Page 44 - Canadian Geographic

YUKON WOL VES

control,” Hayes wrote in Wolves of the this.” Now, if there are strong concerns
Yukon, published in 2010. “It has limited about wolf and ungulate populations in
benefit to prey populations, it does not a given area, that sub-region’s trapping
last, and should be relegated to the past and hunting quotas are altered accord-
along with poison and bounties.” ingly — a less blunt instrument.
In 2012, the Yukon government There is no expiry on the 2012 plan,
released a new wolf management plan no firm date on when it will be reopened
that put an end to government-run wolf- for public debate. For now, says
kill programs. And this time, the plan O’Donoghue, the plan is working and
and the process leading up to its release the wolf population is healthy.
were relatively uncontroversial. It’s hard to say what the future
Territorial biologist Mark O’Donoghue holds. Bob Hayes thinks that some of
was one of the authors of the new the impacts of climate change could
plan. “We went to every community in benefit wolves, at least temporarily:
the Yukon,” he says, “and I think that some of the territory’s tundra is gradu- A lone hiker along the Wind River (top),
was one of the real consistencies we ally becoming taiga, moose habitat, where visitors are often serenaded by
found — and it was a little bit surpris- and moose density is increasing in a pack that dens nearby. A large black
ing that everybody pretty much said, northern Yukon. That’s good news for wolf stalks the boreal forest (above).
‘We don’t want to see any more of these moose-eaters.
big helicopter wolf-control programs.’ ” Writing in the conclusion of Wolves of “They live everywhere around us,” he
The change in public sentiment was the Yukon, Hayes noted that “There are added. Even if we rarely see them.
based on a mixture of ethical consider- many wolves ranging through the Yukon
ations and concerns over the programs’ today as there were a hundred years ago, Learn how Peter Mather captured these
high costs and low efficacy. “People did a thousand years ago, five thousand amazing photos of Yukon wolves at
not want to see government doing years ago.” cangeo.ca/ma18/wolves.

44 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2018