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FAQ
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There are a thousand stories that can be told about Canada's wolves. But as new threats are added to old, there is a dire need for our relationship with this intelligent, powerful animal to be given an overhaul.
So what is a wolf?
Canada is home to three members of the genus Canis: the coyote, the grey wolf, and the eastern red wolf (which is probably the same species as the American red wolf). The latter species is only found in North Carolina, Ontario and Quebec; the exact boundaries of its distribution are still very contentious.
Grey wolves are distributed across Canada, although their range has contracted markedly since Columbus' time. They can be distinguished from coyotes by their broad heads and muzzles, deep chests, very long legs, and much greater size. They are distant relations of foxes. How do wolves live?
Wolves are hugely important to ecosystems. Researchers have found that they affect creatures far lower down the food chain. In Yellowstone, wolf disturbance of elk resulted in more aspen trees being available for beavers and neotropical migrant birds. Wolf-killed prey also feeds dozens of other species, from eagles to lynx. In most packs, only the dominant pair will breed, but the whole family help to raise the pups. Wolves become sexually mature in their second year and can walk thousands of kilometres in search of a mate. Interestingly, unlike foxes, most dispersers accepted into established packs are male. What is seeing a wild wolf like? Newspaper columnists who have never encountered a wild wolf are prone to imagining it to be a frightening and eerie experience. In truth, wolves are usually very difficult to find at all, and have little interest in approaching people unless they are accustomed to being given handouts. In Jasper, research has shown that hiking is actually displacing wolves from their preferred habitats, as the wolves seek to avoid encounters with people. But observing wolves in a non-intrusive manner invites a mesmerising experience. I have been privileged to see many; these two were travelling in Jasper National Park's Maligne Valley in 2003.
What do wolves need? Wolves are not dependent on pristine wilderness, but do need adequate protection from persecution and from road vehicles. Canada's parks are rapidly becoming islands in a sea of land uses that are putting great pressure on all sensitive wildlife. If the Canadian and American governments had focussed on restoring natural movement patterns between Banff and Yellowstone, then the hugely controversial and expensive Yellowstone reintroduction would probably never have occurred, as wolves would come back gradually to the States on their own. Who is threatening Canada's wolves?
Wolves have a long list of enemies, the most active of whom are exploiting animals and consider the wolf to be an unwelcome competitor. Political hunting groups A considerable number of deer and moose hunters dislike wolves and advocate culling, or occasionally eradication. Much like gamekeeping in the UK, wildlife management in North America all too often works on a basis of destroying native predators in the hope of the land producing more wild herbivores to be hunted. Most of the arguments border on the ludicrous; debates, especially in the US, often disintegrate into hysterical claims that wolves are "wildlife terrorists" or "land piranhas" that will destroy the natural community that has somehow survived their presence for 300,000 years!
More insidiously, political hunting groups put pressure on governments to avoid wolf conservation measures. Ontario's wolves in particular have been the victim of dodgy political conversations. Livestock industry North America's wildlife faces no greater enemy than ranching, and its attendant intensive feed crop agriculture. Even where wolves are legally protected, they are still killed on ranches, sometimes in sufficient numbers to cause regional extinction. They are snared, shot from aeroplanes, and subject to numerous other unpleasant forms of control. They can be killed in any season and if dependent pups exist they will likely die too. Livestock farming also takes the lives of tens of thousands of coyotes, cougars, bears, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, bison, foxes, and bobcats, and causes terrible pollution. Most conservation groups sidestep the obvious: neither governments nor well-meaning compensation regimes will ever stop this tragedy, but we can, by boycotting meat.
Transport networks Many road accidents are, of course, just that: accidents. But they are still contributing to the loss of wolves, especially in the Rockies.
Government departments
Active wolf culling programmes are still taking place in various locations. Sometimes they are requested by hunters who object to natural regulation of ecosystems, but on other occasions wolves are scapegoated for wildlife declines caused by clearcut logging and other forms of habitat destruction.
Inappropriate contact Several wolves have been shot in Canada and Alaska after becoming accustomed to handouts. It is dangerous, irresponsible and often illegal to feed any large predator. Sport hunters It is still legal to kill wolves for recreation in much of Canada (with Saskatchewan being a notable exception), even though the Canadian public, when informed, generally expresses disbelief and horror at their country permitting such activities. Even the eastern red wolf, a federally listed species at risk, is not exempt. Fur trade A few thousand wolves are trapped for fur each year, although the pelts are not as popular as those of the smaller canids. Trapping is either by strangling snare or leghold trap, both of which have long been illegal in the UK due to their inherent cruelty. Commercial trappers can easily kill a whole pack at once, unless quotas are in place, through heavy use of snares.
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Wolves are creatures of
superlatives: the largest canid, the ancestor of the first domestic animal
(the dog), the top natural predator over much of the northern hemisphere,
the linchpin of many ecosystems...and, unfortunately, the species that
humanity has deemed more controversial than any other.
Grey
wolves are social hunters of large mammals such as moose and bison.
They live at low densities in territories that they actively protect against
other wolves, but their exact use of the land varies according to the resources available. In
many areas, they may stay within their territorial boundaries all year, but
where migrations of prey occur, wolves are likely to travel vast distances.
One study found that even in a prey-rich Belarus forest, a male wolf walked
26km per day on average. 