Congratulations to Sage Raymond for earning her Track and Sign Specialist certificate in Condon Montana last week, hosted by Swan Valley Connections. Sage is the first Canadian to earn a specialist certificate here in North America. Sage’s interest in tracking began while working as a bear viewing guide in the inland temperate rainforest of British Columbia, where knowledge of tracks and sign helped her find bears and keep people intrigued with stories of animal behaviour. These days, Sage is working on a PhD at the University of Alberta, where she uses trailing and other noninvasive methods to study various aspects of conflict between humans and urban-adapted coyotes.

The rich wildlife of the Swan Valley, nestled between the Mission Mountain Range and Swan Mountains, is an ideal location for wildlife tracking training and evaluations. Signs we encountered on the evaluation, run by Casey McFarland and David Moskowitz, included everything from the tiny tracks of a Jumping Mouse, to signs of every large carnivore found in the Rocky Mountains: mountain lions, black bears, grizzly bears, and wolves.