Alaska Game Board weighs viewing and hunting of Denali Park wolves
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE – A buffer to protect a wolf pack that occasionally strays
outside Denali National Park and Preserve is working well, but another
pack is under pressure from hunters and trappers, the Alaska Board of Game
was told Thursday.
The board is considering whether to continue the buffer in state land
adjacent to the northeast corner of the park 240 miles north of Anchorage.
Ninety-three wolves live in the 6-million-acre park.
Wolf hunting and trapping now is prohibited in the 72-square-mile buffer,
but that protection is scheduled to end March 31.
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance also wants the board to create a new zone,
essentially tripling the size of the buffer, to protect wolves in the
Mount Margaret pack that venture outside the park just south of the
existing buffer.
The wildlife group says the buffers will increase wildlife viewing
opportunities. But opponents say they will further restrict hunting and
trapping opportunities.
Layne Adams, a wildlife research biologist with the U.S. Geological
Survey, said a 16-year study of radio-collared park wolves shows that
hunting has played a minor role in wolf mortality. About 60 percent of
park wolves that died during the study period were killed by other wolves
and 30 percent died from natural causes, he said.
The best-known group, the Toklat wolves, rarely ventures outside of the
park or the buffer zone, Adams said. But the Mount Margaret wolves stray
more often.
The two wolf packs consist of 14 members – four in the Toklat pack and 10
in the Mount Margaret group.
Between 1997 and 2001, an average 1.4 wolves were taken in what is now the
Toklat wolf buffer zone.