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The Parks / British Columbia / Mount Revelstoke National Park

Most of the animals of the western mountains are found in the parks. Grizzly and black bear find excellent forage on the steep slopes cleared by snow slides. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep graze at high elevations. Mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and moose roam the forests that wolves, cougar and wolverine also call home. The subalpine ecoregion is also the habitat of pine martin, lynx, snowshoe hare, squirrels, porcupine, jays, Clark’s nutcracker and pine siskin. Pikas, hoary marmots, white-tailed ptarmigan and lemmings find habitats in the meadows. All of the 2500 mountain caribou in the world are in southeastern BC and all are considered vulnerable due to their dependency on the lichens that grow on old growth trees.

Logging of these ancient trees has seriously diminished the supply of arboreal lichens, which alone are the caribou’s winter food source. Other research projects involve the monitoring of migrant bird populations such as the yellow warbler, American redstart, song sparrow and Swainson’s thrush. The West Slopes Grizzly Bear Project attempts to determine their population density and mortality rate. Radio collars to determine survival rates and reproductive data are presently tracking wolverines, considered vulnerable. The long-eared bat in the Columbia Basin area is at risk of extinction in BC because, like so many species, it is highly dependent on the habitats provided by old growth forests.