| Often referred to as “penguins of the north”, thick-billed murres are pursuit-diving seabirds that can dive down to up to 200 metres, but unlike penguins, these birds can fly! Although not terribly efficiently because their short wings are adapted for use underwater. Like penguins, however, murres are dealing with a rapidly changing environment thanks to climate change and other anthropogenic stressors. How murres respond to these changes and what this tells us about the Arctic environment was not well known, at least when it came to their one small, isolated colony in the western Canadian Arctic. Over two seasons of fieldwork, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS) scientists set out to discover more about a unique colony of thick-billed murres located in the Cape Parry Marine Bird Sanctuary, which is part of the Anguniaqvia niqiqyuam Marine Protected Area (ANMPA) in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, N.W.T. Never before studied, this colony consists of approximately 800 individuals and is located 1,300 kilometres from the next closest murre colony. | 