{"id":13233,"date":"2025-07-21T15:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/13233\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T15:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:48:09","slug":"search-for-b-c-s-best-symbol-round-2-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/13233\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for B.C.’s Best Symbol: Round 2 \u2014 Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of reasons why British Columbians have a deep connection with salmon, from their ubiquity across the province to their circular routine of returning home to spawn.<\/p>\n

But as the director of UBC’s Marine Mammal Research Unit, Andrew Trites, admits, there’s also a more selfish reason.<\/p>\n

“Everything comes back to food, doesn’t it?” he said, as he broke down the matchup between the chinook\u00a0salmon and sockeye salmon in the Search for B.C.’s Best Symbol<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trites pointed out that the chinook is well known because of its massive size \u2014 it’s called “king salmon” in the United States \u2014 while the sockeye is known for its distinctive red colouring and its dense spawning numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there’s the element of taste as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Is there anything better than putting on the BBQ with a nice piece of chinook salmon? And \u2026 when we think of sockeye salmon, the image that comes to mind is smoked salmon because it’s a very firm flesh. And who doesn’t love eating smoked salmon?”<\/p>\n

\"AOrcas, marmots, sockeye salmon and spirit bears are some of the animals remaining in the Search for B.C.’s Best Symbol. (CBC News)From 8 animals to 4<\/p>\n

Beyond the salmon, when you look at the eight animals still in the running in the Search for B.C.’s Best Symbol, a certain theme emerges.<\/p>\n

“Everything’s interconnected,” said Trites.<\/p>\n

“The salmon depend on healthy oceans, healthy rivers, and healthy forest systems. Killer whales and otters, they also depend on healthy salmon \u2026 and the bears drag some of the dead carcasses into the woods that fertilize the forest.”<\/p>\n

\"TheThe final eight entrants in the animal section of the Search for B.C.’s Best Symbol (CBC News)<\/p>\n

Interconnected though they may be, we’re asking you to vote in four matchups to determine which animals advance to the next round of our friendly competition:<\/p>\n

Orca vs. sea otter. Steller’s\u00a0jay vs. marmot. Spirit bear vs. grizzly bear. Chinook vs. sockeye salmon. <\/p>\n

Unlike the first round of the bracket, there are no easy votes at this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Trites says that speaks to the powerful connection so many British Columbians have with wildlife \u2014 and the reason they’re such potent symbols.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“All these species hold on some level to people, a level of cultural and spiritual significance.”<\/p>\n

“I’m always struck to hear the emotional effects that it has on people to have seen a killer whale or just to look at awe at spawning sockeye salmon in a river \u2026 we’re just so lucky to be able to live and coexist with probably the most diverse wildlife in all of North America.”<\/p>\n

Voting is open until 10 p.m. Pacific time. Happy voting!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are a lot of reasons why British Columbians have a deep connection with salmon, from their ubiquity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-13233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}