camera site.

Looks like he's carrying something in his mouth.

Jason: So, we genuinely thought we were going to see wolves shifting into nighttime to stay away from humans.

Sandra: After people started flooding the landscape in the Bighorn, you see that wolf behaviour actually shifts towards the daytime.

That's really surprising.

I just had to dig more into this to try to understand what was going on.

Narrator: They discovered that the wolf's prey had also switched to daytime foraging.

Nice daytime shot of a moose walking in front of our camera site.

Narrator: Jason has a hunch based on previous research.

Maybe the moose and deer were using humans to shield themselves from predators.

It's quite possible that wolves are shifting their activity to match that of their prey because they gotta eat irrespective of all this human activity in a landscape.

This tells us that wolves are incredibly smart.

And incredibly adaptable to their surroundings.

Not all animals are as adaptable as wolves.

We can't just assume that wildlife are going to take care of themselves, that there is no impact, and it's going to be fine.

There is an impact.

Narrator: The pandemic underscored that impact more clearly than any event in recent memory.

Nicola: It's amazing that we had this opportunity to learn from the lockdown, and I think it's incredibly important that we, as humans, recognize how much our behaviour affects the species we share this world with.

Narrator: When humans pause, change happens quickly.

Where birds fly, how they sing... (bird singing) ...and how many other creatures forage, mate, and nest.

Nicola: As a human society, if we chose to change our behaviour, then a lot of species would benefit from that right away, and we know that this would work, because it already has.

Justin: There has to be kind of this realization that we as humans have to work with nature a little bit more closely, and give nature a break sometimes.

Everything on the planet is connected.

And that includes humans.