Paula Froelich
Editor in Chief
A controversy erupted in Alaska after two wolves in Denali National Park were shot last Saturday. According to the conservation group Care2, the wolves, including a pregnant female, were lured to a bear-baiting station just outside the park before being killed.
Wolf hunting season is open through May, but hunters are not allowed inside the grounds of Denali. However, in 2010, Alaska’s Board of Game removed a no-trap, no-kill buffer zone on state land adjacent to the park — a move that some residents claim is wiping out the wolf population, which has plummeted from 143 to 48 in just seven years – despite the fact that several studies have been done, citing other factors including lack of prey and “unspecified” reasons.
“Unlike most national parks, hunting and trapping is allowed on many Alaskan national parks,” Alaskan Marybeth Holleman, told Care2. “In addition, as wolves and other wildlife cross invisible park boundaries onto state lands, they are hunted and trapped for ‘sport’ by a few local residents,” Holleman, whose 2013 book, Among Wolves, explores the research of wolf advocate Gordon Haber, continued.
In fact, Holleman says that almost half of the park’s visitors used to see wolves, but now just six percent of visitors catch a glimpse. The current wolf population numbers are the lowest on record since 1986, when there were an estimated 46 wolves in the park.
It’s understandable, then, that Holleman is nostalgic about the past, when this was simply not the case.
“I’ve lived in Alaska for nearly thirty years. I saw my first wild wolves in Denali my first summer here, when I was working at the park,” she continues. “I raised my son here. He saw his first wild wolf in Denali 20 years ago, and it set him on his career as a photographer. Denali was one of the best places in the world to see wolves in the wild. But not anymore.”
Consequently, Holleman has started a petition to save the wolves, which, if passed, will establish a permanent, no-kill buffer zone around the park’s boundary. And it’s looking good: The petition has already been signed by over 100,000 people.