Conservation news snapshot April 2003

Alaska
For a nation in which trappers and hunters are in a small minority, the Alaskans have a genius for electing hard-line, unethical hunters into positions of power. Last year they did it again. The new governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski, is an unethical "hunting" extremist and noisy anti-wolf activist. On January 17'th he dismissed all but one of the previous members of Alaska's (already hunting-biased) board of Game and replaced them all with militant trappers and hunters. With that as his first action, his second was to announce that he will organise the massacre of as many of Alaska's predators as he can get his hands on, starting with wolves.

Fortunately for Alaska's wildlife, there are actually rather few areas in which the Board of Game has the jurisdiction to do any such thing. Fifty percent of Alaska's richest wildlife areas are under federal protection and substantial parts are privately owned. The McGrath and Nelchina regions are the most likely areas in which culling will begin.

New appointee, Sharon McLeod-Everette, a hunting guide from Fairbanks summed up the board's attitude to wildlife with the statement "Two things I am interested in are sustainable yield [meaning maximum animals to shoot] and predator control."

According to state Department of Fish and Game licensing statistics, 91,502 Alaska residents purchased a hunting or trapping license in 2002. In a state of some 635,000 people, this amounts to about 14.4 percent of the general population.

The plan also could put Alaska back in the sights of animal-rights protesters, who successfully pressured former Gov. Wally Hickel into canceling wolf-control programs in the early 1990s with a tourism boycott and protests throughout the United States. Former Governor Tony Knowles shelved all lethal predator controls during his eight years in office.

Although the decisions of the board are very likely to be put into action, no actual culling has taken place yet.

Since the Board announced its position, there have been a very large number of press releases and petitions etc. against it in circulation from Alaskan newspapers, biologists, wildlife groups, schools, universities and tourist officials et al. Considering the obviously overwhelming public opposition to the Board's position, it is incredible that it could come up with such proposals in the first place.



British Columbia
In early March, hot on the heels of Alaska's declaration of war on wolves, British Columbia weighed in with a hard-line, anti-wolf policy. In a move to increase the number of ungulates for hunting, the Muskwa-Kechika (Northern Rockies) wildlife management plan, (prepared by the Fort St. John office of the ministry of water, land and air protection), proposes year round open season on wolves.

Ungulate numbers in BC are lower than hunters would like and the plan blames it all on "laissez-faire" (wolf) management and native hunters who shoot female big game, such as caribou and elk.

The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area encompasses 6.3 million hectares of roadless wilderness, larger than Nova Scotia. About 58 per cent of it is in so called "special management" zones in which industry is allowed with some restriction. The rest is divided into two zones in which various environmental protection measures are in force. Under present hunting and trapping regulations, hunters in the northern Rockies have an annual bag limit of three wolves per hunter, with hunting banned between June 15 and Aug. 1. The new proposals would raise the bag limit to 10 wolves per hunter, with hunting allowed year-round, raising the obvious risk of hunters killing pregnant and nursing females (which they would do without a moment's hesitation!).

The BC government claims that there are currently about 850 wolves in the region. But this figure is disputed by Paul Paquet, a Saskatchewan-based consulting ecologist and large-carnivore specialist who used to work with the Canadian Wildlife Service . Paquet says it's just a wild guess - "..wolves could be half that number or twice that -- they have no way of knowing." The plan aims to reduce the population by about one quarter.

In February, 13 wolves in five packs in the Muskwa-Kechika area were sterilised as part of a hunter-funded experiment to increase ungulates in the Turnagain River valley.

According to the Vancouver Sun (March 7 2003), "..the biologist who came up with the ungulate targets is John Elliott, the same biologist at the centre of a controversial wolf-kill program that destroyed more than 700 wolves in B.C.'s northern Rockies in the 1980s. The province cancelled the program amid intense international criticism shortly before Expo 86, and resumed it in 1987 for one more year."


Italy
On February 11'th a false alarm from Italy ruffled various feathers. A journalist mistakenly reported that a bounty of about £35 was to be paid for wolves killed in the Reggio di Calabria area in order to defend sheep. The World Wildlife Fund immediately lodged a protest but by the time they'd done so, Italian wolf expert, Luigi Boitani, had got wind of the story and defused the situation with the statement "..the wolf is protected and cannot be officially hunted. There is much poaching going on there, but that's another question. The journalist misunderstood: there was a proposal to establish bounties for foxes .. where they cause widespread damage to sheep and other livestock."


Japan
From the newspaper "Yomiuri Shimbun"

"A group of Tokyo University and other researchers have successfully extracted a
gene from a stuffed Japanese wolf, a species considered extinct nearly a century
ago, and conducted the first ever gene analysis on the extracted cell nucleus.

According to Hideaki Tojo, professor of agricultural and life sciences at the
university's graduate school, and Chikashi Tachi, research fellow at Mitsubishi
Kagaku Institute of Life Sciences, the gene they recently extracted from a
three-millimeter-long by three-millimeter-wide piece of skin from the preserved
wolf is believed to be related to the composition of the proteins forming the
enamel surface of the animal's teeth.

The Japanese wolf, which was about one meter long, with relatively short limbs
and ears, was once found all over Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. However, the
species is considered extinct as there has been no official record of its
capture since a hunter in Nara Prefecture caught one in 1905.

Besides the specimen at the university's agricultural department, which was
purchased in Iwate Prefecture in 1881, there are only four other stuffed
Japanese wolves. They are preserved at the Tokyo National Museum, Wakayama
University, the British Museum and the National Museum of Natural History in
Leiden, the Netherlands.

The researchers said the gene from the stuffed wolf would help them study the
origin and ecology of this particular species compared with dogs and other kinds
of wolves.

The world's wolves are believed to be commonly descended from a species of wolf
that lived in Mongolia. About 6 percent of the genes from the Japanese wolf were
found to differ from that of the ancestral wolf species, according to the
researchers. "

(http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20030127wo71.htm)


Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Yellowstone
The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced in January that the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population has achieved the recovery goals. The wolf numbers as of late December 2002 indicate that there are about 41 breeding pairs distributed equitably throughout Montana, Idaho and Greater Yellowstone.

The 2002 annual report, which contains maps of wolf pack locations and homeranges, tables of wolf numbers and depredations, and summaries of scientific studies is expected to be completed and on the USFWS website at: westerngraywolf.fws.gov/annualreports.htm by March 1, 2003.

As the numerical (three years of 30 or more breeding pairs) and distributional goals in the wolf recovery plan have been met, it will be possible for the USFWS to propose that the wolf be delisted from the federal endangered species list when Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming have adequate state wolf management plans in place. At this time, Idaho is the only one of those three state to have a management plan in place.

The Yellowstone wolf recovery program has been a success. The annual head count on New Year's Eve found nearly 700 wolves in about 41 packs roaming Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, including 148 animals in Yellowstone. Montana: about 120 wolves in 13 Breeding pairs and Idaho has about 285 wolves in 10 Breeding pairs.

According to the group "Alliance for the Wild Rockies" :
"2002 is the third year that the wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains has had 30 or more breeding pairs, meaning the wolf population has achieved the numerical and distributional recovery goals. Wolves can be proposed to be delisted once adequate state wolf management plans and state laws are in place in MT, ID, and WY. Final numbers are being tallied and will appear in the 2002 annual wolf report that should be completed by early February 2003."


Poland
January 24, 2003: The National Development plan submitted to the European Commission by Poland includes a healthy program of communication and transport developments. Unfortunately, the proposed 'Bialystok alternative' route for the
Via Baltica motorway will cut straight across as many as four major conservation sites. These include the Biebrza National Park. The regions affected contain substantial numbers of endangered species, including as many as 265 wolves and some 70 Lynx as well as European Bison and moose.

An alternative route is being heavily promoted by the WWF and the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (OTOP) and hopes are high that the alternative will be adopted as it is both shorter and cheaper.