Churchill s’expose à l’Hôtel Fort Garry

À peine franchi le seuil de la passerelle arrière de l’emblématique Hôtel Fort Garry, le visiteur est happé par un regard. Immense. Blanc. Perçant. Celui d’un ours polaire saisi à Churchill par le photographe manitobain Jean-Pierre Parenty. Depuis quelques jours à peine, 46 de ses clichés transforment le couloir vitré de l’hôtel en une véritable immersion arctique.

Photographe animalier, Jean-Pierre Parenty s’est spécialisé depuis une dizaine d’années dans la faune canadienne. “Je suis Canadien et j’aime chercher, photographier et représenter la faune canadienne,” confie-t-il.

Né et élevé au Manitoba dans une ferme, Jean-Pierre Parenty nourrit depuis l’enfance une passion pour les animaux et la photographie. “La partie qui m’intéresse et que j’adore, c’est être en nature, chercher des animaux, les trouver et puis essayer de les capturer dans mon appareil photo,” dit-il. S’il a longtemps parcouru le monde, c’est désormais vers le Nord qu’il tourne son objectif, et plus particulièrement vers Churchill, cette localité de la baie d’Hudson capitale mondiale de l’ours polaire.

L’idée de l’exposition est née d’un appel de l’hôtel, il y a environ un an. “L’Hôtel Fort Garry m’a appelé pour créer une galerie dans la passerelle arrière de l’hôtel. Et ils ont demandé que ce soient des photos d’animaux de Churchill,” explique-t-il. Une demande sur mesure pour celui qui fréquente régulièrement la région. “Je vais à Churchill très souvent, donc j’ai beaucoup de photos que j’ai prises là-bas,” souligne le photographe.

Manitoba has most measles cases in Canada — and it’s likely much worse, doctors say

Manitoba has the country’s highest number of reported measles infections in 2026 — a year after the province’s outbreak began — while a surge brings stronger messaging from the government.

Dr. Davinder Singh, who is Manitoba’s public health lead on measles, said the province is seeing its highest monthly totals since May.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing an increase in the number of detected or reported cases. We also know the number of cases that are diagnosed are only a relatively small fraction of the true number of cases out in the community,” he said Wednesday.

“We can estimate that there may be about 10 times as many infections as we have that get reported to us or that get detected.”

First Nation says Hydro misuse of river diversion destroying sturgeon population

A northern First Nation is calling on Manitoba Hydro to alter its use of the Churchill River diversion to protect a lake sturgeon population allegedly decimated by hydroelectric operations.

Tataskweyak Cree Nation Chief Doreen Spence said the culturally significant species is facing extinction on the river system without immediate intervention, 50 years after Manitoba built the diversion to send water to large power generating stations.

“The diversion has artificially altered the flow of the water… so much that the river is barely able to sustain life as it once did,” Spence told reporters in Winnipeg Thursday.

“Manitoba Hydro must operate the diversion in sync with the natural flow regime of the river for the sturgeon to survive.”

Manitoba enterprise at forefront in bolstering soil structure

Soil health has always been important to anyone who wants to grow plants that flourish but never more so than today. Soil degradation due to drought and extreme weather is a global problem that has a direct link to agricultural productivity and food security.

The status of soil health in Canada is not a concern limited to farmers and backyard gardeners. Scientists, policy makers and researchers are recommending urgent action to protect soils to safeguard the future of our food production.

In June 2024, following an 18-month study of soil conditions in Canada, the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry released the report Critical Ground: Why Soil is Essential to Canada’s Economic, Environmental, Human and Social Health. The report, which is based on testimony from more than 150 experts, concluded that soil in our country is at risk, with implications for food production, climate resilience and biodiversity.

Dale Overton takes soil health and its implications for fertility and food production seriously. His company, Overton Environmental Enterprises, manufactures several microbial products for large-scale agriculture as well as for the home gardener. Overton is deeply interested in regenerative farming practices and how biological amendments can benefit soil health, carbon sequestration and soil microbiomes, and boost growth rates and crop yields.

Funding shortfall undermines Canada’s ability to track diseases threatening wildlife, human health

The head of a national network that tracks the spread of wildlife diseases says a persistent funding shortfall is undermining Canada’s ability to detect and respond to emerging threats to biodiversity, agriculture and human health.

Damien Joly is the chief executive officer of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, a network of Canada’s five veterinary schools and the B.C. government’s Animal Health Centre. The CWHC works with federal, provincial and territorial governments to monitor wildlife diseases across the country.

In an interview with The Narwhal, Joly said the organization is “cash strapped across the board.”

“We do not have the resources we need to effectively monitor these diseases,” he said.

Body’s cellular makeup leads to big, existential questions

French science journalist and author Lise Barnéoud’s first book Hidden Guests is a fascinating, well-researched, atmospheric book on micro-chimerism — the presence of genetically distinct cells from one person circulating in another person.

Animal Nation includes rural and Indigenous people in its portraits of Prairie and northern animals

At first glance, Winnipeg-born producer Jesse Bochner’s seven-part series Animal Nation brings to mind docu-series such as Wild America, Planet Earth and Nature.

Foods with healthy-sounding buzzwords could be hiding added sugar in plain sight

Many consumers feel pride in avoiding the glazed pastries in the supermarket and instead opting for “all natural” granola that comes packed with extra protein. Same goes for low-fat yogurts “made with real fruit,” organic plant-based milks and bottled “superfood” smoothies.

Buyer beware: Healthy grocery buzzwords like those often cover up an unhealthy amount of sugar.

Added sugars are difficult to quickly spot because many companies use clever marketing to distract consumers, said Nicole Avena, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School and Princeton University who has studied added sugars.

Avena said while some health-forward brands know people are starting to become aware of the hazards of added sugars, "a lot of the bigger brands don’t worry so much about people’s health.”

U of M researchers studying whether genetic testing helps zero in on effective mental-health treatment meds

A team of University of Manitoba researchers is recruiting people seeking mental-health treatment for a study that could take the guesswork out of medication with the help of genetic testing.

The study will offer free pharmacogenomic testing — which predicts how a person may react to medications based on their genetic makeup — to 200 adults who are looking to start a new medication or switch their medication treating a mental-health issue.

“Someone with mental-health conditions, they (try) multiple medications, and sometimes it takes months or years to get to a point where those drugs work for them, or to have less side effects,” said Dr. Abdullah Maruf, the lead investigator on the study and assistant professor in U of M’s College of Pharmacy.

“Pharmacogenomic testing can find out how our body will respond to these kinds of medication.”

Killer whales and dolphins may be helping each other hunt of B.C. coast: new report

HALIFAX - Scientists have found evidence that two unlikely collaborators — killer whales and dolphins — may be helping each other find and feast on salmon off the coast of British Columbia.

Sarah Fortune, an assistant professor in oceanography at Halifax’s Dalhousie University said it would appear the massive fish-eating whales may be working with Pacific white-sided dolphins, which have been spotted eating the salmon chunks the killer whales produce.

She is a co-author of a paper published Thursday in Scientific Reports that found the two species appear to be working together while they forage.

Recordings picked up "this audible crunch as the whale bites down, then you see these fragments of fish that are released,” and then dolphins swim in to eat the pieces, Fortune said.

What happens when your immune system hijacks your brain

“My year of unraveling” is how a despairing Christy Morrill described nightmarish months when his immune system hijacked his brain.

What’s called autoimmune encephalitis attacks the organ that makes us “us,” and it can appear out of the blue.

Morrill went for a bike ride with friends along the California coast, stopping for lunch, and they noticed nothing wrong. Neither did Morrill until his wife asked how it went — and he'd forgotten. Morrill would get worse before he got better. “Unhinged” and “fighting to see light,” he wrote as delusions set in and holes in his memory grew.

Of all the ways our immune system can run amok and damage the body instead of protecting it, autoimmune encephalitis is one of the most unfathomable. Seemingly healthy people abruptly spiral with confusion, memory loss, seizures, even psychosis.

Author goes far and wide on quest to document all plants native to Manitoba

When Diana Bizecki Robson was growing up in Saskatoon during the 1970s, she enjoyed riding her bike to parks and riverbanks where she spent hours studying the diversity of wild plants and their pollinators.

After deciding to become a biologist, Bizecki Robson worked for a few years as an environmental consultant which allowed her to conduct plant surveys. But it was when the opportunity to work at the Manitoba Museum came along — in October 2003 — that she could finally pursue the type of field work and research she loves.

Today, Bizecki Robson is the curator of botany at the Manitoba Museum. She oversees a herbarium which holds over 50,000 specimens.

“One of the things I discovered as part of a collection assessment project that I did when I first got here was that the museum did not have a specimen of every single species of plant or fungus or lichen (from this province) in its collection,” said Bizecki Robson.

How Canada can regain its measles elimination status

TORONTO - Infectious disease experts say Canada's loss of measles elimination status shows how badly investment is needed in public health, rebuilding vaccine confidence and solving the primary care crisis.

On Monday, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) revoked the measles-free status Canada has had since 1998 because an outbreak of the virus across several provinces has lasted for more than a year.

Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist and professor at McMaster University, said cuts to public health funding, the lack of a national vaccine registry and a shortage of family doctors — all while misinformation about vaccines is circulating widely — have contributed to the rise of measles.

"There's no two ways about this. This will take money — a lot of money — and a lot of investment. And it will take a lot of political will," Bowdish said

Chinese landscape architect Yu Kongjian among 4 killed in a plane crash in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The crash of a small plane in southwestern Brazil killed four people including Chinese landscape architect and urban planner Yu Kongjian, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.

The accident happened late Tuesday during a landing attempt at a large farm about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the municipality of Aquidauana in Mato Grosso do Sul state, firefighters said.

Yu, who was known for promoting ecologically sound development, was traveling with two Brazilian documentary makers, Luiz Fernando Feres da Cunha Ferraz and Rubens Crispim Jr., who were making a film about the Pantanal wetlands. All three were killed along with pilot Marcelo Pereira de Barros, authorities said.

Yu was know for developing the concept of “ sponge cities, ” with infrastructure that can absorb rainwater to mitigate flood risks and improve the urban climate.

Only moratorium can save moose population: MWF

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation is calling for a moose-hunt moratorium in two parts of the province after aerial surveys showed “significantly declining” numbers of the animal.

“The populations may never bounce back,” the federation’s Chris Heald said Tuesday.

The advocacy group representing sport hunters and anglers issued a news release calling for the complete closure of the fall moose hunt in Duck Mountain and Porcupine Forest. It follows Manitoba Conservation’s 2023 aerial survey results, which indicate “significantly declining moose populations” in the game-hunting areas in western Manitoba.

It wouldn’t be the first time for a moose conservation closure there. In 2011, licensed and Indigenous hunters supported a full closure of the moose hunt after a 2010 survey the showed moose population had fallen in both areas to 2,471 animals.

Another subdivision, another city problem

So, here we go again folks. We just get the protection of the Lemay Forest done and dusted and bingo, there’s another proposed subdivision for 23 homes on two-acre flood plain lots right across the Red River from the Lemay on the old Daman Farm site.

On World Rhino Day, South Africa marks progress but still loses a rhino daily to poachers

DINOKENG GAME RESERVE, South Africa (AP) — The Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa has a thriving rhino population, but their exact numbers and the details of the security operation that keeps them safe from poaching are closely guarded secrets.

They are the protocols that reserves with rhinos follow to ensure they're not the next target for poachers who still kill on average one rhino every day in South Africa for their horns despite decades of work to save the endangered species.

South Africa has the largest populations of both black and southern white rhinos of any country and sees itself as the custodian of the animals' future.

As conservationists mark World Rhino Day on Monday, South Africa remains in a constant and costly battle against poaching nearly 30 years after black rhinos were declared critically endangered, and more than a half-century since southern white rhinos were on the brink of extinction with just a few dozen left.

Small changes, big impact

Are you a climate champion or climate destroyer? Ecological quizzes and carbon-footprint calculators can help you find out.

Province creates hunting buffer zone on Bloodvein First Nation

The Manitoba government is creating a buffer zone restricting where non-Indigenous hunters can harvest moose on Bloodvein First Nation’s traditional lands.

Manitoba Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Minister Ian Bushie announced the change late Monday as moose season began for game hunting areas 17, 17A and 17B that includes the traditional areas of the First Nation, located 285 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

The community, which established a check stop to prevent illegal drugs and contraband from entering the First Nation, warned “outside hunters” on social media weeks ago that they’re not welcome to take moose on their traditional lands.

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation has questioned the First Nation’s authority to block licensed hunters with a moose tag from the area and called on the provincial government to intervene.

Very hungry caterpillars very good for biodiversity

Widely considered a pest and a scourge, a leaf-chomping defoliator dedicated to decimating crops, boring into buds and biting down blossoms as it works to satiate its inexhaustible appetite, a new nature documentary reveals there’s more to the much-maligned caterpillar than meets the eye.

The larval creature takes centre stage in Winnipeg filmmaker Jeff McKay’s documentary feature The Extraordinary Caterpillar.

His hour-long film takes viewers on a journey to understanding why the famously “very hungry caterpillar” is a key player in maintaining biodiversity.

“Caterpillars are right at the centre of the food chain, they are key to the food chain working as it should,” McKay says.

One Tech Tip: Ditch the chatbots and take your AI nature apps on a birdwatching hike

I didn't notice the scarlet tanager until the alert appeared on my phone: “Merlin heard a new bird!”

Despite its brilliant plumage — jet-black wings on a crimson body — the songbird can be a hard one to spot in a forest because it prefers to stay high in the canopy. It sounds a little like a robin to an untrained ear.

But the free Merlin Bird ID app detected a scarlet tanager was likely nearby by using artificial intelligence to analyze my phone’s live sound recording. I paused my hike, quietly scanned the treetops, saw the bird as it kept singing and clicked a button to add the species to my growing "life list" of bird sightings. Digital confetti burst on my screen.

Like a real-world version of Pokémon Go, a gotta-catch-'em-all drive to add to my Merlin list has helped me find a great kiskadee in Mexico and a rusty-cheeked scimitar-babbler in the Himalayas. But sometimes the greatest revelations are close to home, as more AI nature app users are starting to discover.

Jets centre Toews regains balance on, off NHL ice via Indian holistic system Ayurveda

For Jonathan Toews, the road back to the NHL didn’t just run through the hockey rink and weight room — it took a mysterious, life-altering detour halfway around the world, into the heart of India’s ancient healing traditions.

The result? An unexpected fan club thousands of kilometres away, rooting for the 37-year-old Winnipegger as he prepares to suit up with his hometown Jets this fall.

“I’m really happy that Jonathan Toews has finally recovered with Ayurvedic and Panchakarma treatment,” Dr. Rajni Jalota told the Free Press in an interview from India. “I wish him the very best and that he emerges more successful than before.”

Jalota admits she knows nothing about hockey — in her region, ice is for drinks and cricket reigns supreme — but like many of her medical colleagues, she’s intrigued by Toews’ comeback attempt.