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A writer, wildlife photographer, and filmaker, Isabelle Groc focuses on wildlife conservation; endangered species and their habitats; and humans' interaction with wildlife. She has a journalism degree from Columbia University and an urban planning degree from MIT. Groc lives in Vancouver.
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Sea Otters: A Survival Story by Isabelle Groc (Orca $24.95)
BCBW 2020
While out walking by Vancouver’s seashore one day, Isabelle Groc spotted in the distance what she thought were masses of floating kelp bobbing up and down. But the movement was odd so she reached for her binoculars.
“What I saw was unexpected and magical,” she says. “About 120 sea otters holding on to each other, floating gently on the water and resting.” The incident inspired Groc to find out about these marine mammals, the smallest in North America and write Sea Otters: A Survival Story.
Sea otters have made a remarkable comeback after nearly being hunted to extinction for their fur coats in the 18th and 19th centuries. A few small communities in remote places managed to survive and in the early 20th century, laws were passed to protect the animals. Today, sea otters are widely studied but their existence is still threatened, being classified as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened species.
In the 1960s, a number of sea otters were reintroduced to areas where they had been wiped out, including B.C. where the last original sea otters near the village of Kyuquot on Vancouver Island were killed between 1929 and 1931.
Sea otters from Alaska were brought to the west coast of Vancouver Island from 1969 to 1972 and an ecological reserve created to protect the colony in the Checleset Bay. They survived and now sea otters from Vancouver Island to B.C.’s central coast number close to 7,000.
Many of them feed and rest around kelp forests, which provide protection from strong waves. To sleep, sea otters often wrap themselves in pieces of kelp to keep from drifting away and kelp forests are safe places for females to nurse and raise their pups.
Having a high metabolic rate, sea otters eat a lot—up to 25 percent of their weight every day. Their favourite food is sea urchins but they also feed on clams, abalone, crabs, mussels, sea cucumbers and even fish and seabirds. Once they catch their prey, sea otters float face-up and usually lay it on their stomachs, like a picnic table, and begin eating with their two front paws.
Importantly, sea otters are known as a “keystone species,” meaning they have the power to hold an ecosystem together. Where sea otters inhabit kelp forests, there are many species who live and thrive on the kelp and there are few sea urchins (being sea otters’ go-to chow). Where there are no sea otters and lots of sea urchins, it looks like a clear-cut landscape with hardly any kelp or the animals that flourish upon it, in sight.
“The sea otters were the starting point of an unbelievable chain reaction that transformed the ecosystem around them,” says Groc. “This process is an example of a ‘trophic cascade,’ a domino effect whereby a predator at the top of the food chain can change an ecosystem through its impacts on prey.”
And the reason we should care about kelp forests, says Groc is that they are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. They are active nurseries for many young fish. Larger marine mammals like sea lions and orcas use the kelp forests as hunting grounds. Plus, when kelp dies, it falls to the seafloor where other organisms such as abalone, snail and urchins eat them. All this richness is underpinned by the sea otter, the key to a rich, complex and connected ecosystem.
Also a wildlife photographer and filmmaker, Isabelle Groc’s last book was Gone is Gone: Wildlife Under Threat (Orca, 2019). 978-1-45981-737-1
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Conservation Canines: How Dogs Work for the Environment
by Isabelle Groc (Orca Wild $24.95)
Dogs have long been valued for companionship and the work they do such as herding and protecting farm animals, searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing persons and assisting people with physical disabilities.
Perhaps lesser known is that dogs also work in wildlife conservation projects as described in Isabelle Groc’s Conservation Canines: How Dogs Work for the Environment.
New Zealand employed canines for wildlife conservation as early as 1890 when Richard Henry trained his dog to use its great smelling abilities to locate the kiwi and kakapo, two flightless species of bird in danger of extinction, that Henry moved to an island where they would be safe from predators (the kakapo is still endangered).
More recently, dogs are being trained to protect domestic animals in Africa against cheetahs, which are highly vulnerable to human-wildlife conflict. Numbering around 100,000 in 1900, there are only about 7,000 left globally. “Because they live close to humans raising cows, sheep and goats, cheetahs are often held responsible for livestock losses,” says Groc adding that farmers feel they have no other option but to kill the big cats. “Between 1980 and 1990, more than 7,000 cheetahs were lost this way.”
The Cheetah conservation Fund (CFF) in Namibia has begun introducing a dog breed called the Kangal shepherd to local farmers. These dogs protect domestic animals against native predators. Nearly 700 have now been placed on farms across the country and fewer cheetahs are being killed by people needing to protect their livestock.
In Australia, a small island connected by a tidal sand bridge to Warrnambool in the southwest was once home to 504 little penguins, the smallest species of penguin in the world. An invasive species of fox almost wiped the little penguins out when they discovered how to reach the island at low tide. In 2006, a Maremma sheepdog that had been protecting a local farmer’s free-range chickens, was re-trained to protect the little penguins from foxes. Within eleven years, the penguin population rose to 182.
Increasingly, dogs help scientists collect information about important or endangered plants and animals. One example is an Australian cattle dog named Alli working in the Fraser Valley that has been re-trained from being a drug-detection dog to sniffing out Canada’s most endangered amphibian —the Oregon spotted frog. Once located in an area, wildlife managers can take steps to protect the frogs’ habitat.
Groc outlines many other examples of dogs being put to use protecting the environment. She also adds a section at the end of the book titled What You Can Do to Help Conservation Canines that encourages people to do their part and “join the dogs in making a difference.” 9781459821606
BCBW 2021-22
BOOKS:
Gone is Gone: Wildlife Under Threat (Orca Wild, 2019) $24.95 9781459816855
Sea Otters: A Survival Story (Orca Wild, 2019) $24.95 9781459817371
[BCBW 2019]
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Sea Otters: A Survival Story by Isabelle Groc (Orca $24.95)
BCBW 2020
While out walking by Vancouver’s seashore one day, Isabelle Groc spotted in the distance what she thought were masses of floating kelp bobbing up and down. But the movement was odd so she reached for her binoculars.
“What I saw was unexpected and magical,” she says. “About 120 sea otters holding on to each other, floating gently on the water and resting.” The incident inspired Groc to find out about these marine mammals, the smallest in North America and write Sea Otters: A Survival Story.
Sea otters have made a remarkable comeback after nearly being hunted to extinction for their fur coats in the 18th and 19th centuries. A few small communities in remote places managed to survive and in the early 20th century, laws were passed to protect the animals. Today, sea otters are widely studied but their existence is still threatened, being classified as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened species.
In the 1960s, a number of sea otters were reintroduced to areas where they had been wiped out, including B.C. where the last original sea otters near the village of Kyuquot on Vancouver Island were killed between 1929 and 1931.
Sea otters from Alaska were brought to the west coast of Vancouver Island from 1969 to 1972 and an ecological reserve created to protect the colony in the Checleset Bay. They survived and now sea otters from Vancouver Island to B.C.’s central coast number close to 7,000.
Many of them feed and rest around kelp forests, which provide protection from strong waves. To sleep, sea otters often wrap themselves in pieces of kelp to keep from drifting away and kelp forests are safe places for females to nurse and raise their pups.
Having a high metabolic rate, sea otters eat a lot—up to 25 percent of their weight every day. Their favourite food is sea urchins but they also feed on clams, abalone, crabs, mussels, sea cucumbers and even fish and seabirds. Once they catch their prey, sea otters float face-up and usually lay it on their stomachs, like a picnic table, and begin eating with their two front paws.
Importantly, sea otters are known as a “keystone species,” meaning they have the power to hold an ecosystem together. Where sea otters inhabit kelp forests, there are many species who live and thrive on the kelp and there are few sea urchins (being sea otters’ go-to chow). Where there are no sea otters and lots of sea urchins, it looks like a clear-cut landscape with hardly any kelp or the animals that flourish upon it, in sight.
“The sea otters were the starting point of an unbelievable chain reaction that transformed the ecosystem around them,” says Groc. “This process is an example of a ‘trophic cascade,’ a domino effect whereby a predator at the top of the food chain can change an ecosystem through its impacts on prey.”
And the reason we should care about kelp forests, says Groc is that they are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. They are active nurseries for many young fish. Larger marine mammals like sea lions and orcas use the kelp forests as hunting grounds. Plus, when kelp dies, it falls to the seafloor where other organisms such as abalone, snail and urchins eat them. All this richness is underpinned by the sea otter, the key to a rich, complex and connected ecosystem.
Also a wildlife photographer and filmmaker, Isabelle Groc’s last book was Gone is Gone: Wildlife Under Threat (Orca, 2019). 978-1-45981-737-1
+++
Conservation Canines: How Dogs Work for the Environment
by Isabelle Groc (Orca Wild $24.95)
Dogs have long been valued for companionship and the work they do such as herding and protecting farm animals, searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing persons and assisting people with physical disabilities.
Perhaps lesser known is that dogs also work in wildlife conservation projects as described in Isabelle Groc’s Conservation Canines: How Dogs Work for the Environment.
New Zealand employed canines for wildlife conservation as early as 1890 when Richard Henry trained his dog to use its great smelling abilities to locate the kiwi and kakapo, two flightless species of bird in danger of extinction, that Henry moved to an island where they would be safe from predators (the kakapo is still endangered).
More recently, dogs are being trained to protect domestic animals in Africa against cheetahs, which are highly vulnerable to human-wildlife conflict. Numbering around 100,000 in 1900, there are only about 7,000 left globally. “Because they live close to humans raising cows, sheep and goats, cheetahs are often held responsible for livestock losses,” says Groc adding that farmers feel they have no other option but to kill the big cats. “Between 1980 and 1990, more than 7,000 cheetahs were lost this way.”
The Cheetah conservation Fund (CFF) in Namibia has begun introducing a dog breed called the Kangal shepherd to local farmers. These dogs protect domestic animals against native predators. Nearly 700 have now been placed on farms across the country and fewer cheetahs are being killed by people needing to protect their livestock.
In Australia, a small island connected by a tidal sand bridge to Warrnambool in the southwest was once home to 504 little penguins, the smallest species of penguin in the world. An invasive species of fox almost wiped the little penguins out when they discovered how to reach the island at low tide. In 2006, a Maremma sheepdog that had been protecting a local farmer’s free-range chickens, was re-trained to protect the little penguins from foxes. Within eleven years, the penguin population rose to 182.
Increasingly, dogs help scientists collect information about important or endangered plants and animals. One example is an Australian cattle dog named Alli working in the Fraser Valley that has been re-trained from being a drug-detection dog to sniffing out Canada’s most endangered amphibian —the Oregon spotted frog. Once located in an area, wildlife managers can take steps to protect the frogs’ habitat.
Groc outlines many other examples of dogs being put to use protecting the environment. She also adds a section at the end of the book titled What You Can Do to Help Conservation Canines that encourages people to do their part and “join the dogs in making a difference.” 9781459821606
BCBW 2021-22
BOOKS:
Gone is Gone: Wildlife Under Threat (Orca Wild, 2019) $24.95 9781459816855
Sea Otters: A Survival Story (Orca Wild, 2019) $24.95 9781459817371
[BCBW 2019]
