More than $10 million dollars has been spent by B.C. so far on the controversial wolf cull, according to documents obtained by CBC following an application under B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Research published this week in the journal Biological Conservation sheds light on how wolf culls alter the behaviour of survivors, and warns of unintended consequences on threatened caribou and the broader boreal habitat.For decades, Alberta has destroyed wolves in the name of saving caribou. Crews often shoot them from the air, tracking them on the trails, roads and seismic lines they prefer as hunting grounds.
They found that culls alter the behaviour of survivors by pushing them deeper into the forest to new hunting grounds — changes that may help caribou in the short term but could ultimately help wolf populations quickly recover from a slaughter.Caribou aren't being preyed upon as often, and that, hopefully, will let them get their hooves under them and recover," said Jason Fisher, a wildlife scientist at UVic's School of Environmental Studies who co-authored the study.
Fisher said culls could set off a chain reaction in the way an ecosystem functions, or create an unexpected imbalance in the food chain as wolves compete with other predators for food."We don't know what happens to wolves long term after we stop pulling the trigger." Caribou populations in the area, in the Cold Lake and Athabasca River ranges, have been in decline since 1999 when government monitoring began.
Researchers used a grid of remote infrared digital cameras to track wolves before and after the hunt. "I mean, if you suddenly had a big avian predator that's really loud and screaming down at you and can kill you from afar, that's a good place to stay away from, right?" Fisher said.
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