This week I’m putting forth my opinion on a very controversial subject here in the north – wolves. The big topic of “debate” centres around the emotionally-charged subject of using a wolf-bounty to help protect caribou. There are so many issues at play in this topic it becomes very difficult to unravel however I am going to try and set out a few of what I understand to be facts and then present my opinion at the end. This could be long so you may want to grab a beverage.
In 2009, the GNWT implemented a hunting ban on caribou over a large central area. This ban affected all residents including Indigenous hunters. More recently, Indigenous groups have been able to hunt limited numbers of caribou. There is a disagreement between Indigenous leaders and scientists as to the population of barren-ground caribou in the affected area. Scientists carrying out population surveys say that numbers continue to decline while Indigenous leaders say that scientists are just not looking in the right place.
There is evidence to show that industrial development and climate change are having a negative impact on caribou populations by disturbing habitat, affecting reproduction success, and changing migration routes.
Indigenous leaders state that wolves are preying on caribou calves with great success and this is having a negative impact on caribou populations.
The solution for the predation problem was to introduce a bounty on wolves. Each wolf presented to ENR by a hunter was worth $750. Just recently they increased that to $1500 per wolf.
The two largest industries in the NWT are mining and tourism. A significant portion of GNWT spending goes to large infrastructure projects such as highways, bridges, and water system development.
To date, I am unaware of any proposed solutions to the other potentially more significant issues affecting caribou: industrial development and climate change.
British Columbia has a handful of mountain caribou left which will likely be extinct by 2030 due to a complete and utter failure by their government to protect their habitat from mining, logging, and recreational activity. The BC government is the poster child for how NOT to do conservation.
BC is also blaming the extinction of caribou on wolves and has taken up the heinous activity of collaring a wolf, following it back to its pack and slaughtering the entire family group. The term for the collared wolf is Judas.
While the GNWT hasn’t resorted to this (yet), they are promoting the culling of wolves under the disguise of a “support program” which encourages traditional Indigenous activity. Except culling wolves was never a traditional activity. It was never necessary because caribou haven’t traditionally been threatened by climate change and industrial development.
One of the most contentious parts of this issue is that not all Indigenous hunters are hunting responsibly. There have been a number of documents cases of significant meat waste, overharvesting, and killing of pregnant caribou. Indigenous elders are just as upset at this disrespectful behaviour as others but there has been no discussion (as far as I am aware) about how to address this issue either.
Some say it is their right and they will hunt them till they are gone, enjoy eating caribou now before they are all gone. But this selfish attitude doesn’t help address the issue of a species at risk of extinction.
Indigenous ecological management systems often focus on managing human behaviour: being respectful, take what you need, do not waste. GNWT management focuses on attempting to manage and control animal behaviour: kill the wolf to save the caribou.
To be fair I think that ENR is underfunded in terms of monitoring and compliance. They do not have the manpower to police every caribou hunt nor should they have to if Indigenous hunters followed traditional hunting practices.
In my opinion, the bottom line is, you guessed it – money. People need jobs it’s true but it does not appear that the government has looked at real, long-term development for small communities. There doesn’t look to be any significant work toward developing self-sustainable economic strategies for small communities. Making specific commodities for the tourism industry is akin to a colonial sweatshop.
I have no hope that caribou will survive through this century. I fear they will be extinct before I am. The loss of the caribou is akin to the loss of the plains bison. Not only are the animals at risk but so are the people and cultures that rely on them. Diamonds may be forever but you can’t eat them, they have little cultural meaning for the people that rely on caribou, and there is little magic in a hard cold rock compared to an entire species of animals that have roamed our part of the globe for aeons.
I think that is about all for now. If you are still here, thank you for taking the time to explore this issue with me. I appreciate the extra time you’ve spent. I hope that you enjoy the images of this beautiful timber wolf that I have had the pleasure of “knowing” for nearly 5 years. I sincerely hope that she and her family survive the slaughter. I’d like to have many more peaceful encounters with her in the future.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. See you next week.