(fwd) The Wolf. 3/ 3 (fwd)
Norm Kerr (nkerr1@FREENET.EDMONTON.AB.CA)
Wed, 8 Feb 1995 11:57:32 -0700
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* Norman Kerr <nkerr1@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada *
* "Opinions expressed are mine only" *
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Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 11:50:19 -0700
From: nkerr1@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
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Subject: (fwd) The Wolf. 3/ 3
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Subject: The Wolf. 3/ 3
From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs)
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Date: Mon, 6 Feb 95 08:38:00 -0500
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Continued from previous message.
howling seemed to be a form of calling or coaxing. Howling by a pack
may also be a way of warning other packs to keep away from occupied
territory, and may serve to separate packs.
Man still has much to learn about the behaviour of wolves in the
wild. Do packs maintain territories that are strictly separate?
Is there fighting between packs? Do wolves control their numbers
by killing pups or older animals? Are they forced to leave the
pack when they reach a certain age? These and many other
questions remain to be answered.
Hunting and Food Habits
Wolves primarily hunt large mammals such as deer, moose, caribou,
elk, bison and musk ox. They also eat a variety of smaller
mammals and birds but these rarely make up more than a small part
of their diet.
Wolves work hard for their food. They have to. Studies show that
they kill only one large mammal for every nine or ten chased. In
winter, they usually kill old or weak animals; in summer the
young animals born that year are easiest to catch and comprise
much of their diet. Scientists do not yet know whether the old or
unfit members of the wolf pack are also killed in summer. The
entire pack makes most winter kills. The chase is sometimes
direct and frequently ends quickly when white-tailed deer are the
prey, even when the snow is not deep.
In winter, scientists can study the hunting behaviour of wolves
from aircraft or by following their tracks in the snow. But
opportunities for watching summer hunts are rare; therefore, much
less is known about hunting habits in this season.
Since wolves usually travel alone or in pairs in summer, much of
the hunting may be of a different nature. Stealthy stalking may
play a large part in summertime hunting, according to one
scientist who has studied wolves intensively.
Control of Wolves
Man has long practised control and extermination of wolves.
Ordinarily governments have paid a sum of money, called a bounty,
for each animal killed. In Canada, the first bounty payment was
made in Ontario, then Upper Canada, in 1792. Eventually bounties
were paid in every province and territory inhabited by wolves.
But by 1973 they had been discontinued except in the Northwest
Territories. When Ontario repealed the wolf bounty in November
1972, it was replaced by the Wolf Damage to Livestock
Compensation Act, which allows for cash payments to farmers whose
livestock is damaged by wolves or coyotes. British Columbia and
the prairie provinces now use traps and poisons to kill wolves
inhabiting areas where they may threaten livestock or game
populations.
Recent studies show that wolf populations are unlikely to grow
very large regardless of control by humans. When wolf populations
on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, and in Algonquin Provincial
Park, Ontario, reach densities of approximately one wolf to 10
square miles there is no further increase. This is a
comparatively high Canadian wolf population. One wolf per 100-200
square miles is more common than the higher densities in areas
where big game animals are abundant and wolves completely protected.
Wolves contribute to the control of big game animals. Where
wolves are absent (Anticosti Island, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
are examples), white-tailed deer have over-populated their range
and caused much damage to the forests. Food shortages and mass
starvation of deer during the winter sometimes follow.
Wolves have already been exterminated in many places. However,
there may be less danger of such excesses in the future as wolf
control is increasingly based on biology rather than emotion.
There is now some greater awareness among hunters and others that
the killing by wolves of deer and other prey species that we may
want for ourselves is not sufficient reason for the extermination
of wolves.
In the wilderness scheme of things wolves play an important role.
And from a human point of view, the great interest and value of
having this very intelligent animal as part of our wilderness
heritage should be sufficient justification for allowing it to
survive in a wide variety of wilderness and semi-wilderness areas
of Canada.
>From the Canadian Wildlife Service's HINTERLAND WHO'S WHO series,
issued under the authority of the Honourable Jack Davis, PC, MP,
Minister of the Environment.
Reproduced by permission of the Minister of Supply Services Canada.
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* Norman Kerr <nkerr1@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada *
* "Opinions expressed are mine only" *
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