British Columbia and the Yukon recorded unusually high sightings of UFOs in 2000, a year that kept researchers with Canada's main UFO study group busy with the third highest number of incidents in the 11-year history of its annual report.
According to Chris Rutkowski, research co-ordinator for UFOlogy Research of Manitoba, or UFOROM, British Columbians reported 102 UFO sightings, while Yukon residents claimed to have seen 26, numbers that he said are disproportionate in relation to their respective populations.
"I suppose people can come up with their own explanations about B.C.," said Mr. Rutkowski, a recreational UFOlogist and self-proclaimed "open-minded skeptic" with an undergraduate degree in astronomy.
"As far as the Yukon goes, it's very odd. The number of sightings is usually relative to population density."
Ontario, with Canada's largest population of more than 11 million people, should record the highest number of reports. However, at 53 sightings, Ontario ranked second behind B.C., with its population of just over four million. The Yukon's 26 sightings placed the territory third in Canada, despite its population of 30,600 residents.
Mr. Rutkowski said the popularity of provincial groups like UFO BC, which has its own hotline and Web site and whose members are monthly guests on a radio talk show, helps explain the propensity of UFO reports in that province.
UFO investigators in the Yukon, meanwhile, suspect the jump in sightings and the number of cases involving triangular-shaped flying objects may suggest the testing of secret military aircraft in the area, said Mr. Rutkowski.
UFOROM compiles its data from reports filed to the research group by provincial counterparts, police, and federal agencies like Transport Canada and the Department of National Defence.
Across Canada, reports of UFOs totalled 263 in 2000, ranking the year third behind 1997, when 284 UFOs were sighted, and 1993, with its record 489 sightings.
In an average year, there are 236 reported sightings, according UFOROM data.
Mr. Rutkowski said most of the sightings in 1993 were attributed to a cosmic fireball, or bolide, that penetrated the Earth's atmosphere above Canada.
Similarly, the 263 sightings in 2000 only produced 34 cases that remained unknown after further investigation by UFOROM and its provincial counterparts.
Of those 34, only 12 were considered "high-quality," based on assessments that considered the reports for factors like the colour of the object that was seen, the reliability of the information that witnesses were able to provide, and the perceived strangeness of the incident.
"If a person sees a light in the sky that doesn't move and just sits there, chances are it's a star and the strangeness of that report is pretty low," said Mr. Rutkowski.
"But if they're watching this star and it gets bigger and bigger and turns out to be a saucer that lands next to them and two men with antennas get out, that's a high strangeness event that's difficult to write off as a star."
Among the 263 reports across Canada were two close encounters of the third kind, in which a witness saw figures or entities along with the UFO.
In one such incident in Mission, B.C., a man claimed he saw a flying saucer outside his home, in which he observed a being that appeared human, clad in coveralls and staring back at him.
According to the report, there were no reported alien abductions in 2000. Mr. Rutkowski said such cases are difficult to examine, since those alleging an abduction can rarely provide a time of day, a description of the UFO and a location.
