On Saturday we will have the first full moon of the year–called Wolf Moon by many Native American tribes. In the cold of January packs of hungry wolves could be heard howling at night–and so the first month of the year and its moon were dedicated to the Wolf.
Thinking about Wolf Moon, I was saddened to learn of a recent proposal by the Ontario government to encourage hunting down wolves and coyotes in the name of saving a dwindling moose population. Although the motive is laudable, the proposed method is unscientific.
I learned some interesting facts about wolves and coyotes from Wolves Ontario, an organization dedicated to protecting wolves:
- Wolves do hunt moose, but they are not easy prey. A healthy moose can end a wolf’s life with a swift kick. For this reason, packs tend to focus on weakened prey: those who are old, ill, or injured. Moose populations may be threatened, but predators are not necessarily the primary problem.
- When adults of a wolf pack are killed, the pack loses their teachers. The role of adult wolves is to teach younger ones how to track and kill larger creatures. Without guidance, packs are more prone to go after easy prey such as livestock.
- In Ontario we have Grey Wolves (canis lupus), threatened Eastern Wolves (canis lycaon), and Eastern coyotes (also known as coywolves, brush wolves, or tweed wolves). Eastern coyotes are the result of Western coyotes travelling east and interbreeding with eastern wolves–larger than pure coyotes, they are often mistaken for wolves. Small game hunters permitted to kill an unlimted number of coyote could kill wolf/coyote crossbreads and wolves without knowing the difference.
Proposed unrestricted shooting of coyote and increased wolf kill permits should be dicarded and replaced with a more thoughtful approach to protecting Ontario’s wildlife.
Rachel Plotkin sums it up in a David Suzuki Foundation blog post:
Predators and prey, like coyotes, wolves, moose and deer, have been part of an intricate food web for thousands of years. If something is out of whack with a prey population, it can likely be traced to humans and not to a sudden decision by coyotes and wolves to supersize their meals.
When humans enter the web of life as predators of predators, we unfailingly disturb the balance.