By Jocelyn Turner,
Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune
Increased sightings of wolves in the western part of the County of Grande Prairie has county wildlife officers on alert.
Sonja Raven, agricultural fieldman, said there have been increased sightings and reports of wolf and livestock interactions but added that she has not personally received any reports.
“I haven’t had them confirmed by (Alberta Parks and Environment) Fish and Wildlife to me but I know there are people who are concerned about wolf activity, particularly on the Goodfare Grazing Reserve,” said Raven.
“We just want (residents) to know that we can help them. We’ve worked with Fish and Wildlife and we actually have a damage control permit for wolves which is not common. Wolves typically are the responsibility of Fish and Wildlife, but they have been somewhat overtaxed and because of the calibre of problem wildlife officers that we have, Fish and Wildlife have asked us to actually provide them with assistance to help them with the wolf issue.”
Raven said officers are out this week taking a look to see what kind of issues there are with wolves. Wolves, Raven added, are good for the ecosystem and help manage elk and deer populations in the area.
“What we really want to do is just raise awareness that yes we are here and we can help you with that. It’s not just coyotes that we can help you with, we can help you with wolf issues if you have them,” she said. “We don’t have a bounty system or anything like that; we have problem wildlife officers.”
To properly address the wolf problem a landowner may have, Raven said officers will go out and survey the area to see how bad it is and what the best course of action would be.
“At this point, we would pretty much just kind of go out and see where they are, how they’re behaving and how often they’re coming through,” said Raven. “Then if they were in there and harassing livestock then we would probably start doing some calling and calling them in and then take a look at what we’re calling in and then… the guys are going to make that judgment call as to which ones they’re going to shoot and if they can shoot them all and if they need to wait (and set traps).”
If a landowner or resident has lost cattle or other animals due to wolf attacks or have any concerns about the animal’s behaviour is asked to contact the problem wildlife officers who can properly address the problem at 780-532-9727.
Further information can be found at www.countygp.ab.ca/EN/main/departments/agriculture.html.