The Narwhal | News on Climate Change, Environmental Issues in Canada

Family portraits: parenting tips from the animal kingdom

Paul Gains — Thu, 07 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Doting mates, coddling parents and a touch of tough love; the animal kingdom has a lot to teach us about rearing young.

As a wildlife photographer for 14 years, I’ve had the chance to see these parents in action, and feel the loss of young left to fend for themselves.

I’ve spied a Cooper’s hawk, watching closely as its parents hunt, so it can one day feed its own family. I’ve seen an eagle drop a fish into a river for an eaglet, when their own angling skills weren’t yet up to snuff.

Perhaps the most relatable scene was a worn out male fox, taking an afternoon nap in the grass, as his kits rough-housed nearby.

From the fields, rivers and skies of Ontario, here are some of my favourite family portraits.

As they mature, the eyes of Cooper’s hawks change colour from brown to orange to red. A pair has been hunting in the woods behind my apartment for the past few years, and last year they were joined by a hatchling.

The young Cooper’s hawk spends time watching the adults dart between tree branches to capture mourning doves, mice and even squirrels. This is a skill it will need to survive.

In the seven years I’ve been visiting the Nith River in Ayr, Ont., belted kingfishers have nested in a sandbank. When there are young in the nest, the adult male is busy delivering fish and crustaceans to them. Often he will perch on a nearby tree before deciding to enter the nest — a security precaution, to keep their location hidden from predators.

Two sandhill crane couples I know of return to their nesting areas south of Cambridge, Ont., each spring. Both pairs laid eggs in 2024. One pair’s nest was flooded and abandoned, but this other couple successfully raised a young one, called a colt. They forage close to the nest when the colt is young, but it will eventually be strong enough to fly with its parents.

Each December, sandhill cranes, both young and old, gather in fields along the shore of Lake Erie for migration, although some will remain in Ontario through the winter.

Deer families traditionally include a doe and her offspring from recent years, and they’ll sometimes join with others to form a larger herd. One winter, while wandering across a path, I had the feeling I was being watched. When I turned around I spotted this doe with two fawns.

Another mother and fawn approach the Grand River in Brantford, Ont., for a drink. I would often see them crossing the river here.

Peregrine falcons are the world’s fastest animal, using their roughly 300-kilometre-per-hour flight speed to capture birds much larger than themselves. A pair took up residence on the roofs of two churches in downtown Cambridge, Ont., in 2023 and 2024. They were attracted no doubt by an abundant supply of pigeons and gulls close by.

In the spring of 2024, the pair were joined by one of their offspring, seen on the left, which noisily chased the adults whenever they caught a pigeon. I noticed the adults didn’t like to share, but the young one would feed on scraps until her hunting skills were perfected.

Black bear cubs normally remain with their mothers for roughly a year and a half. This cub was foraging in the woods surrounding Killarney, Ont., with no siblings and no mother in sight. There was an extraordinarily high number of orphaned cubs that year and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources couldn’t possibly rescue all of them. A weight limit of 15 kilograms was set, with cubs believed to be below that number targeted for capture and care at a sanctuary. After sharing my photos with one of the ministry’s bear technicians, this one was deemed to be a healthy weight with the potential to survive the winter on its own. A few weeks later I was told by locals they had seen two cubs scavenging at the Killarney town dump. Hopefully, this one made it through the winter.

In spring, an adult female bald eagle lays her eggs in a nest constructed with moss, twigs and tree branches snapped from nearby trees. She spends up to 35 days on the eggs, only occasionally getting relief from her mate to stretch her wings — always in the vicinity of the nest. The adult male is the constant provider, delivering food to the nest. When the eggs hatch, his hunting activity is frantic, and the eaglets quickly grow.

From what I’ve seen, each year, one of the fledglings will remain dependent upon the adults for food, even after his or her siblings have left the territory to fend for themselves.

Adults will continue to feed this eaglet, dropping food in the vacated nest or on tree branches close to the nest. Once I watched the adult male drop an enormous northern pike into the river below a begging eaglet. It was an illustration of what good parents these eagles are.

A cow moose is a devoted mother and will care for her calf throughout most of its first year — but after that, tough love kicks in. This solitary calf photographed in May 2024 has, in all likelihood, been cast out by its mother so she can prepare to birth another calf.

Over a few weeks of observation, I saw this male great horned owl bring squirrels, birds and half-eaten rabbits back to feed both his mate and one owlet, which was hidden in the trees. The adult waited for me to back away before taking the meal to his offspring, likely to keep its location secret.

The young one was reliant upon its parents as it dared to only fly short distances between neighbouring trees.

Black-capped night herons fish along the edges of ponds and rivers. This adult night heron preferred hunting for small fish in the shadows along the Speed River, in Cambridge. Her two offspring have learned to hunt from their mother, but found it easier near a dam on the river where fish might gather.

Over time the young herons will lose their brown markings and eventually take on the appearance of an adult — white breast, black-capped head and wings.

While his mate was tucked away in a den giving birth and then caring for the tiny pups, the adult male coyote was the sole provider for his family.

Although I suspected the location of their den, near Paris, Ont., I kept my distance. After a couple of months of parental supervision, the three pups began venturing out and exploring the area.

As the pups grew in size, they also answered the calls of their parents to meet down by the Grand River.

Kestrels are the smallest member of the North American falcon family. Fully grown, they are about the size of a mourning dove. Over the month of April 2022, this adult female became used to me standing at the side of the road photographing her each evening as she hunted insects and mice.

I didn’t see her over the following months and realized she was probably nesting somewhere. When she did eventually return it was with three young ones, none of which were as bold as her. They kept their distance.

For much of 2020, a red fox could be seen hunting behind my apartment building. In the summer and fall, two kits turned up, often playing together. Feeding the growing kits was a lengthy and apparently tiring process for the adult male, who would regularly take a 20-minute afternoon nap in the grass undisturbed by the sound of my camera clicking away.

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Take another look: framed as a deadly predator, coyotes are resilient, intelligent and misunderstood

Paul Gains — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:00:18 +0000

Few of us will admit to loving coyotes. The distaste for this exclusively North American canid runs deep: in a 1985 Yale University study respondents ranked them beneath skunks, rattlesnakes and vultures in terms of popularity. But are they simply misunderstood?

I have been fortunate to photograph many coyotes over the years, including three adorable pups in rural southern Ontario. I have learned much of the negativity directed at them comes from fear.

Urban coyotes have followed humans to dense population centres where rodents are in abundant supply, providing an ample food source. Despite talk of modern “coywolves,” these are the same eastern canids previous generations knew, whose crossbreeding with wolves happened over a century ago.

Naturally, there are occasional encounters with citizens — and their pets — which become news. If a coyote acts aggressively and bites someone it is widely reported, usually without important context.

A study from 2011 found, on average, three people are bitten by coyotes annually in Canada, compared with 300,000 dog bites. When coyotes do attack, it’s often after humans have fed them, either intentionally or inadvertently. Sadly, the common response to a coyote attack is for the animal to be culled.

After chasing away crows and ravens, a coyote feeds on the remains of a calf near Glen Morris, Ont. Coyotes can smell a dead animal from more than a kilometre away.

Each night a trio of pups emerged from the cornfields to explore the family territory near Paris, Ont. One proved bolder than the others.

Vehicular collisions, along with hunting and trapping, are a leading cause of coyote mortality. It’s a reason why they have a roughly 50-50 chance of surviving their first year. A farmer asked if I saw a bullet hole.

Hunting is allowed in most areas of Ontario with a few exceptions. Here, a hunter drags a dead coyote back to his truck near Mapleton, Ont.

Rural coyotes face a different problem. Having become the top predator in regions where traditional apex predators have been extirpated, coyotes sometimes target lambs and calves — if they can get inside their pens. But again, coyotes get blamed even when other species — such as dogs — might be responsible. The provincial government compensates farmers for livestock lost to predators. But coyote casualties and death by dog are treated much differently.

Losses due to coyotes are covered under the Ontario Wildlife Damage Compensation Program. Of the approximately $1.5 million paid out to farmers in 2024-2025, more than $1.2 million was for alleged coyote predation.

Domestic dogs aren’t covered by that program at all. Those losses fall under Ontario’s Protection of Livestock and Poultry from Dogs Act, which offers generally lower compensation than the wildlife damage program.

All over the world farmers complain of livestock loss due to dogs, so it’s curious why it is not widely acknowledged here. It’s a reason conservationists have suggested coyotes might be taking some of the blame for dogs.

Coyote or eastern wolf? The two are easily confused. Two of three wildlife biologists I showed this picture to believed it to be an eastern wolf, the other: coyote.

No doubt coyotes are more than a nuisance to some farmers. If a coyote, particularly one with mange, hangs around their house they will shoot them.

But many I speak with say coyotes around fields are mostly left alone, because they control populations of rats, mice and even groundhogs — a significant role. Coyotes are amazingly resilient, and their populations quickly rebound after attempts to cull them. They’ve migrated to every U.S. state (barring Hawaii) and every Canadian province and territory.

A healthy-looking coyote pauses his mid-afternoon activities in Ayr, Ont.. A thick winter coat will prepare it well for one of the harshest winters on record in December 2025.

The adult male is out on the prowl. He has hungry mouths to feed in a hidden den near Paris, Ont.

Their yips and barks call coyote family members together along the Grand River. This one was late to the party.

In a typical coyote family only the parents will mate, but if one or both parents are killed any females will come into estrus earlier or disperse to find mates and start a family. And they will have larger litters if the food supply is abundant.

Hunting mice and voles along the roadside was a nightly occurrence for this pup. Ever cautious, when another car approached it would hide in the cornfields.

Rodents, rabbits and whatever else they can scavenge make up the coyote diet. These pups supplemented their meals each night with pears that had fallen from a tree.

This coyote had chased a deer into the path of my car one evening at dusk near Glen Morris, Ont. The deer escaped. My arrival cost the coyote his meal but spared the deer. If only the coyote could talk.

Emerging from a cornfield this almost fully grown pup was in a playful mood one night near Paris, Ont.

Almost fully grown, this coyote pup walked past me near Paris, Ont., and then spotted prey in the ditch.

But their bad reputation remains. In Ontario, hunting and trapping of coyotes is allowed all year, everywhere except in and around some provincial parks — a restriction put in place not for the coyotes’ sake, but to protect the endangered eastern wolf, which can look similar. In much of southern Ontario there is no limit to the number of coyotes that can be hunted.

In Ontario, provincial law empowers municipalities to kill coyotes that pose a threat. Until recently, one outdoor store in Belleville, Ont., held an annual coyote killing contest. Animal conservationist groups took the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to court in 2022 arguing they were not complying with the law preventing bounty hunting. Although they lost the case, the contest does not appear to have been held since.

But those of us who appreciate the animal for its resiliency, its devotion to family and its adaptability, know getting rid of them is nearly impossible. It is estimated the coyote species can withstand a kill rate of 70 per cent of their population, year after year.

A coyote pup waited until the coast was clear before crossing the road. It was en route to the Grand River, where the family gathered each evening.

Over the summer of 2023, three coyote pups gained confidence. Before crossing the road in front of my car, near Paris, Ont., they would first take a look.

It’s denning season now across Ontario and in the coming months coyote pups will appear. I, for one, hope people can accept them as a valuable species, playing a vital part in our ecology.

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Winter brings snowy owls south — for now

Paul Gains — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 13:00:00 +0000

For the past 12 winters I have been photographing and observing snowy owls in farmers’ fields northwest of Elmira, Ont. — with permission from the landowners, and a pocketful of dog treats to befriend off-leash farm dogs.

While snowy owls typically roost on the ground, they prefer a higher perch — a tree, a fencepost or hydro pole from which to hunt prey.

To witness a hunt is truly a memorable sight.

A young male owl hunts next to a road. He appeared at a time when all the other owls had begun their migration back to the Arctic.

My favourite female owl of 2023 often hunted near me. On this occasion she had flown across a field catching a pigeon in mid-air then returned to eat, until two farm dogs frightened her off.

Their feathers allow near-silent flight as they swoop down to attack their prey, such as meadow voles, mice and birds. But it takes practice; I’ve witnessed inexperienced young owls chase pigeons round and round a grain silo and fail. Meanwhile, a mature female I encountered one winter targeted a pigeon 300 metres across a field and snatched it out of the sky.

A female snowy eats her prey. Her appearance frightened off a young male owl I had been photographing. No sooner had he fled than she caught a kestrel and devoured it.

The same young female snowy owl with a meadow vole she has just caught. She would swallow it in front of me with three gulps.

In a good year, I might have seen as many as 10 snowy owls in the roughly 10-square kilometres I routinely cover. But in the past two years, only two or three have made their way to these fields for the winter, after spending the summer on the Arctic tundra. Birders and ecologists across Ontario and Quebec have also reported fewer sightings in recent years.

The dark brown patches on a snowy owl’s feathers are known as barring. Young males and females are virtually indistinguishable, but as they age, and go through annual molts, the males gradually lose their barring at a faster rate than females.

Although some snowy owls remain in the Arctic year-round, many begin migrating southward in late autumn. In years when an abundance of lemmings can be found on the tundra, the number of chicks born — or the clutch size — can be larger. The young owls aren’t ready to compete with experienced hunters, meaning they are pushed south.

Over the winter of 2021 this young female became comfortable hunting while I photographed her. This was one of several voles she would catch that night during a freezing rain storm.

During intense wind and freezing rain, she spotted a vole and flew past me to catch it. She then flew to a spot in front of me and swallowed it.

An adult male regurgitates a large pellet of indigestible parts of its prey — bones, feathers, fur and teeth.

In preparation for their evening hunt, snowy owls will preen, regurgitate pellets, defecate and then stretch their wings.

Some migrants enjoy wintering in Ontario’s lake country, where waterfowl are abundant, while many prefer flat, open farmland that resembles tundra. With incredible eyesight, the ability to turn their heads about 270 degrees and phenomenal hearing, they are able to home in on mice and voles across a field.

During a blizzard, an adult male snowy owl suddenly spun around to defend himself from another male that made claim to the field.

But snowy owls that find their way south face human-related threats such as electrocution from power lines and rodenticide poisoning in the mice and voles they eat. Automobile collisions, though, appear to be the most common cause of death among snowy owls wintering in eastern North America.

An injured young female snowy owl is fed pieces of rat meat during a brief stay at Wildlife Haven in Waterloo, Ont.

Two days later I drove her to The Owl Foundation, in Vineland, Ont., for further rehab.

After a few months of rehabilitation at The Owl Foundation, this young snowy owl was released near Midland, Ont., in April 2022.

In the North, climate change has severely impacted Arctic ecology, with the region warming three times faster than the global average, threatening the survival of many plant and animal species including the snowy owl. As the treeline creeps north in the warming climate, the snowy owl’s tundra is also giving way to forest.

During a snow squall, an adult male owl waits for the clouds to part, remaining there for more than an hour before flying to his favourite tree.

Lemmings are their main source of food in the Arctic, and breeding success is intertwined with any fluctuation in the population of these rodents. A healthy number of lemmings generally means more “snowies.” The opposite is also true. As snow cover thaws and refreezes amid warmer temperatures and rainfall, lemmings — who can forage plants and lichen through snow — are prevented from reaching their food sources by the ice.

An adult male snowy owl had been roosting along a fenceline, when a female owl at a nearby grain silo caused him to relocate.

Female snowy owls are bigger than males. This is known as reverse sexual dimorphism. This adult male had been sitting on the ground for an hour when the female, which had been perched on a nearby fencepost, suddenly attacked him.

Warmer temperatures could also see the northward advance of insect borne diseases such as West Nile virus, which has been found in migrating snowy owls. Snowy owls are also gradually losing their circumpolar habitat as mining interests grow in the Canadian North and oil and gas interests take up space, such as along Alaska’s northern slope. The massive oilfield in Prudhoe Bay is 300 kilometres east of a traditional snowy owl breeding site in Utqiagvik, Alaska. And there is also the looming threat of legacy oil spills in the area, south of Utqiagvik, the town formerly known as Barrow.

At sundown this female snowy flew across a field towards me and landed on a nearby hydro pole. Her level of comfort with me caused me to wonder if she was my favourite from two years earlier. Some snowies will return to winter locations and her flight feathers showed clear signs of molting, meaning she was a couple of years old at least.

There has been a 30 per cent reduction in the breeding snowy owl population over three generations, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Since 2017, the International Union has classified snowy owls as vulnerable to extinction. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada reported in May that, with a population decrease of more than 40 per cent over the past two decades, snowy owls are now threatened — one step away from endangered.

The winter still brings snowy owls south. But for how much longer?

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Emptying the nest: parenting lessons from bald eagles

Paul Gains — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Emerging from a thicket behind me, the young bald eagle flew nervously across the river and crashed spectacularly into some tree branches, snapping them with an audible crunch.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

The day before was the eaglet’s first outside the nest, and another photographer had witnessed what he described as a possibly fatal collision with a thick tree trunk. Now I had proof of life.

Despite a few horrific tree collisions, an eaglet born this year is gaining confidence — and ability — in flight each day.

The following day I saw the eaglet feeding back at its nest, its parents making regular deliveries of prey which can include raccoon, mink, duck and fish. Bumps and bruises are an important part of an eaglet’s maturation, getting them ready to leave their parents’ nest.

After weeks of struggling to perfect her flight skills, a young female eaglet confidently soars across the surface of the Nith River in August 2024. She will soon set out on her own.

Adult bald eagles tend to return each year to the same location, constantly maintaining their nests by adding sticks snapped from nearby trees. For six years I’ve observed and photographed similar incidents at a nest in Ayr, Ont., along the Nith River. Four years ago this pair actually did move — about 100 metres upriver — to another tall pine. Soil erosion below the original nest wouldn’t pass a home inspection, so this savvy pair picked a more stable site.

After delivering a meal, the adult male hurries away to search for additional prey to feed the insatiable appetite of his eaglets.

Nearly every year that I’ve been watching them, a new brood was born to the couple in Ayr. I’ve watched as they cater to their young, and teach them to hunt and fly. Although eaglets are almost fully grown at three months of age — and have closely studied their parents’ behaviour — they still have to figure out the mechanics of flight. Should they leap or flap their wings first? And what constitutes a safe landing?

Clumsiness is evident. A female fledgling crashed into a tree as she learned to fly in June 2021, then hung upside down for a minute or two until she got her bearings.

Some eaglets will assess the risk of flight, decide it’s too high and instead confine themselves on a branch for days. The adults will attempt to feed them in that position, but without a nest to catch them, meals often wind up on the ground below. It’s no wonder bald eagle mortality rates are roughly 50 per cent in their first year.

The adult male spotted movement below the nest and suddenly dove, vanishing into a marsh. He emerged with prey.

This female eaglet spent much of July 2020 perched on a branch after struggling to gain sufficient elevation to get back into the nest. The adult male brought her a fish and then fed her beak to beak.

Still, this is one of hundreds of bald eagle nests across the province, an amazing number given the threats to the birds and their habitat.

Bald eagles feed their young until they’re nearly fully grown. The parents will hunt and return to the nest with a baby raccoon like this one, or ducks, chickens, mink and fish.

The bald eagle population nearly collapsed in the middle of the last century due to pesticide use. Through bans and conservation efforts, it has gradually bounced back in recent decades, but while the bald eagle was removed from Ontario’s species at risk list in 2023, they are not out of the woods.

Lead poisoning is one major concern, as the birds are scavengers and can ingest ammunition fragments if they find an animal carcass left by hunters. Disease is another, as common prey such as waterfowl might carry avian flu, while mosquitoes are carriers of West Nile virus.

Like humans, neighbours can be a challenge for bald eagles. Relentless screeching red-winged blackbirds, as well as blue jays and grackles can be enough to send the eagles off to a new perch.

Intruders such as ospreys, turkey vultures, red-tailed hawks and even their own offspring from recent years often venture too close to bald eagle nests and are chased off. When an osprey approached, the adult male raised the alarm and gave chase.

Adult eagles in Ayr have become tolerant of human disturbances like trains, planes, noisy bonfire parties and fireworks, not to mention birders and photographers lined up along the riverbank. It’s a skill their young need to learn to survive.

The adults often provide flight demonstrations for their young. The eaglets watch carefully, then wildly flap their wings, mimicking the elders.

In August 2024, the adult male was preening in a nearby tree while the eaglet screamed for food. Finally, the adult flew away, returning a few minutes later with a northern pike. He dropped it by the river’s edge. It took a few attempts, but the eaglet managed to retrieve it. This was a hunting lesson provided by an expert fisher.

Over the coming weeks, they will practice tough love, spending less time at the nest so the young are forced to explore their surroundings. It’s a proven parenting method, implemented by a couple that has successfully raised dozens of eaglets.

They’ll enjoy a period of tranquility after the young leave to make their own territories. And by late autumn, the cycle will begin again.

Bald eagles generally mate for life.

In December, with their nest empty, the couple shows affection for each other — though actual copulation might not occur until March.

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