And I also generally don't think that people from the lower 48 have much business meddling in Alaskan affairs.
But I have a soft spot for the poor maligned and persecuted Alaskan wolves and since so many people down here are so bugged about the caribou in ANWR, I'll put this issue out there and maybe a few fellow animal-lovers might want to try to help some creatures that really do need it.
The problem is an age-old one. Competing predators are dependent on the same prey. One of Alaska's major commercial enterprises is hunting and much of the state depends on the money that hunters from all over the world spend when they travel to Alaska to hunt big game--in this instance, moose and caribou. Many Alaskans also hunt these animals for sustenance
By a rather strange coincidence, bear and wolves also depend on moose and caribou for sustenance and they kill moose and caribou while playing out their role in the natural predator/prey cycle.
Now there are those who think that there aren't enough big game stock in the state for the hunters to share with the wolves and the bears. Luckily for the bear, bears are seen as a symbol of Alaska, so they pretty much get a pass on this issue even though bear kill more moose and caribou than wolves do and even in spite of the fact that bear often kill young moose and caribou that may have otherwise grown into fine trophy animals while wolves generally cull out the old, sick and injured members of the game herds. Bear also attack humans and kill a couple a year on average in Alaska while wolves avoid people and have never been known to kill a human. But the wolf's the bad guy in this equation for some reason and wolves are now being hunted as nuisance animals and their packs are being wiped out.
As an example, one of the tamest (for wolves) and photogenic wolf packs was the Toklat pack in Denali National Park. This was the pack that people could actually have a chance of seeing in the wild because they didn't habitually shy away from park visitors like typical wolves. Most commercial wildlife photography involving wolves consists of pictures taken of the Toklat pack. This pack has been in existence in and around the park since the 1930's and provided much research data in addition to just being magnificent in their own right.
However the pack is no more. Back in February of 2005, a trapper caught and killed the alpha female of the pack. The alpha male apparently grew despondent and abandoned the pack as he searched for his mate, and two months later two hunters shot him from the roadside and killed him. What's left of the pack has splintered and the Toklat pack is now probably gone for all time. Some of the wolves will be accepted by other, more remote packs and others will be rejected and killed.
One of my favorite memories of my time in Alaska ironically was the time that I and a friend spent backpacking and winter camping in Denali just before the alpha female was killed. We saw the pack from a distance on and heard them howling at the northern lights for hours one night. I'll never be able to describe the grace and majesty of those animals as they stopped in a group to examine us then ran off along a snow-covered ridge line in single file as wolves do. We didn't know then that the alpha female would be dead before I'd even leave the state, killed by a trapper who set snares just outside the park's buffer zone in hopes of snaring members of this very pack. And unfortunately it was completely legal thanks to the anti-wolf policies of Alaska's legislature.
The Toklat alpha male howls for his mate from a snowy plateau near the trapping area, the day after the trapper took her away.
And it gets worse. I don't mind fair hunting--man against beast--but the Alaskan legislature has allowed the resumption of wolf-hunting from airplanes. This involves a small plane or helicopter flying low over a pack while some goober leans out and blasts away with a shotgun. The goal is simple: Eradication of as many wolves as possible. But this method tends to leave wounded animals scattered all over remote areas, dying slowing and painfully. It's an abomination but the hunting lobbyists rule the state capitol in Alaska and the wolves have no voice.
Wolves once ranged over most of the lower 48 states but they're gone now due to coordinated extermination policies in the 1800's. They exist now only in a few isolated parks like Yellowstone and in Alaska. There's no need to wipe out the last of them as they aren't a threat to humans and there's more than enough moose and caribou to go around. The game stock could actually be preserved much more efficiently by managing hunters and limiting kills in areas or times when game populations are low. They could also restrict the taking of bull moose because the bull moose population is at critical levels in some areas now. In some herds the ratio is as low as 6 bulls to 100 cows instead of the natural 30-35 bulls per 100 cows.(It's good to be a bull moose.) And it's not wolves who are killing the big antler-bearing bulls in their prime. Wolves can't do that. It's hunters with their scoped rifles that are wiping out Bullwinkle and his brothers. If Alaska wants it's moose herds back up, a more sensible policy would be to ban the taking of male moose for a few years. But with all of the cash that comes in due to big game hunting, that'll never happen. It's easier to target the wolves for extinction, even though I believe that cars on the highways south of Fairbanks kill more moose every year than the wolves ever will.
If you want to get involved on even a small level, you can use this form to e-mail Alaskan Governor Frank Murkowski.
I notice that the e-mail form says that they prioritize mail from Alaska residents. This is a nice way of saying that they won't consider the rest. I also happen to know that some zip codes for Fairbanks are 99706 - 99712. Not that I'm suggesting anything...
Article with more pictures of the Toklat wolfpack
More articles related to the wolf kills
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