Haida Gwaii – A natural laboratory
Original title: Haida Gwaii – Un laboratoire grandeur nature
Duration: 52’
Producer: Michel Coqblin, Jean-Louis Martin
Director: Michel Coqblin
Scientific field: Ecology, Zoology
Year: 2004
Country: France
Ages ago, a great flood covered the land of the Haida. Only the tip of the highest mountain emerged from the water; on that tip was Raven, soaked, hungry and bored. One day, the water started to recede and Raven could feast again on seafood and fish left on the shore by the receding waters.
For thousands of years, those living on these islands, the Haida, named them “Haida Gwaii”, the “Islands of the People”: a green jewel of primary forest, 80 km offshore from Canada’s British Columbia, in the north of the Pacific.
About two centuries ago, Canadians from European descent began to settle on these islands naming them “the Queen Charlotte Islands”. They brought many changes. One of them, that seemed rather insignificant, turned out to dramatically affect the ecology of the archipelago.
The islands were naturally impoverished in land mammals, so the settlers introduced on the northern island, beavers for the fur and, at the end of the 19th century, black-tailed deer for the meat.
With none of their main predators present, wolves or mountain lions, deer multiplied rapidly. They colonised the archipelago, swimming to most of the smaller islands. Today their population is estimated at more than 100 000 individuals.
This is the context met by Jean-Louis Martin when he arrived from France in the late 80ies invited by a Canadian biologist. He was hoping that the 10 000 km² archipelago, with only 5000 inhabitants concentrated in the northern half, would be suitable for studying the distribution of forest birds on small islands.
In the southern part, lacking permanent human settlements, he found an ideal site around Laskeek Bay. As he visited over 70 small islands, his quest raised new questions, redirecting the focus of his research.
