{"id":61122,"date":"2025-10-08T11:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/61122\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T11:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:41:07","slug":"wildlife-report-finds-majority-of-p-e-i-species-to-be-stable-while-others-are-on-the-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/61122\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife report finds majority of P.E.I. species to be stable, while others are on the brink"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report on Prince Edward Island’s wildlife found that 60\u00a0per cent of species in the province are considered to be stable, but that the other 40 per cent could be at risk of extinction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The province’s forests, fish and wildlife division has had a\u00a0mandate\u00a0to produce the\u00a0State of Wildlife Report<\/a> since 1997. The newly released report covers the period\u00a0between 2007 and 2020, and monitored the status of more than 5,600 wild\u00a0species across P.E.I.<\/p>\n

Mathew Ginn, a wildlife biologist with the division who worked on the report, said this survey monitored significantly more species than the last report of this\u00a0kind back in 2010, including some that weren’t native to the Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said raccoon, coyote\u00a0and fox populations\u00a0are strong, but that staff are concerned about birds like piping plovers and the bobolink, a species of small grassland blackbird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AFox populations on P.E.I. have historically been impacted by sarcoptic mange, but the wildlife report indicates their population is secure. (Submitted by Paul Gauthier)<\/p>\n

“You’re always concerned when you see species reach a level where there’s a chance of [extinction],” Ginn said.<\/p>\n

“At the same token, it opens up niches for other wildlife species. There’s always going to be winners and losers in wildlife populations and [it] tends to form a cyclical pattern in a lot of cases.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Natural cycles<\/p>\n

While fox populations\u00a0on P.E.I. have historically been impacted by sarcoptic mange \u2014\u00a0\u00a0a disease caused by a\u00a0mite that burrows itself into surface layers of skin, causing itching and irritation \u2014 Ginn said the wildlife report indicates\u00a0their population is secure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“These types of disease cycles are natural in populations,” he said. “If anything, there might have been an overabundance of foxes in certain areas, which led to the transmission of disease.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of the reason fur animal\u00a0numbers are up compared to other years is because fewer people are trapping, he said, adding that too much of a certain species can cause other\u00a0issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Whenever you have an overabundance of a predator, it’s going to have an impact on the species that it preys upon,” Ginn said.<\/p>\n

“In other areas of the country, raccoons do have an effect on waterfowl populations because they eat the eggs. We haven’t really targeted that, so we don’t actually know if that’s the case, but it’s possible.”<\/p>\n

The forests, fish and wildlife division is\u00a0working to secure more protected land\u00a0for some animals. Ginn said around 4.5 per cent of P.E.I. is currently reserved for\u00a0wildlife, but\u00a0the target is seven\u00a0per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next wildlife report of this kind is set to be published in 2033.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report on Prince Edward Island’s wildlife found that 60\u00a0per cent of species in the province are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-61122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}