Species survey starts

In what is undoubtedly the largest wildlife survey ever conducted in Saskatchewan, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) is launching its Bio-Blitz project this week. RSM scientists and several teams of summer students will be fanning out over southwest Saskatchewan for this summer-long project to find and capture as many different species of insects, reptiles and small mammals as they can. A main focus of this project will be to find and identify species of native bees and other pollinators, and establish a baseline for monitoring how animals respond to changes in the landscape.

"Compared to other provinces, there is a pretty significant gap in our knowledge about Saskatchewan's native species, and this survey will go a long way toward closing that gap," RSM Chief Curator Dr. Ray Poulin said. "The scope of this survey makes it one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken in Canada. We fully expect to find many species that are new records for Saskatchewan, and quite possibly species new to science."

Scientists and students will carry out the fieldwork from five base camps. The surveys will focus on some of the more unique areas of the grasslands region including the Big Muddy Valley, Killdeer Badlands, Great Sand Hills, Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park and a number of locations in the Cypress Hills. The survey will not focus on well-known wildlife species, but instead on the vast diversity of insects and other invertebrates and smaller animals that call Saskatchewan home.

Support for this study comes from Saskatchewan Parks, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, Canadian Agriculture Adaptation Program, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.

To learn more about on-going research and scientific expertise at the RSM, visit www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/research-collections.