Wolf Cull, Who Caused The Problem?
Over 150,000 people have now signed a petition to ask the province to reconsider its move to begin culling the wolf population. The cull was called for because of concerns the animals are doing irreparable damage to a small caribou herd faced with extinction.I would be prepared to say that the bulk of these signatures come from the Urban areas of Canada, Greater Vancouver in particular.
I grow a little tired of hearing these people complain about the decision to cull the wolf population, when they are the cause of the problem.
It is man , the ultimate predator, who chooses to live where these same species they are trying to protect used to live. The operative phrase here is ‘used to’, because as the population continues to grow, what area does it choose to occupy? Oh, that would be the lower areas of valleys , or the lower mainland where people gravitate to avoid the snow and winter.
Rarely a week goes by that someone in the lower mainland says that they would never like to live in the central or northern part of the province. Why? Because it’s cold and we get lots of snow. Have any of those 150,000 stopped to think the reason why animals have shifted from spending the winter in the valleys and along the coast because we took over that spot and forced them out? Some deer populations have been known to migrate upwards of 600 kilometers each season to reach an area that has less snow . Moose head to the river valley but when that area has been overtaken by man, they have no choice but to live at the higher elevations, where they are easy prey for wolves.
In the Kootenays , the residents are asking for a deer cull, not wolves, but deer, why? Well it seems that those pesky deer who have been migrating into the valleys over the past thousands of years are trying to winter in the areas that have been settled by “man” . Can’t have that now can we? Indeed many of those animals want to reside there all year round, like they have for thousands of years , but we won’t allow that as well.
For those people who feel that they want to stop the cull, how about moving out of the area you now occupy and allow those animals that you displaced back in to your neighbourhood to fill that void. You say it isn’t going to happen, of course it is not, just as trying to help the small remaining herd of Caribou without culling the wolf population who have been eating them to extinction.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
The lower mainland is BC’s largest clear-cut.
Move the wolves to the kootenays lol
Yes, Mans answer to everything. If it is a nuisance or bothers you…kill it. I hunt by the way, and in an area that is known for a lot of wolves, and you know what? There are still moose. There are generally a lot of factors involved in the decline of a species, and maybe wolves are just the obvious factor now that the herd has declined to a level where they can actually cause an impact. I say it is already too late by that time, let them be and repopulate the caribou after the wolves die off from starvation, which is how mother nature has been taking care of life cycles for millions of years.
People living in the LML forced the mountain caribou from their traditional range of the Fraser Valley and the Fraser River delta? Really Ben?
Repopulate the Caribou well what if there are none left? You mention starvation well maybe thin them out if they are going to die anyway before herds are gone.
Wolves are able to easily move around because of logging roads, seismic cuts, packed snowmobile trails, pipeline and electrical right of ways. Outside of putting the great outdoors out of bounds to everyone something has to be done.
Right on, Ben I get sick and tired of large populations in the lml saying they know best. These are the same people that would stop all hunting. Having taken over excellent animal ranges in the Fraser delta, they now want a stop to bear hunting. The wolves are only one part of the caribou problem. They are just the part that we can deal with more easily.
I’ve heard prior to the rail roads giving access over the Rockies that we never use to even have moose in BC as moose are not mountain climbers? So man has changed the ecosystem making habitats available to new species as we’ll as taking it away. The biggest factor with the wolves is they now use our highways at nite to travel great distances to new ranges and the things like snowmobile trails to the alpine. That is the real game changer and no amount of cauling will change that.
I’ve been surrounded by a pack walking my dog out Miworth. Scary but they don’t want to mess with humans. We have wolves right in the city of PG and most are completely unaware of this. I don’t think they are the menace they are made out to be, but rather an important balance to the ecosystem.
Someone needs to post images and videos of the horrific ways that wolves eat and kill their prey. Also of the amount of killing for fun that they do. Shove that in their faces and make them watch it, maybe then some of them might change their minds a bit.
Wolves don’t kill for fun. That’s a fact. Google it. You must be thinking of humans.
You don’t have to be a mountain climber to get past the Rockies. I know of no railroads or roads that go over the Rockies.
“Someone needs to post images and videos of the horrific ways that wolves eat and kill their prey” .. what an asinine statement. Maybe people should post the carnage on the railroad tracks while they are at it, or the animal that took 2 weeks to starve to death because a hunter shot half its’ face off trying to do a head shot at 300 yards.
Why would the way wolves act change anyone’s mind about anything? Do you think people will hold some sort of grudge or vendetta against a wild animal that has no ability whatsoever to alter its natural behaviour and thus change their opinion about a cull?
There are three reasons why the Woodland Caribou population is in steep decline; 1. loss of habitat; 2. loss of habitat; 3. loss of habitat. Parks Canada knows this, the Alberta government knows this, yet our BC government does not.
Go ahead and cull the wolf population in BC, it won’t made one bit of difference in stopping the decline in Woodland Caribou numbers. Loss of habitat, and habitat fragmentation is the main cause, however this is a much more difficult fix… so the easy scapegoat for our government are the wolves.
NMG;
Please read the story before you comment, then you might be better informed. Where did I say the Caribou wintered in the lower mainland . Did you not read the Valleys, or did you not bother to put 2 + 2 together.
When I referenced the lower mainland , it was in regard to the population that has driven most animals out of the lower valleys and indeed the lower mainland over the past three hundred years, did I say the Caribou herd in question ?
The Caribou in jeopardy are not located in the lower mainland, nor did I suggest that, they are located in the South Peace and South Selkirk’s, ,but the animals that did at one time used to migrate to the lower mainland are where the bulk people have been signing the petition live. Might have a tough time getting around at Robson and Granville and that’s my point.
Hi Ben,
I was actually responding to the first two paragraphs where you talked about the petition against the wolf cull (the wolf cull being in place to try and protect the dwindling mountain caribou populations) as being supported by people in Greater Vancouver in particular and how you were growing “a little tired of hearing these people complain about the decision to cull the wolf population, when they are the cause of the problem”. That seemed like a pretty clear linkage to me, but I apologize if I misinterpreted your intent.
I’m not sure what is causing the decline of the aforementioned caribou populations, but I’d tend to look more to what is happening in the 250 for answers.
Wolves kill what is available, moose, deer, caribou, buffalo, whatever.
A small caribou herd is facing extinction by being hunted for food by wolf packs. Nature. It is either the wolves or the caribou which will survive.
The cycles of nature have been upset by the vast number of humans and their needs. 7 Billion, predicted to soon exceed 9 Billion.
Scary.
Junco, what do you call it when they kill a moose or a deer, calf, sheep, and don’t eat it? To us, they kill for fun, to them, it’s probably practice.
When those latte suck’in, bear hugg’in, tree hugg’in, wolf hugg’in condo dwell’in folks down in suburbia, who’ve never seen the results of a beef, sheep, fawn, calf, kill and left barely eaten, start talk’in, I don’t really have the time for them.
Sorry PG there aren’t any Buffalo in north america, they are Bison.
cluestick, woodland caribou are fine, mountain caribou are the species at issue.
Hmmm… no Buffalo in North America Dragonmaster? So why does Parks Canada have a national park in northern Alberta called Wood Buffalo Nation Park? Why does the Siksika Nation, in Alberta, operate a historic site called Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump?
As for the woodland caribou being fine, then why are they a species at risk according to Parks Canada? Why are the West Moberly First Nation (near Chetwynd) insisting on the protection of their Burnt Pine woodland caribou herd?
Zero for two Dragon, try again.
I signed the petition to stop the wolf cull, which is aimed at wolves who are killing mountain caribou. Mountain caribou spend their winters in the sub-alpine, eating lichen that grows on trees. The reason I signed the petition is because the government is not implementing any other of their own recommendations which were written into the Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan. Other recommendations would necessarily impact human use, be that motorized recreation or resource extraction etc. and their seems to be no intention of doing that. Killing wolves will not bring back isolated herds which are down to their last dozen individuals, nothing will in my opinion. Using wolves as a scapegoat for our own responsibilities does not make sense. I live here, I see mtn. caribou and feel privileged to do so, and I want them to survive, but we need to make a meaningful effort and take responsibility for our own impacts – or else be honest about our failures. Killing wolves always seems to be a fall back plan, but it’s not intelligent management.
Years ago I saw caribou on George Mountain. There are no caribou on George Mountain anymore. According to biologists the caribou herd has been extirpated. Only ski doo tracks are crossing the mountain now.
In the nineties and before when you could access Narrow Lake only via a rough dirt trail, you could see hundred-plus caribou swimming across the narrow. Now, biologists estimate the population of less than 20.
Are there wolves in the PG area? Sure, I watched a pack of twelve just behind Tabor Mountain. Would I single them out and blame the caribou decline solely on them and advocate their killing? No.
Would I, not a resident of “Urban areas in Canada”, sign a petition to reconsider the cull of the wolf population? Yes, I would. To single out the wolf as the culprit and turning a blind eye to other contributing factors to the decline of the caribou herds is myopic.
But the story commented on has nothing to do with the cull of wolves. It is just one man’s opinion expressing his anxiety that metropolitans, the “outsiders”, skew the view of the “expert”, the “been there, done that” person.
Over the years, I have attended seminars here in PG given by out of town biologists and so called ‘activists. ’Most talks where about bears, grizzly bears to be specific. Most interruptions were calls like “we do not want people like you come to our community and tell as what to do”, or, “you tell that to my wife and my children (concerning bears in your neighbourhood) I guess, we still have the frontier mentality.
Whether the author of the story above agrees or not, he is now living in an urban city of Canada. The only solution, pack up your belongings into your river boat and head down the Fraser River to lessen your foot print.
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