The Narwhal https://thenarwhal.ca Deep Dives, Cold Facts, & Pointed Commentary en-US Copyright 2026 The Narwhal hourly 1 Bear defence and other survival lessons from northern Alberta https://thenarwhal.ca/trina-moyles-black-bear/ Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=151052 Coming of age in the heart of oil country, a teenage girl learns to live with bears — and to navigate the hard-living culture of a resource-dependent town Trina Moyles Opinion Alberta wildlife Photo: Trina Moyles A black bear standing in a grassy field. In the Yukon, the longest land migration on earth is under threat https://thenarwhal.ca/counting-porcupine-caribou-yukon/ Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=145748 Scientists are racing to count Porcupine caribou amid climate changes and ramped up pushes for oil and gas. Despite the odds, there’s optimism for the future Trina Moyles In-Depth climate change wildlife yukon Photo: Peter Mather Aerial view of the Porcupine caribou herd in the tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Caribou vs. drilling: U.S. politics and the new phase of a multi-generational struggle in the Yukon https://thenarwhal.ca/yukon-old-crow-porcupine-caribou/ Mon, 18 Aug 2025 17:07:59 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=142180 The U.S. government is again moving to outright force drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, threatening both caribou and the Gwich’in people in northern Yukon who depend on them Trina Moyles In-Depth arctic Indigenous Rights oil and gas protected areas Spirits of Place wildlife yukon Two women skin bloody caribou heads on a table as a small crowd watches, including some people who are filming the activity on their phones. Iconic sled dog races — the ‘spirit of the North’ — face a reckoning https://thenarwhal.ca/yukon-sled-dog-race-climate-change/ Thu, 06 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=132585 As historic sled dog races face extreme freeze-thaw cycles that put mushers and their dogs at risk, organizers are forced to make tough choices Trina Moyles On the ground climate adaptation climate change Climate Change News yukon Video: Michael Code A snowy landscape at twilight with a dogsled team. Wildfires are destroying habitat for Alberta’s ‘grey ghosts.’ Can they survive? https://thenarwhal.ca/woodland-caribou-wildfire/ Wed, 21 Aug 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=116239 A biologist’s daughter recounts his decades chasing woodland caribou. How does a wildfire crisis threaten an already fragile species? Trina Moyles In-Depth Alberta boreal forest caribou Endangered Species Wildfire Illustration: Simone Williamson / The Narwhal Illustration of caribou fleeing wildfire smoke As the world’s ‘polar bear capital’ waits for ice, bears are increasingly drawn into the streets https://thenarwhal.ca/churchill-manitoba-polar-bears-ice/ Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=94275 Climate change and El Niño conditions have a unique consequence for northern communities: polar bears — the largest land predator on the planet — are encountering people more often as they follow their noses to find food Trina Moyles On the ground arctic climate change Manitoba wildlife Photo: Trina Moyles A polar bear looks at the camera while standing in a snow-covered landscape with low brush and power lines visible in the distance near Churchill, Manitoba ‘Treated like machines’: wildfire fighters describe a mental health crisis on the frontlines https://thenarwhal.ca/wildfire-firefighter-burnout/ Wed, 20 Sep 2023 16:08:19 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=88021 Extreme working conditions, low pay and high turnover are leading to a crisis exacerbated by more intense wildfires. Eighteen firefighters tell their stories of the mental toll — from burnout to PTSD to the loss of peers to suicide Trina Moyles and Jesse Winter On the ground Photo Essay Alberta Alberta Wildfires B.C. climate change wildlife Firefighters from the B.C. Wildfire Service take a break amid 30-degree weather while working on a wildfire near Adams Lake in early August, 2023. In Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, an Australian-owned coal mine is quietly forging ahead https://thenarwhal.ca/grande-cache-coal-mine-alberta/ Thu, 25 May 2023 13:03:54 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=78959 Grande Cache locals were surprised to hear Mine 14 — exempt from Alberta's pause on coal mining in the Rockies — is poised to start digging Trina Moyles On the ground Alberta Alberta coal mining Alberta Election 2023 coal Indigenous Rights A view of Grande Cache, Alta., from Grande Mountain, the location of a planned new coal mine. ‘We are a skeleton crew out here’: UCP cuts led to disastrous Alberta wildfire situation https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-wildfire-ucp-cuts/ Wed, 10 May 2023 22:03:27 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=78015 Alberta wildfire fighters place much of the blame for the current situation on the shoulders of the UCP government, which has gutted firefighter programs and failed to retain staff Trina Moyles Analysis Alberta Alberta Wildfires Wildfire Photo: Kyle Brittain Massive plumes of Alberta wildfire smoke rise above forest alongside an Alberta highway