When the story of Little Red Riding Hood was recited to me as a kid, immediately all wolves became big and bad in my mind, and as time went on and I aged, I realized this story was nothing but lore.
In the real world wolves ate nothing but rabbits and deer. So I thought. Wild predators belong to a food chain that for the most part keeps nature in balance or at least in cycles that recur every so many years.
A true predator is one that kills and eats another organism or animal. Most predators will hunt actively for their prey or sit to ambush at times, waiting for their meal to approach.
Humans by far are the best organized, most cunning and most powerful predators on the planet. The closest rival to humans with those characteristics in most parts of the world is the domesticated dog, which is far more a collaborator than a competitor or a menace.
Humans have the intelligence to create weapons to kill, trap, snare and catch through the use of firearms, vehicles and boats. Humans will even use other animals like dogs and falcons for hunting and fishing.
In conservation, predators can be beneficial in keeping animal populations in balance. This has been proven in many geographical locales through the introduction of a predator that was not indigenous to the area. A good example of this is the introduction of wolves in certain areas of the U.S. where the deer population had escalated to a point of creating havoc on everything from vehicle collisions to damaging farm crops and spreading disease to domesticated animals.
In some extreme cases the introduction of predators may prove to be too much for the populations that have not co-evolved with them, leading to possible extinction. This all depends on how well the introduced predator can adapt to their new surroundings and the available food sources if the intended prey gets depleted to minimal levels.
In Thunder Bay, the predator-prey relationship has taken a major turn these past few years and the number of wolves and wolf sightings has changed. Although wolves are indigenous to our area and have been one of the top predators in the woods for years, this past year there has been more evidence and sightings of the wild canines than ever. I have been asked why many times. Although there could be many correct answers, food is usually the reason.
Our deer population has more than tripled in the last 20 years and good cycles of hares and small game have added to the buffet for our northern predators.
I have heard tales of less deer being seen. In my mind this is hogwash. According to police (both city and OPP) there were more car-deer collisions this past fall than in recent history and I personally saw more deer this year than I have ever seen and although there may be some truth to less deer in some areas, in the areas I frequent that has not been the case. Predators go where the food is and the increase of deer has created the increase of wolves not to mention the odd cougar sighting in the area as well.
Wolves are true carnivores and rely heavily on moose, deer and smaller carrion to survive. When there is a lot to eat, reproduction increases as the food capacity can carry a larger population of predators and in turn reduces the prey significantly over a period of time.
Our area has seen such a trend and it will be interesting to watch the deer numbers in the next couple of years with the increase in wolves and coyotes. At that time we may indeed see a reduction in deer if the wolf population stays strong.
Just about every hunter I talked to this year told me they had either physically seen wolves or heard them from a distance. The wolf in my mind is the smartest animal in the woods.
It has the ability to plan and is the perfect predator that can run for hours and has the stealth of a jaguar. Its jaw has the power to crush a leg bone of a moose. Wolves can withstand the harshest of weather and have the stamina and endurance unmatched by any other northwoods animal. It is my spirit animal.
Wolves can be a killing machine in a pack situation and as long as we have a healthy deer herd around we will have a lot of wolves as well.
The predator-prey relationship that exists between these animals is a testament to a good healthy population of both for now, but so many factors can change this in such a short time. Weather, especially winter, can change the deer numbers in a hurry.
As it stands now, we have a good population of predators and prey in the northwest and the way this winter is progressing, things are looking quite normal.