This book assesses Alaskan wolf and bear management programs from scientific and economic perspectives. Relevant factors that should be taken into account when evaluating the utility of such programs are identified.
This book examines the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and how it can provide models for a time-tested form of sustainability needed in the world today. The essays, written by a team of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, explore TEK through compelling cases of environmental sustainability from multiple tribal and geographic locations in North America and beyond. Addressing the philosophical issues concerning indigenous and ecological knowledge production and maintenance, they focus on how environmental values and ethics are applied to the uses of land.
Understanding how populations are structured and how they use natural and anthropogenic spaces is essential for effective wildlife management. A total of 510 barren-ground (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus), 176 boreal (R. t. caribou), 11 mountain woodland (R. t. caribou), and 39 island (R. t. groenlandicus x pearyi) caribou were tracked with satellite collars in 1993-2009 in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and northern Alberta.
The grey wolf has one of the largest historic distributions of any terrestrial mammal and can disperse over great distances across imposing topographic barriers. As a result, geographical distance and physical obstacles to dispersal may not be consequential factors in the evolutionary divergence of wolf populations. However, recent studies suggest ecological features can constrain gene flow. We tested whether wolf-prey associations in uninterrupted tundra and forested regions of Canada explained differences in migratory behaviour, genetics, and coat colour of wolves.
Various jurisdictions in Canada and the United States have implemented programs to manage wolves, often in response to concerns for declining ungulate populations. Lethal and/or non-lethal methods have been used in Northwest Territories (NWT), Yukon, Alaska, British Columbia, and Alberta with varying results. Historically, trapping and ground shooting of wolves was encouraged through incentive programs, some of which included use of poisons. Current, on-going wolf management programs often integrate harvest-based techniques with more intensive approaches, such as aerial shooting.
This report reflects current documented Tłı̨chǫ knowledge and perspectives in which wolves live in an environment that includes Tłı̨chǫ and caribou.
Management of wolves (Canis lupus) in British Columbia, as with most other Canadian provinces, is conducted on a regional scale (38,557–252,776 km2), yet there is no standardized, cost-effective methodology for providing reliable estimates of wolf abundance at this scale.
The food habits of tundra wolves were investigated mainly between 1960 and 1965, although some work continued until 1968. Studies were carried out in spring and summer in the Thelon Game Sanctuary, Northwest Territories, with supplementary winter work on caribou winter range north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and east of Fort Smith. Tag recoveries showed that tundra wolves may migrate over 200 miles and that their movements are associated with those of the barren-ground caribou.
The severity of recent declines of barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) across the central Canadian Arctic has led to harvest restrictions and concerns about population recovery. Wolves (Canis lupus) are the main predator of barren-ground caribou; however, the extent that wolves influence the decline and recovery of caribou herds is unknown. Such uncertainty confounds management responses (e.g., reducing harvest, predator control).
My study focused on investigating wolf-caribou dynamics on the summer range of the Bathurst caribou herd. I used a multi-scale study design to investigate the behavioural and population responses of wolves during a severe decline in caribou numbers. The summer ranges of the Bathurst herd contracted north towards their calving grounds as the herd declined and caribou remained farther from the summer territories of wolves for relatively longer portions of the denning period.