Speakers

Presentation: The Southern BC Cougar Project with Siobhan Darlington
May 12th, 2026
Meeting starts at 7:00 PM at Princeton Museum

May 12, 2026

The Southern BC Cougar Project with Siobhan Darlington
Cougars are an important but understudied game species in British Columbia and are the main predators of mule deer. The Southern BC Cougar Project (www.bccougarproject.weebly.com) was launched in 2019 to capture, GPS-collar, and track adult cougars across three regions of the southern interior to better understand their demography, reproduction, habitat use, and diet. Over six years, our team monitored 56 cougars, tagged 62 kittens from 27 litters, and documented 916 confirmed cougar kills across the landscape. We found that males had significantly lower survival than females, with mortality risk doubling near urban areas. Female cougars had smaller litters than those reported elsewhere (averaging two kittens per litter). Males most often killed adult moose and elk, while females mainly preyed on deer; however, in summer, small prey made up nearly half of kills for both sexes. Cougars most often killed large ungulates along the edges of regenerating cutblocks and burns that were 10–20 years old during spring, summer, and fall. These findings fill major knowledge gaps in cougar ecology in BC, provide valuable baseline data for wildlife management, and highlight key threats to both cougars and their prey on the landscape.
Dr. Siobhan Darlington, RPBio (she/her) is a carnivore biologist specializing in the roles of landscape change in shaping predator-prey dynamics. Originally from Nova
Scotia, she has studied cougars, white-tailed deer, caribou, grizzly bear, and songbirds across western Canada and the maritime provinces in the past 10+ years. In her spare time, she and her partner David are naturalists, avid bird watchers, and bird banders at Vaseux Lake Bird Observatory near OK Falls.

Presentation: Restoring Native Grasslands in the Face of Invasives with Wendy Gardner
June 9th, 2026
Meeting starts at 7:00 PM at Princeton Museum

June 9, 2026

Restoring Native Grasslands in the Face of Invasives with Wendy Gardner
Grasslands are among our most threatened ecosystems, providing critical habitat, biodiversity, and ecological services. Yet their restoration is increasingly challenged by invasive plants that alter soil, competition, and recovery dynamics. This talk will highlight the importance of native grasslands, the difficulties posed by invasive species, and case studies of student research on grassland restoration.

Wendy Gardner is a Professor in the Natural Resource Science Program at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada where she has been teaching for over 20 years. Her research program is based around disturbance and plant community change with a focus on rangeland systems. Within her discipline she is an active member on the executive for several organizations (Society for Range Management, BC Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation, Grasslands Conservation Council of BC) and is passionate about educating people about rangeland ecosystems.