Wildlife Biologist

Over the coming months I am hoping to highlight several outdoor-related professions through interviews, stories, and photographs. Part one in this series features a conversation with Michael Jokinen, an Intermediate Wildlife Biologist with the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA). Michael has a Renewable Resource Management diploma and a Fish and Wildlife Technology certificate from Lethbridge College, as well as an Environmental Science degree from the University of Lethbridge.

He has been working with the ACA for the past 13 years and is now based out of Lethbridge after spending the first eight years in Blairmore.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Michael last March when I attended a presentation hosted by the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society. Michael was speaking about Alberta’s carnivores and how remote trail cameras are being utilized as a non-invasive way to study wildlife. I spoke with Michael briefly after his presentation regarding my own trail camera project and have kept in touch intermittently via e-mail ever since.

Michael was gracious enough to answer several of my questions before heading to northern Alberta where he’ll be working in the field over the next couple months.

CG: “It sounds like you’ve worked on a variety of projects throughout your career. Can you tell me about a few of the most memorable ones?”

I have to include my first summer with the ACA when I was conducting fisheries inventories in the Crowsnest Pass region. It was a perfect way to really get to know the area as we were often sampling the headwaters of the streams and creeks to determine whether they contained Trout. That summer, I realized how unique and beautiful the southwest corner of the province really is.

Riding one of the many trails during Michael’s first summer working for the ACA.

Another fish related project that comes to mind is the sampling of high mountain lakes in the region. I am an avid fly-fisher and I love to fish all destinations that involve adventure and hardiness. The project introduced me to the high mountain lakes in the area and I have revisited every single one of those lakes since, some on multiple occasions, some in the middle of winter and some just for the challenge.

They truly are special places!

The Yarrow-Castle Bighorn Sheep project is a shoe‑in. Our objective was to determine female Bighorn survival rates, female reproductive rates, and lamb survival rates in the Bighorn population, located just north of Waterton Lakes National Park. I was the primary field researcher on the project, which lasted for over three years, and I feel the experiences and knowledge I gained while conducting this research sculpted my occupational pursuit.

Monitoring Bighorn ewe populations and their offspring in the mountains.

I am extremely passionate for those critters that endure and thrive in our mountainous regions. Therefore I was really excited when I had the opportunity to learn more about the Mountain Goat and Bighorn populations in the southwest region by monitoring mineral licks using trail cameras. Naturally occurring mineral licks on the landscape provide goats, sheep, deer, moose, and elk with necessary nutrients and elements at those times of the year when they often have dietary deficiencies.

Welcome my camera addiction!

Bighorn Sheep. Mountain Goat hair strewn across a trail leading to a mineral lick.

Lastly, the wolverine project. Where do I begin? Four years ago, the ACA partnered with the Alberta Trappers Association (ATA) to help identify where wolverines occur in the province and try to determine what factors might influence their distribution. Trappers were some of the only individuals in the province that had any experience with wolverine and until more recently, they were the only source of information the province had for wolverine distribution and trends.

The past two winters have strictly focused on the Boreal region of the province. The wolverine population is greater in the Boreal, largely because it’s such a vast landscape. Having the trappers assist in collecting the information is a huge help and would be impossible to replicate as it would require an…