By Carla Howell
District Fish and Wildlife officers met with Woodlands County council on Aug. 21 to discuss the issue of wolves in the county.
Greg Gilbertson, district Fish and Wildlife Officer, and Curtis Stambaugh, senior wildlife biologist, were in attendance to talk about solutions to the wolf predation problem.
Dan Pritchard, councillor of Blue Ridge, initially brought forward the issue after residents in his constituency complained about the wolf issue.
“At the last meeting we pretty much decided we did not want a bounty for wolves,” said Pritchard. “What I would like is an update of the situation around Goose Lake.”
Stambaugh said with any predatory animal, getting population numbers is a hard task.
“It is difficult to pin down the population estimate of any predator. They’re very indiscreet, not evenly distributed and we have to use our best guesses based on correlations and other methods,” said Stambaugh.
Gilbertson had a theory as to why the wolf populations in the county this year have been such a problem, compared with other years.
“If you look at the winter before, it was pretty severe and we lost a lot of deer, especially on crown land,” said Gilbertson. “The result from that is a large wolf pup population, so while food in the winter is easy to get, it’s hard to obtain in the spring. Now these wolves have a lot of pups and they’re turning to livestock to feed them.”
Gilbertson said there have been reports of predation on cattle, horses, sheep and lambs and it’s usually the same wolves which are causing the problems. Farmers can be reimbursed for livestock that are killed by wolves, but only if their livestock are food-producing animals.
“A fiscal year for us is from April 1 to March 31, and during that time last year, 30 to 35 wolves were killed by shooting, trapping and snaring,” said Gilbertson. “That’s a lot of wolves for such a small area.”
A significant amount of attacks have been reported in the Lac Ste.-Anne and Barrhead county areas, so an incentive program shared between the counties would be a good idea, said Gilberston.
Daryl Yagos, councillor for Anselmo, asked about compulsory trap lines in dealing with the wolf problem.
“In Ontario, trappers with registered trap lines are required to trap so many problem animals a year,” said Yagos.
Gilbertson said it’s difficult to force someone to trap a certain animal, especially if the market for that animal is low and it means they would be losing money. He also said he was encouraged with council’s decision to decline a bounty for wolves, as bounties tend to be abused.
“The year before last, a county in Saskatchewan offered a bounty on coyotes. If someone submitted four legs of a coyote they would get the bounty,” said Gilbertson.
“I found legless coyotes in Woodlands County and Whitecourt and I know there were coyotes going from Alberta to Saskatchewan. Why else would someone remove the four legs?”
Gilbertson said there’s no way to check that wolves submitted for bounties actually came from the Whitecourt area, making the bounty system easy to abuse.
Stambaugh said there are better alternatives than a bounty in dealing with wolf predation.
“We think there are better solutions that can provide insight into the root of the problem… That’s why we set out poison programs so we can focus on discreet and coordinated efforts instead of a broad scale.”
Poison programs allow for bits of meat called drop baits, laced with poison, to be set out for wolves that are causing problems in the area.
“The baits degrade quickly so we have about a week until they are no good and we have to pick them up and take them out,” said Stambaugh.
Gilbertson said if the county came on board, there could be a course offered to trappers that would be well received in this area and help bring in those individuals proficient in trapping wolves.
Stambaugh said he has concerns about people misunderstanding the program.
“Once this information hits the media, it only takes a few people in the public who don’t understand the repercussions of the situation to make your lives miserable,” said Stambaugh.
“We have to make sure these are the incentives that the municipality wants to put out.”
A motion was made to hold a course in the future that would help trappers and residents deal with the wolf problem.