Snowy owl taking flight from the snow-covered ground

Snowy owl © Don Getty

How is wildlife in Canada doing?

To answer this question, WWF-Canada periodically releases the Living Planet Report Canada (LPRC), a series of scientific studies providing different snapshots of how species populations are changing over time.

This year’s edition presents the sharpest, and starkest, picture of wildlife loss in Canada yet. With more data than ever — 5,099 population records for 910 species, more than half the total number of vertebrates in the country — LPRC 2025 reveals that the size of monitored wildlife populations in Canada has fallen 10 per cent, on average, from 1970 to 2022.

This is the steepest average decline since WWF-Canada began reporting two decades ago.

It’s a story that doesn’t get better as you dig deeper. Wildlife populations in grasslands, one of the country’s most threatened habitats, have declined 62 per cent, on average, since 1970, while mammal populations in forests fell 42 per cent. Species of global conservation concern found in Canada — those on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — saw average population sizes drop 43 per cent, indicating domestic wildlife loss could be contributing to global extinction risks.

When it comes to the individual species, 475 of the 910 we studied, or 52 per cent, are decreasing in abundance, and every species group (birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles and amphibians) experienced declining population trends.

Bobolink © Sarah Pietrkiewicz

This trend includes species in decline for decades, such as the burrowing owl, but it also continues to add new species experiencing more recent declines, like the snowy owl, which was just assessed as threatened last May. These small and gradual declines not only build over time, but as populations shrink, they also become more vulnerable to threats. So the longer we take to respond, the harder these declines will be to reverse.

Before you start exploring LPRC 2025’s findings — and our recommended recovery solutions — we wanted to answer some questions you might have.

What is the Canadian Living Planet Index (C-LPI) anyway?

It’s based on the Living Planet Index biodiversity indicator that WWF developed with the Zoological Society of London, which compiles monitored population data from around the world. Similar to how the international LPI measures the health of vertebrate wildlife at global, national and regional scales by tracking species population sizes over time, the C-LPI tracks those trends in Canadian wildlife.

Why does it use 1970 as the baseline?

It was chosen due to limited data availability (and consistency in data collection) prior to that date. But we also know many historical declines and large-scale impacts on nature occurred before this baseline year. Bison, for instance, are increasing in abundance relative to 1970 thanks to reintroduction efforts, but their numbers are a small fraction of their pre-colonial population size.

That 1970 starting point therefore affects our perception of how species populations are doing, and why some trends in the C-LPI deviate from expectations.

It also highlights the importance of including Indigenous knowledge systems, which accumulate data from much further back in time, alongside scientific indicators like the C-LPI for a fuller picture of historical trends. That’s why LPRC 2025 also includes a variety of Indigenous perspectives.

Three swift foxes on the wild grasslands in southern Saskatchewan

Swift foxes © John E. Marriott via AllCanadaPhotos .com

What else is needed to complete the picture?

This report is based on available information, so we currently only have data for half of Canada’s vertebrate species. Some species, like Canadian birds or commercially harvested fish, are better represented because they’re better tracked.

We need more long-term monitoring of all vertebrate species abundance in all regions across Canada. With more data, we could incorporate more factors like body condition, habitat quality, distribution and genetic diversity.

One major theme of the report is interconnectedness. How does that connect to species conservation?

Nothing in an ecosystem exists in isolation because the natural world has evolved to be dependent on its component parts for food, shelter, pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, climate regulation, etc.

Think of nature like a knitted blanket — when a species declines, or a habitat is degraded or fragmented, the threads of that interconnected fabric begin to fray. The trends in LPRC 2025 are an indicator that nature in Canada is starting to unravel.

Have you listened to This Is Wild yet?

Wildlife is our middle name, and wildlife is the star of This Is Wild, our all-new podcast about the amazing animals we share this country with.

Every two weeks until the end of November, we’ll be telling stories about incredible Canadian species and the incredible people working to protect them.

From peregrine falcons and monarch butterflies flying through the skies to gigantic fin whales navigating ocean fjords to wolves prowling (and transforming) the forests and barren-ground caribou migrating across Arctic tundra, each episode brings the conservation work you help support to life through compelling stories, expert interviews and inspiring solutions.

Episode 1: Pacific salmon and Episode 2: Grey wolf are out now.

Click here to listen to This Is Wild wherever you get your podcasts.

How wildlife populations are trending in Canadian habitats

A trio of black-tailed prairie dogs standing up with an overlaid text box showing the sixty-two per cent decline in grassland habitats

Black-tailed prairie dog © Shutterstock

“Wildlife at Home” is the subtitle of the LPRC 2025 for a reason. Our latest findings show wildlife loss is not just a global problem — it’s happening right here in Canada, where nature seemingly abounds, with decades-long declines driven by many of the same threats causing “catastrophic” loss worldwide.

To halt and reverse this, we must first understand where species declines are happening and their severity levels. So for the first time, the LPRC also analyzed what’s going on in different Canadian habitats.

(Note: There was not enough Arctic data to include tundra in the habitat breakdown. But ocean-based species like narwhal, polar bear and walrus are included in marine and coastal habitats as well as in the national reporting and species trends, alongside terrestrial Arctic species like barren-ground caribou.)

Grasslands: 62% average decline

Black-tailed prairie dogs, once common in southern Saskatchewan, now exist on just 2 per cent of their former global range.

Listed as “threatened,” their decline reflects broader habitat conversion, from a diversity of grasses and wildflowers into agricultural fields. As engineers of underground burrows that also provide shelter to burrowing owls — and as prey for other at-risk species like swift foxes, prairie rattlesnakes and Swainson’s hawks — their loss reverberates across the ecosystem.

Rocky areas: 31% average decline

Mountain peaks, caves and inland cliffs are homes for bats, foxes, mountain goats and mountain bluebirds, but human development is literally chipping them away. This loss of habitat is compounded when the sand, stone and rock that are removed are then used to construct buildings and pave roads in the habitats of other at-risk rocky-area species like the common five-lined skink, eastern Canada’s only lizard.

Blue whale with overlaid text box showing a negative-four per cent decline

Marine and coastal areas: Stable at -4%

Canada’s 243,000-kilometre coastline supports diverse species, including sea turtles, birds, fish, whales and walrus.

This overall stable trend is shaped by something called “shifting baseline syndrome.” For instance, while marine mammals are collectively increasing, many were at all-time lows in 1970, so stability or increases don’t always mean recovery. The average trend can also mask the decreases of species like salmon by averaging them out with populations that are increasing, such as sea otters.

Blue whales, and other at-risk cetaceans like southern resident killer whales and North Atlantic right whales, still face new threats such as ship strikes, underwater noise, pollution, overfishing and bycatch, which keeps pushing them closer to extinction.

Freshwater: Stable at +5%

While freshwater trends appear stable, more than half of monitored species are declining. Birds experienced big increases (up 31 per cent) thanks to conservation interventions like the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. But reptiles and amphibians, including turtles, saw large declines (down 22 per cent) during this same stretch. Fish obviously play a vital role in freshwater ecosystems, but are poorly monitored in Canada, so more long-term data is needed to fully assess ecosystem health.

Forests: 6% average decline

Forests cover more than one-third of Canada and host species like grey wolves, salamanders, owls, woodland caribou and the Canada lynx. While some birds of prey have increased exponentially over the last five decades due to conservation actions like banning the insecticide DDT, forest mammal populations have seen an average decline of 42 per cent.

Peregrine falcon with an overlaid text box showing a 17% decline in urban areas

Peregrine falcon © Harry Collins Photography / ShutterstockUrban areas: 17% average decline In these habitats, the natural landscape has been converted for human use — wetlands drained or fragmented by roads, wooded areas replaced with housing and businesses, fields turned into cropland. While some species such as the red fox and peregrine falcon (once DDT was banned) have been able to adapt to these towns and cities, others, like the porcupine and the bobolink, are struggling to survive. Though the chimney swift was once able to adapt by trading tree trunks for chimneys, they’ve declined by 90 per cent since 1970 as new chimneys were modified and older buildings demolished. The Living Planet Report Canada 2025 shows that while nature in Canada is declining, it is not beyond saving — if we act now. Click here to explore more wildlife population trends and solutions for their recovery.