BY JENNA MCMURRAY, CALGARY SUN
Keep your food to yourself.
That’s the message park officials are again stressing after a wolf was destroyed in Kananaskis this week.
The male wolf, which didn’t appear to belong to a pack and was about two years old, had a number of recent encounters with people, said Melanie Percy, senior park ecologist for the Kananaskis region.
“He was chasing cyclists, he was lunging at motorcyclists along Hwy. 40 and approaching stopped vehicles, right up to the driver’s side door,” she said.
The same animal was seen running through Mount Kidd campground with a roast in his mouth last weekend, she added.
It’s presumed the wolf was thrown some food from a vehicle on the highway, leading him into a dangerous habit of approaching people.
“Any chance there’s a food-conditioned wolf means the chance of an attack on humans greatly increases,” said Percy.
The last straw, she said, was an incident Tuesday in which a camper at Mount Kidd campground saw a wolf sit outside a washroom facility after a man, child and puppy went inside.
The wolf reportedly left a few minutes later.
Descriptions of the wolf’s appearance and behaviour, along with the fact all the recent incidents occurred in the same area, convinced officials they were dealing with the same animal in each case and he was shot by conservation officials outside the campground.
It’s believed to be the first time a wolf has ever been destroyed under such circumstances in Kananaskis.
“It’s very unfortunate,” said Percy, adding park officials were thrilled when wolves from Banff settled in the Kananaskis Valley last year after years of not living in the area.
“We had been hoping the wolves would return to the valley and the last thing we wanted was a food-conditioned wolf.”
Brianna Burley, a human-wildlife conflict specialist with Parks Canada, also warned against feeding animals, especially in the wake of recent photos showing a wolf eating a rice cake off Hwy. 93 South.
She said food-conditioned wildlife not only increases the danger for humans, but also increases the risk the animal could be destroyed or struck by a vehicle as it searches for food near the highways.
“They lose their wariness of roadsides,” she said.
“They start to associate people with a food reward, they recognize vehicles provide food and they become bold and tolerant.”