Whether you like to discover new limits or new adventures, whether science is a passion or just a hobby to you, we are happy to offer this new stay located in the Canadian wilderness, in which you will be tracking the « magician » wolf.

13-15 years 16-18 years - Research
Lieu : Quebec (Canada)
Domaines : Environment, Geology, Chemistry, Biology, Ethnology and Anthropology, Ecology, Zoology,
Participants : 15
Encadrants : 3 Sciences Educators

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This stay will be a good opportunity for you to satisfy your thirst for wilderness while bringing your contribution to a scientific project. La Mauricie National Park of Canada researchers and rangers are currently carrying out a scientific project on the wolf habitat ! La Mauricie National Park of Canada is located in Quebec.

The aim of the BOREALIS Research Programme is to implement field surveys and generalize non-invasive animal and plant tracking techniques. “Tracking wolves” (« Sur les Traces du Loup ») is a part of the BOREALIS Research Programme : you will track this shy and timid animal from a distance, without facing it directly, i.e. without interfering in its natural surrounding.

La Mauricie National Park of Canada is a preserved wilderness, depending on our global contribution to environment. Located in the Laurentides, the Canadian Shield alongside the St Lawrence River left bank, the Park covers 536 km² and is a calm and quiet territory with a mild relief. The landscape of La Mauricie National Park is one of lakes, forests and rolling hills, all scattered with rivers, streams and waterfalls. Only seasons mark the passing of time here. This resourcing place can lead either to action or to camping and adventure activities.
Since its creation in 1970, the park has safeguarded a representative sample of the southernmost part of the Canadian Shield that is still home to wolf pack.

But life is not that easy for wolves, because the Park is an open territory, and they can be killed by hunters in land adjacent to the Park. Wolf packs are not large enough to hunt moose ; so to find meat, wolves hunt White-Tailed Deer (Virginia Deer) which are easier victims for small wolf packs. But Virginia Deer live in land adjacent to the Park.... Here lies a vicious circle or a tricky dilemma for Wolves !
You will be able to carry out research in La Mauricie National Park, but also in lands adjacent to the Park, with Objectif Sciences International educators. Your achievements will contribute to National Park researchers’ job. And these researchers will be delighted to see that young campers will commit themselves in wolf protecting projects, following scientific protocols by the rule, as if they were already real researchers.

As a good animal watcher, self-conscious of the impact you may have on animals, you will learn how to respect wolves, and Nature as a whole, and before entering the Park, you and your co-campers will first meet rangers to listen to their advice. The park is an open territory, where tourists can enter freely, but you, as researchers-to-become, you will be extremely cautious and pay an utmost respect to wolf packs living in this natural wonder.

Accommodation and stay details : either you live in Quebec and you can reach the Park with your own car or with Intercar, either you live far away from Quebec and you travel by plane to Quebec and land in Montreal, where our Objectif Sciences International team will pick you up at the airport (for more details, see transportation). In both cases, once you are in Quebec, you will sleep in an inn, next to the Park, where you will prepare your mission and meet La Mauricie National Park research team. Then small research teams and your educators will be driven to the Park. Your destination place depends on how far the Project BOREALIS lies when you arrive ; but in all cases, you will experience a wonderful scientific adventure in La Mauricie National Park wilderness. You will have a permanent contact by radio with the co-campers and the camp Summer camps camp Les colonies de vacances ne sont plus ce qu’elles étaient, c’est à dire énormes, anonymes et sans activités précises. Heureusement les choses ont changé et les enfants qui ont vécus il y a 20 ans les premiers camps de vacances, qui à l’inverse des colonies de vacances proposaient des stages de qualité au grand air et bourrés d’activités intelligentes, ont grandis et sont devenus eux-mêmes organisateurs de séjours de vacances intelligentes et hors du commun. Ces séjours, vous les trouvez sur ce site... -based team who stays outside the Park. Then you change teams and camps. If the first field-team puts camera traps (motion-activated cameras) or animal hair traps on the field, the second team will pick wolf pictures and hair up. The camp Summer camps camp Les colonies de vacances ne sont plus ce qu’elles étaient, c’est à dire énormes, anonymes et sans activités précises. Heureusement les choses ont changé et les enfants qui ont vécus il y a 20 ans les premiers camps de vacances, qui à l’inverse des colonies de vacances proposaient des stages de qualité au grand air et bourrés d’activités intelligentes, ont grandis et sont devenus eux-mêmes organisateurs de séjours de vacances intelligentes et hors du commun. Ces séjours, vous les trouvez sur ce site... -based team will have a non-stop access to the Internet and the Park rangers’ phone, whereas the field-team will be very close to the adventure heroes, wolves. Like magicians, wolves cannot be observed easily, and you will learn how to listen to noises and how to spot their footprints on ground and plants. Without being able to see wolves, you will know that they are watching you, and if you know where to put the auto-trigger cameras, you will be then proud to show around a wolf picture at home !

Big felines and noninvasive survey ?

Wolf footprints found in Kyrgyzstan taken by PANTHERA project campers

You can join this stay whatever the country you live in (Quebec, North America, South America, Europe, Asia or Africa). In all cases, this stay is made for international campers, as it is stated in the Objectif Sciences International Association Memorandum. Even if the stay is located in a heavily populated western territory, it is similar to those stays carried out in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) where campers track the Snow Panther. The association’s educators and scientific educators enjoy a rich and long experience in such projects using noninvasive techniques to track wolves with teenagers, and the stay is a wonderful experience for you ! Discovering and understanding how wolves live is a highly secured activity. First because wolves do not intend naturally to meet us, and then because researchers observing wolves and fresh campers learning how to observe wolves have to work at a distance from the animals and should never put either a human or technical pressure on wolves, unlike tourists or trappers. So, campers will learn how to get closer to the wildlife in a thoughtful and non-intruding manner during the stays ; they will first get some practice with easier animals such as squirrels or skunks. Because you can track back in details how a wolf pack change, when observing wolf footprints, looking at wolf pictures taken with auto-trigger infra-red cameras without flash (infra-red cameras are also used by night) or while finding wolf hair on trees and studying genetic details. According to Objectif Sciences International’s ethics, this know-how and this non invasive working techniques, used by respectful professionals, should be taught to future generations, and more specially to young campers who want to become researchers later. Fresh or young campers –adults-to-be- have fun copying professional protocols, and thanks to this game-oriented education, they will be able to learn better, faster and more.

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