Sea Wolves
These are sea wolves, “Canada’s newest marine mammal.” And although we’ve only just recognized this distinct group, their stability is already being threatened by negative human interactions.
These wolves have undoubtedly been around for a very long time, but until just a few years ago, scientists knew almost nothing about them. All wolves that live in the boreal tundra were thought to only ever hunt ungulates, things like deer and moose, but when they were observed eating salmon by the wolf biologist Paul Paquet, it soon became evident that not all wolves were the same.
In 2009, it was discovered using DNA data that the coastal wolves are actually a distinct group, separate from their inland cousins. Instead of hunting deer, they live off of the sea, eating fish, barnacles, disentangling masses of kelp to find the ripe herring eggs laid inside, and scrounging off the languid carcasses of beached whales. They’ve even been known to tackle seals that bask on the islands that make up British Colombia’s archipelago. Up to 90 percent of their diet can be sustained by sea.
But wolves aren’t the only thing on the islands. Tourism has become increasingly popular in places like Vargas Island. People come from around the world to experience the pristine wilderness on the island where visitors can camp, hike, kayak, and watch as gray whales swim by on their way to summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea every spring. But the park is fairly new, having been established in 1995, and the recent influx of people has meant that wolves are becoming more and more naturalized to their presence.
Hunters are an even more direct threat to the wolves on Vargas Island, as well as elsewhere. Wolf hunting is completely legal within the park and doesn’t even require a species license if you’re a BC resident. While hunting can obviously have a large negative impact on wolf populations, it also affects the frequency with which visitors get to observe them. A study published just this year in which wolf populations were monitored along the boundaries of Denali and Yellowstone National Parks showed that hunting wolves outside of the park significantly decreased the number of wolf sightings within them.
Caption: Jerald Pinson (Onegreenplanet)
These wolves have undoubtedly been around for a very long time, but until just a few years ago, scientists knew almost nothing about them. All wolves that live in the boreal tundra were thought to only ever hunt ungulates, things like deer and moose, but when they were observed eating salmon by the wolf biologist Paul Paquet, it soon became evident that not all wolves were the same.
In 2009, it was discovered using DNA data that the coastal wolves are actually a distinct group, separate from their inland cousins. Instead of hunting deer, they live off of the sea, eating fish, barnacles, disentangling masses of kelp to find the ripe herring eggs laid inside, and scrounging off the languid carcasses of beached whales. They’ve even been known to tackle seals that bask on the islands that make up British Colombia’s archipelago. Up to 90 percent of their diet can be sustained by sea.
But wolves aren’t the only thing on the islands. Tourism has become increasingly popular in places like Vargas Island. People come from around the world to experience the pristine wilderness on the island where visitors can camp, hike, kayak, and watch as gray whales swim by on their way to summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea every spring. But the park is fairly new, having been established in 1995, and the recent influx of people has meant that wolves are becoming more and more naturalized to their presence.
Hunters are an even more direct threat to the wolves on Vargas Island, as well as elsewhere. Wolf hunting is completely legal within the park and doesn’t even require a species license if you’re a BC resident. While hunting can obviously have a large negative impact on wolf populations, it also affects the frequency with which visitors get to observe them. A study published just this year in which wolf populations were monitored along the boundaries of Denali and Yellowstone National Parks showed that hunting wolves outside of the park significantly decreased the number of wolf sightings within them.
Caption: Jerald Pinson (Onegreenplanet)
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