Capturing urban wildlife on film

The Burnaby NOW caught up with local resident Bruce Causier, an amateur urban wildlife videographer who's made headlines with his footage of a coyote den at a local elementary school and his snakehead sightings at Burnaby's Central Park. Causier's YouTube channel features videos with intriguing titles, such as "mother duck in a bad situation" or "squirrel attacks snake." It's enough to pique the curiosity of any wildlife lover.

Jennifer Moreau: How did you get involved in filming wildlife?

Bruce Causier: It all started with an aggressive neighborhood coyote that was stalking kids and adults along a popular walkway that leads to my children's elementary school. Officials said that they couldn't do anything about it until it attacks or bites a person. I decided then to catch this coyote's aggressive behavior on tape to prove just how dangerous it was.

I was not going to wait until someone got seriously injured.

JM: What do you do for work?

BC: When I'm not running around in the bushes and parks filming wildlife, I am a mill worker.

JM: What kind of things do you film and where?

BC: I like to film anything that has to do with wildlife. I carry my video camera with me always. I do a lot of local hiking, so I get a lot of opportunities to capture those unexpected moments.

JM: What was your most memorable or dangerous urban wildlife encounter?

BC: When I was doing the Grouse Grind with my son, who was eight years old at the time. We came across a black bear on the trail. I was so excited to see a wild bear, then I realized that this bear could turn and charge. I was worried about my son's safety, but luckily the bear slowly walked away from us.

JM: What was it like to spot this infamous snakehead in Central Park?

BC: Like most of my wildlife filming experiences, I get a sense of excitement capturing the moment on film. Afterwards, I realized I had to prove the location of where the snakehead was so the officials can take this matter seriously.

JM: What about this "monster fish" you filmed in the same pond. What was that? Can you describe what you saw?

BC: It was about four feet long and tubular in shape. It does have a similar shape to a snakehead and bowfin fish but without a closer look at it, I can't tell what type of fish it was. JM: Do you think it was that 16-or 18-pound carp the government workers caught while trolling for the snakehead?

BC: No, that carp was too small and had a different shape to the fish that I had seen. When I took the video of the monster fish, what you could not see in the video was other fish basking in the sun around it that were clearly carp. At first glance, I thought it was a log floating in the water until it started moving.

JM: Are there any wildlife aficionados that inspire you, like Australian naturalist Steve Irwin for instance?

BC: Yes, Steve Irwin, Jeremy Wade from River Monsters, and Josh Gates from Destination Truth. I love these shows.

JM: I noticed you have ads on your YouTube channel. Do you make any money with your filming hobby?

BC: Yes, but when I first started out, I had no idea that I could get paid until YouTube contacted me. I thought this was great to be paid for something I really enjoy doing. It's not enough to quit my day job anytime soon.

JM: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

BC: I always love talking to other nature enthusiasts and hearing about their experiences. I hope to see you out there!

For a link to Causier's videos, including the snakehead capture at Central Park, go to Jennifer Moreau's blog at www.burnabynow.com.