Wildlife Sighting Data – More Than Four Years of Reporting

Shortly after Bragg Creek Wild was formed, a key initiative was established to begin collecting wildlife sighting information. This was set up to help substantiate our mission of improving human-wildlife interactions by understanding to some degree what the residents of Bragg Creek have seen.

Since the inception of this wildlife sighting initiative in January 2021, the team at Bragg Creek Wild set up a simpler way to submit observations on their website. This Google form was live in 2022 and in the current second version, over 350 observations have been added – reported largely by citizens in the greater Bragg Creek area.

In an April 1st, 2022 article in High Country News, an infographic represented what was largely observed from January through September 2021. As with any data analysis, some items fell into the “other” section. For example, an observer reported a bear sighting but was unsure if it was a grizzly or black bear. This was still valuable information! The data on the infographic was a representation of all of the data collected and was used to show species clearly identified by the observer only.

In early 2025, a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) expert was involved in a full review of the data. Working with members of the Bragg Creek Wild team, the data was scrubbed (detailed analysis of each observation) to look at various attributes and put them into 1 of 2 categories: Firstly, solid location observations with species either solidly or partially-identified (e.g. unsure of what bear species was observed) and secondly, unusable observation locations with species not clearly identified (rendering unusable data).

In the end, only 6% of all data collected was deemed unusable.

Looking at all sightings and counts observed, here is an update on what the Bragg Creek Wild team have logged:

2021 only data – 90 sightings – a total of 135 counts observed
2022-2024 data – 341 sightings – a total of 669 counts observed

Wow! Thank you to all participants for your valuable (and continued) input into this sighting initiative.

Along with the data collection and mapping, additional species were observed.

BCW received over 26 different fox observations, 2 bobcat observations, 6 observations in the otter / mink / pine marten category, 8 observations in the porcupine / raccoon / skunk category and 15 observations in the large bird category (owl, crane, heron, eagle). This reporting clearly indicates the diversity of wildlife that exists in the Greater Bragg Creek area.

As part of the early 2025 GIS data analysis, each wildlife sighting was mapped to look for trends. For example, although deer are seen everywhere, moose sightings are a different story. Exact sighting locations were mapped along with “heat maps”, generated to show approximately where the observations were made – given that these species are often on the move. The Alberta Government “Wildlife Watch Animal Carcass Records” data from 2022- 2024 was also imported into the GIS to view alongside our sighting data. These types of GIS data techniques can be used to indicate accurate wildlife crossing locations for speed reduction signage placement to help reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.

What is next? In the coming weeks, we will be sharing some of our GIS mapping heat maps on the Bragg Creek Wild website. In the meantime, we encourage you to continue using the Bragg Creek Wild sighting form at www.braggcreekwild.ca/wildlife-mapping whenever you see wildlife in the area. Your input is valuable!