Overview
The NWT Species and Habitat Viewer is an online mapping tool for exploring information about species, ecosystems and habitats in the Northwest Territories (NWT).
Use the Viewer to:
- Learn about wildlife of the NWT and find out which species can be found in your local area
- Find out which species are at risk and need special management
- Help identify and assess the impacts of development on wildlife and habitats
How the Viewer is organized
The Viewer makes it easy to find, view and download map layers that provide different kinds of information about the Wildlife and Ecology of the NWT.
Map layers include:
- Species at risk
- Caribou (ranges, habitats, habitat disturbance and range plans)
- Biodiversity species distribution
- Important Wildlife Areas
- Ecosystem classification (EcoRegions)
- Wildfire
There are also map layers about Industry (e.g. mining, oil and gas) and Community and Society (e.g. administrative boundaries, parks and protected areas).
The layers have been grouped into four main topics or themes:
- Species at Risk
- Boreal Caribou
- Migratory Caribou
- Biodiversity
Each of these themes is a tab at the top of the Viewer. Each theme also has report tools that you can use to produce customized information for a specific area.
The built-in tools can generate customized reports that include:
- species lists (biodiversity within an area)
- maps of species and their habitats
- species at risk information (status, range and critical habitat)
- caribou information (habitat, range plans and habitat disturbance)
- information to assess impacts of development projects on caribou habitat
Questions it can help answer
The NWT Species and Habitat Viewer can generate custom reports for a specific location or area.
Built-in customizable reports are available under each of the four themes. Here are some examples of questions the Viewer can help you answer.
Species at Risk
- What species at risk are in my area, and what is their status?
Boreal Caribou
- Can boreal caribou usually be found in my area?
- How much habitat disturbance is there?
- How would a new development project in boreal caribou range change the amount of habitat disturbance?
Migratory Caribou
- Do barren-ground caribou and/or Dolphin and Union caribou occur in my area? Which herds, and in which seasons?
- Does the Bathurst Caribou Range Plan apply in my area?
- How would a new development project on the range of the Bathurst herd change the amount of habitat disturbance?
Biodiversity
- What is the range of the species I am interested in?
- Where is it common, and where is it only seen occasionally?
- Which species occur in my area of interest, and how common are they?
Instructions on how to answer these questions using the Viewer’s report tools are available in the How-to-Guide.
Accessing the viewer and getting help
Click to launch the map:
Get started with these basic guides on pulling reports:
- How to use the NWT Species and Habitat Viewer
- Quick Reference Guide
- Get detailed instructions on using the tool: NWT Species and Habitat User Manual
For more information
For questions about the Viewer, custom reports or wildlife and habitat data: