Slain wolf likely last male in pack
Death the third in the region in two months
Sonia Kuczaj
For The Calgary Herald
A black wolf killed early Thursday morning near Canmore was likely the last male member of the Bow Valley pack.
The small Bow Valley pack, which consisted of a mother and son team, has most likely been reduced to a lone female.
A motorist struck a wolf on Highway 1A, 15 kilometres east of Canmore, at about 2 a.m. The driver alerted RCMP to the accident.
Rod Jaeger, Alberta Fish and Wildlife conservation officer, said the wolf was found at 8 a.m., and his body was still warm.
“I don’t know if he died right away,” Jaeger said.
Carolyn Callaghan of the Central Rockies Wolf Project said she believes the wolf is from the Bow Valley pack, which dens in Banff National Park.
Genetic testing is being done on the carcass to verify which pack the wolf was from. There are 12 wolf packs in the central Rockies.
The death marks the third wolf mortality in the Bow Valley in the past two months.
In early October, two individuals of the declining Fairholme pack were killed near the Stewart Creek turnoff, just east of Canmore.
“This area is protected for wolves. It is a wildland park — you can’t rifle hunt in this area, Banff National Park is right next door and yet wolves are still at great risk of mortality by humans,” Callaghan said.
In November, the Fairholme pack, which dens in Banff National Park, sustained another blow after a hunter in the Columbia Valley, south of Golden, B.C., shot a two-year-old female from the pack.
It is estimated that the Fairholme pack, which once boasted 17 members, is now down to about four wolves. However, Callaghan cannot verify how many are left until tracks are located this winter.
Wolves tend to travel great distances and cross several man-made boundaries. To ensure the safety of wolves outside of protected areas, Parks Canada and the governments of Alberta and British Columbia must co-operate, say conservationists and researchers.
“If we can’t protect the wolves in protected areas, then the fate of wolves in these areas is in doubt,” said Jim Pisott, director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada.
In September, hundreds of wolf researchers and conservationists met in Banff at the World Wolf Congress to share information on wolf ecology, behaviour and management.
Discussed at the conference was the need to enforce speed limits on the highways and to educate motorists about being cautious of wildlife on the roads.
“If vehicles travel slowly enough, you can respond to wildlife crossing in front of you, but you have to slow down to make that happen,” Callaghan said.