News | DrumhellerMail - Page #1514
10042024Fri
Last updateThu, 03 Oct 2024 12pm

Fanged frogs of Southeast Asia featured at Speaker Series

Evans April20 cropped

This week’s edition of the 2017 Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series features. Dr. Ben Evans, associate professor of the Biology Department at McMaster University, who will give a presentation entitled “Ecological Opportunity and Adaptive Radiation of Fanged Frogs in Southeast Asia.”
Adaptive radiation is when a group of animals evolve into different forms to fill different roles in their environment.
In his talk, Dr. Evans will provide evidence for an example of an adaptive radiation; the fanged frogs of Southeast Asia. Different species of fanged frogs have unique characteristics, including body size and reproductive strategy that allow them to co-exist in the same habitat. Through comparison to frogs in the Philippines and other species of animals, Evans will discuss how fanged frogs underwent rapid speciation on Sulawesi, and how this fast-paced evolution led to remarkable changes.
He will also explain the broader context of fanged frog evolution for conservation and evolutionary studies.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. They are held every Thursday until April 27 at 11:00 a.m. in the Museum auditorium. Speaker Series talks are also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/RoyalTyrrellMuseum.


Mayor meets with minister on flood funding

flood

    Mayor Terry Yemen and CAO Ray Romanetz sat down with the provincial Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Brian Mason, seeking an endorsement of federal funding from the government for local flood mitigation projects.
    The minister informed them the federal program did not meet the criteria for Drumheller’s project.
    His assistant shared the letter explaining the disapproval had not been mailed out yet as it needed a signature, causing the current meeting to become stagnant.
    “Both Ray and I were kind of set back because we had not received that [letter],” said Yemen.
    The  Alberta Community Resilience Program is 90 per cent funded by the province for up to $3 million in spending with 70 per cent over $3 million. The remaining is to be made up by the municipality.
    The Town was working with the federal government to support and cover the municipal government’s portion. Mayor Yemen and CAO Romanetz went to Edmonton asking for an endorsement from the Provincial government.
    Mason and Yemen bounced back and forth about the logistics behind the criteria as the federal minister had told Mayor Yemen on two separate occasions that their qualifications did reach the requirements.
    The Federal Minister of Infrastructure had called Mayor Yemen the next day and apologized for leading them astray and causing problems.
    “I brought to his attention that he should feel bad, since he is the administrator of it, and should know the criteria,” said Mayor Yemen. “The minister should be able to tell us yes or no if it does qualify, which he agreed to.”
    Two grants were approved but fell short of the million dollar mark, so with the apology out of the way, the federal minister is finding other forms of funding within the next couple of weeks.
    “We are at least on the hook for the ten per cent but we will see what happens,” said Mayor Yemen.
    “It’s certainly disappointing but at the same time if ultimately we do find some funding, we’ll take it,” said Councillor Jay Garbutt.

Local outdoorsman joins Canadian hunting show

20170403 Hunter Jeff TJH 0008

    What started out as a pure hobby has now become a natural part of Jeff Rasmussen and his team’s life.
    Fairchase Outdoor Chronicles was founded by Rasmussen a few years after a commercial had appeared on the national television channel WildTV.
    One of the shows featured on the paid channel was in need of extra footage and asked for avid hunters to submit their hunts to complete the season.
    “[...] it turned out my timing was kind of impeccable because I thought that it was like coming forward [season],” said Rasmussen.
    “We ended up having two full episodes just of our stuff.”
Since the first couple episodes have aired, Rasmussen has been able to build a strong relationship with the channel via texts and emails.
    They are located in the state of Maine.
    He has also learned a few tricks of the trade including video, editing, and commentary as well get an instinct as to what to shoot video of before and after each hunt.
    “It was a mad dash scramble to get things set up,” said Rasmussen.
    Rasmussen has put in a fair amount of time and energy into each video so he felt that registering a new name would solidify the team and create revenue through sponsors.
    “This WildTV is not like the glamour of a real TV show where you get paid and everything,” said Rasmussen.
    “The only way you make any money is if you get sponsorship.”
    His team consists of his family and close friends.
    “Most of my stuff is actually me following around my friends and family.”
    “I’m always the one running the camera,  talking.
    When Rasmussen first started sending in footage, the team name was called Fair Chase Adventures but after further research discovered the name was already registered in B.C.
    Instead, they decided to go with the new name of Fairchase Outdoor Chronicles and start talking to sponsors.
    Rasmussen is now in the process of submitting video for the new third season where the channel will then take the video and do final editing.
    “I was worried last year because I don’t really know them and some of those other shows have a different style.”
    Rasmussen likes to hunt for sport occasionally but prefers to get meat for his family of six. If he can’t find a large animal by the end of the season, he will get a little buck for the freezer.
    “I do like to have a nice big buck or trophy animal but first and foremost we’re meat hunters.”
    “We have four teenage boys and go through a pile of mostly wild meat.”
    As well as a passion for guns, Rasmussen also has bows to keep him busy.
    He typically hunts mule or whitetail deer but has also hunted moose, bear, antelope, elk, and birds like geese or grouse.
    “I don’t like the kill. I’m an animal lover but I really enjoy the chase.”
    Rasmussen is a biologist by trade, further nurturing his passion since a young age.
    “I was six years old when I got the Ranger Rick magazine,” said Rasmussen.
    “That’s what I wanted to be when I grew up was Ranger Rick so it just kind of developed that way.”
    He feels that hardcore hunters only focus on getting the trophy animal and nothing else matters.
    “I’d rather sit back, take a nice calm approach than have the rodeo guys chasing deer through using pickup trucks.”
    The Fairchase Outdoor Chronicles team has plans to expand their social media platforms by adding YouTube as an asset.
    Through YouTube, Rasmussen can share these strictly hunting oriented videos with family and friends who do not necessarily have the WildTV channel at home.
    “It’s a good way I can share my passion with people without having everyone to come over and sit around my laptop,” said Rasmussen.
    “This is my chronicles.”


Subcategories

The Drumheller Mail encourages commenting on our stories but due to our harassment policy we must remove any comments that are offensive, or don’t meet the guidelines of our commenting policy.