FAIRBANKS
— Denali National Park and Preserve’s wolf numbers hit a new low this
spring with an estimated population of 48 wolves inside the park,
according to a Park Service study.
The
National Park Service estimates the park wolf population twice each
year using radio-collared wolves and an analysis of a handful of
un-collared wolves believed to live in and around the park. The study
dates back to 1986. This spring’s count is the lowest since an estimate
of 46 wolves in fall 1986. It’s the lowest on record for any spring
count.
Opponents of wolf
hunting and trapping have long used the study to advocate for
re-establishing a buffer zone to ban wolf hunting and trapping on state
land adjacent to the national park. In 2010, Alaska’s Board of Game
removed a wolf hunting and trapping-free buffer zone in state land
adjacent to the park.
In a status report on
the wolf survey last week, the park’s Chief Wildlife Biologist Steve
Arthur attributed the population decline to two non-human factors. Low
snowfall made it easier for caribou and moose to flee wolves, he said.
The numbers also dropped because of better tracking technology from GPS
collars, he said. The tracking technology expanded
biologists’ understanding of the wolves’ home range, which is used to
calculate the wolf population estimate.
Two of the nine wolves
who died in 2014 and early 2015 were killed legally by trappers or
hunters, according to the survey. That’s about the same proportion as
other recent years. A total of about nine wolves died. Besides the two
killed by humans, two wolves were killed by other wolves, one died from
old age, one drowned, one starved and two died from unidentified
non-human causes, according to the survey. At least 14 pups born in 2014
survived into the fall.
The Alaska Board of
Game has rejected several petitions to re-establish the wolf hunting and
trapping buffer zone around Denali National Park, most recently at its
meeting last month. The state game boards takes a wildly different
approach to wolf hunting regulations than the National Park Service. In
addition to allowing hunting and trapping, the state pays Fish and Game
employs to shoot some wolves from helicopters as part of its intensive
management program. The program’s designed to increase moose populations
by keeping predator numbers low.
The state doesn’t
track wolf populations as closely as the park service but estimates the
statewide population is between 7,000 and 11,000. Wolves have never been
threatened or endangered in Alaska.
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