Heather Graham will introduce the City Nature Challenge

Cody Grasdal’s project title is “Deer Population Densities within the City of Lethbridge.”

Over the course of 2 months (November and December 2020) deer population density estimates in areas within the city of Lethbridge were collected. Four urban area types were determined and then sampled, these included: Industrial, Park, Enclosed Residential, and Exposed Residential. Data was collected using direct observational distance sampling along predetermined transects within the area.

Claudia Burstlein will discuss “Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) distribution in southern Alberta & Trichomonas gallinae parasite detection.”

The introduction of non-native species, be it flora or fauna, to an ecosystem is an ongoing process that is almost impossible to prevent. In a lot of cases, this can be seen as a threat to the existing biodiversity. The Eurasian collared dove is a species not native to North America. It could be classified as an invasive species that takes over the environmental habitat of native species or at least being a competitor for such. As there is no actual data available for the Eurasian collared dove distribution in the western part of Canada yet, this project is meant to verify that this species is distributed in southern Alberta (with the Lethbridge area as a first location example) and to what extent. Also the research addresses the detection of the flagellated protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae in this dove species.