WILDLIFE RESEARCH 



Accomplishments in wildlife studies, as in all research, are seldom the pro- 

 ducts of great inspiration or luck. Usually, they signify the culmination of many 

 years of unspectacular work during which progress was measured by a steady 

 accumulation of data and the discarding of ideas which would not work. 



The wildlife research programme, which attempts to support and improve 

 wildlife management in Ontario, had its share of accomplishments, failures and 

 unimpressive progress during the year. If accomplishments in the past year were 

 more numerous than in any of the previous 20 years of life of the Section, they 

 were merely indications that many years of sound planning and work were begin- 

 ning to prove beneficial. 



Several projects, initiated and developed in the Wildlife Research Area of 

 Algonquin Provincial Park, are now being tested under management conditions in 

 other parts of the province. However, the research station continued to function 

 as the centre for most field research on wildlife by Department personnel, staffs 

 and students of the Ontario Research Foundation, University of Toronto and 

 other organizations. The close contact between the Department and outside agen- 

 cies at this station illustrates the co-operation which is one of the strong Doints ot 

 wildlife research in the province. Over the years the Wildlife Research Station in 

 Algonquin Provincial Park has attracted a large number of visitors. In addition to 

 biologists and other professionals, hundreds of visitors were shown various aspects 

 of the research programmes. Hundreds more could not be accommodated because 

 research responsibilities limited the time which staff could spend on public relations. 



Basic research on otter populations in Algonquin Provincial Park neared com- 

 pletion. Fourteen otter were live-trapped, tagged and released as part of the ecolo- 

 gical study, which will terminate with an attempt to recover all tagged animals in 

 the summer of 1965. The relative stability of production of otter in Ontario 

 throughout the years is in direct contrast to the fluctuations in numbers of beavei, 

 muskrat and mink which share a similar environment. In addition to providing 

 information unique to the management of otter, this research may also provide an 

 unusual but valid approach to understanding of the population changes shown by 

 the other aquatic mammals. 



Census methods for beaver, primarily house-counts along aerial transects to 

 sample large areas and intensive surveys of experimental plots, have been used for 

 several years to provide data for research and management programmes throughout 

 the province. Developed initially in research on Algonquin Provincial Park beaver, 

 they are now supplying data on the states of beaver populations in most of the 

 forest Districts and have been used to study the effects of protection and trans- 

 planting of beaver in the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Although the methods are under- 

 going continual modification to improve their accuracy, they are at the present 

 time, the best possible means of producing estimates of numbers and of providing 

 the background data for research on mortality factors. At the request of the Quebec 

 provincial government, a Department employee, using our census methods assisted 

 in an investigation of beaver declines in the Ruperts House-Eastmain regions of 

 Quebec in the autumn of 1964. 



As in previous years, research on upland game and waterfowl was limited to 

 grouse, Canada geese and snow geese. Plans, however, were formulated for major 

 increases in this field of research in future years because of the great importance of 

 upland game birds and waterfowl to the hunters of southern and central Ontario 

 and the growing problems of the effects of pesticides on wildlife in agricultural 

 areas. 



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