3.07.2008

memo to alberta: wolves are not mosquitos (updated)

From today's Globe and Mail:
As elk, deer and moose living along the eastern slopes of the Rockies in central Alberta struggle to survive, wildlife officials are willing to try almost anything to prop up the dwindling herds.

Just yesterday, 85 elk were carefully loaded onto trucks and moved from Elk Island National Park, east of Edmonton, into their new digs around Rocky Mountain House.

But instead of crowing about the initiative, officials found themselves fending off criticism about another conservation experiment: the shooting of adult and baby wolves to reduce the surging numbers preying on the ungulates and, consequently, cutting down the number of hoofed critters available for people to hunt.

"While a wolf is a beautiful animal to look at, it can cause a lot of damage," said Darcy Whiteside of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

Though acknowledging how unpalatable it sounds to suggest killing such an iconic creature, Mr. Whiteside said: "No one has a problem swatting a mosquito."

Nigel Douglas, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, called the experiment - which also involves sterilizing adult wolves - "ludicrous" and "abhorrent." The only ecosystem management technique required, he said, is for Alberta to do more to protect wildlife habitat from the onslaught of development.

"Wolves bring out the best and the worst in people. Wolves have always been the scapegoats," Mr. Douglas said.

Killing wolves so there are more targets for humans to kill - that's really putting the environment first.

It seems that every time we hear about "culls" that are supposed to restore "balance" to animal populations, it's a misguided effort, often with disastrous results. The best thing humans can do for wild animals is to preserve their habitats. After that natural predator relationships will run their course.

Comparing wolves - major predators that ultimately help ungulate populations survive; highly social, intelligent animals that don't reproduce in great numbers - to a disease-carrying insect is ridiculous and offensive. Although presumably if humans eradicated the world's mosquito population, that would create another set of environmental imbalances.

Neither the Alberta Wildnerness Association, quoted in this story, or the Canadian Wildlife Federation has anything on their websites about the Alberta wolves yet. I'll update this when they do.

Update. In comments, I was directed to this Alberta Wilderness Association press release. I'm also told that the Canadian Wildlife Federation is controlled by hunting and ranching interests, so we can't expect them to protect wild canids.

wolf10

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