Alberta rat control - taking care of business

Program improvements maintain Alberta’s rat free status.

 

‘Increased lines of communication and advanced technology mean better response times to reported rat sightings and improvements in keeping Alberta rat free,’ says Karen Wickerson, rat and pest program specialist at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. ‘Along with the Rat Control team we have made some enhancements to Alberta’s rat control program.’

 

A dedicated email address to report rat sightings and a live cam are two tools the team has added to a program that has been around since 1950. Last year, the Rat Control team introduced rats@gov.ab.ca.

 

‘With the new email address, specialists are more likely to receive an immediate visual along with location information and the team’s response time is much better. The email has been well received and may be one of the main factors responsible for doubling the number of rat sightings reported last year. Luckily, the increase in sightings does not mean there is an increase in rat presence or infestations.’

 

Many people know that Alberta is rat free and are eager to report sightings, but with limited exposure to rats in the province many Albertans do not know what rats actually look like. About half of the reported sightings last year turned out to be muskrats.

 

Rats enter the province by overland migration along the Alberta/Saskatchewan border or by stowing away on planes, trains and automobiles. All rat sightings are investigated thoroughly.

 

The Rat Control team is working towards broader use of the live cam in their work. Its increased use will provide long term benefits as the live cam can be moved to places where rats are suspected or known, providing increased flexibility.

 

‘The live cam allows us to watch, trap and bait areas to see the rodents’ patterns, in terms of movement and what is working well for getting rid of them. If we can use live cams at more sites our understanding of their patterns becomes even greater and we can continue to make improvements to the bait and traps we use.’

 

The dedicated email and live cams will continue adding value to Alberta’s Rat Control program. As the team collects more data on rats found in Alberta, mapping out where they are found and recording their specific species, it is expected to lead to further advances in rat control for the province.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.