I recently have been following a couple of the articles written and letters to the editor in our local media on the wolf encounters people have been having in our rural route and within our city limits.
In the last five years it seems there have been more and more sightings within the city limits and more people have been making reports, calling the police and the Ministry of Natural Resources on this issue because of the interaction with these animals.
So why all of a sudden are we seeing and encountering more wolves these days? Well there are several factors and probably the most obvious one is food.
Wolves, coyotes, lynx and cougars are carnivores, which means they eat and survive on meat.
With the large increase of deer in the area and now the overpopulation of them is a magnet to the carnivores that largely rely on these ungulates for survival.
In most cases, wolves usually live in packs much like a family structure, but it’s also not uncommon to see singles or pairs running around the woods.
I have to say I have seen and heard more wolves out on my property west of Kakabeka than ever and I attribute that strictly to the increased number of deer out there.
It’s like fish. Predator fish go where all the bait fish are – bottom line.
So where do we go from here? How do we eliminate the threat of wolves in our rural route backyards? How do we decrease the odds of our pets being in jeopardy from attack from these wolves, or more crucial yet, be able to let our children outside to play and not have to worry about marauding wolves so close to dwellings and human activity?
Well, as most are already aware, we have to decrease the main food source of the wolves first, which means the whitetail deer.
A proposal was presented to city council late last year in regards to a bow hunt for next fall’s hunting season to reduce deer numbers within the city limits. This proposal was not only presented but passed by city council and will indeed take place and in my opinion will be a start in trying to reduce the deer herd that has increased 10 fold over the years.
With abundant deer moving into populated areas and taking up residence right within the city and adjacent outlying areas, the wolves are going to follow. Where the food goes, the carnivores go.
Sightings of wolves have been on golf courses, the Harbour Expressway, both the university and college campuses, the airport property, as well as McKellar and Mission Islands.
Wolves are normally a timid, shy animal when it comes to human interaction, however, like any other wild animal, they can adapt and when it means food, all animals will adapt to survive.
One of the biggest factors that will help reduce deer numbers and ultimately wolf encounters is to stop feeding the deer.
A lot of folks have feeders set up in their backyards and once deer find these and start to utilize them, they will not venture too far away.
Deer under normal circumstances do not have a large home range to begin with. If they have food, cover and water available, they will in some cases stick within a mile radius most of their lives.
When people put out feeders and continually replenish them, you are essentially setting up an attractant for a lot of wildlife and the key word here is wild.
Feed attracts deer, deer attract wolves. Feed attracts birds, birds attract other smaller predators such as lynx, foxes and coyotes. And there are the bears, which are nomadic and eat just about anything as they are an omnivorous animal.
Dogs and cats are not looked at by wolves as the family pet that presents no threat to them.
Rather wolves look at pets as another food source, or an enemy.
When Fifi the seven-pound miniature poodle is tied up outside in a backyard in the Slate River Valley and a wolf saunters by, that little dog has now become a Scooby Snack to an animal with an instinct to predate to survive as it would in a more remote, natural setting.
Wolves are becoming less fearful of human activity and more immune to scents, noise and threats that would otherwise keep them away from towns and cities.
Reducing the deer numbers significantly, I believe, will indeed help in reducing wolf sightings and encounters. Wolves are not cruising our city golf courses on a sightseeing tour; they are there because of the food source they rely on.
This is not rocket science, folks, and a management tool has to be put in place to ensure deer numbers are reduced which in turn will have an affect on the wolves as well.
Implementing a new bylaw that allows bow hunting deer within the city limits is a good start in doing such.
This is not something that is going to have an immediate effect on deer numbers, but if executed and managed right this can and will make a difference as it has done in other municipalities in Ontario and in the United States.