Government says immediate action is needed to save threatened herds
Up to 184 wolves in British Columbia will be culled as part of an “immediate action” ordered by the provincial government to save dwindling caribou herds in the region.
The wolves will be shot from helicopters in two specific areas of B.C. — the South Selkirk Mountains and the South Peace.
According to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, the South Selkirk caribou herd is in danger of local extinction, with a population that has declined from 46 in 2009, to just 18 as of March 2014.
The ministry says that two members of the remaining herd have been killed by wolves in the past two months, and that up to 24 of the predators will be culled before snow melts.
The four caribou herds across the South Peace have also seen decreasing populations, with wolf predation the cause of at least 37 per cent of adult deaths, according to the ministry.
Up to 160 wolves in the region are expected to be shot from helicopters, a method the ministry hopes will be effective where hunting and trapping has failed.
The cull will be handled in partnership with Treaty 8 First Nations and the operational plans have been fully peer-reviewed, the ministry said.
The government’s wolf management plan for the province was attacked by conservation groups when it was first released in April 2014.
‘Horrific day’
Ian McAllister, conservation director for Pacific Wild, condemned today’s announcement.
“After decades of destroying critical caribou habitat, dismantling the Forest Practices Code and gutting environmental oversight and protection, the B.C. government in a final desperate act of cruelty has declared a war on wolves,” he said in a statement.
Calling the plan a “tax-payer funded kill program of one of our most iconic species”, McAllister said it marked a “horrific day” for wolves in British Columbia.
“When will this government learn that killing wolves will not bring endangered caribou back in the absence of habitat protection.”