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Thread: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
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    Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    I'm sure everyone is aware of the ongoing Caribou recovery programs.
    Its stated over and over again that the most effective tool to help the caribou is predator control.
    Even the Provinces cull of moose and other ungulates is ONLY to control predator numbers and area.

    What are some methods of dealing with wolves en masse besides poison?

    Do bait stations ever lure out more than 1 wolf from a pack?
    Has live-fenced in bait ever been tried successfully?

    I have the chance to chat with one of the biologists in a not-so-public setting like the 1000+people open nights they've been hosting.
    Any PRODUCTIVE talking points that you think might make some sort of impact with the bios?

    Thanks!

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  3. #2
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    Feb 2009
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    Although expensive, I believe aerial shooting is the most effective to remove them.

    This whole idea of removing prey so that the wolves move on seems absolutely ridiculous to me.
    I get the principle of it.
    But wolves will hang around till the last prey is gone it seems at times.
    Seems much more effective to treat the cause of the problem, and if the cause is Preds like wolves. than
    take care of them.
    Sort like you have a stone in your shoe causing pain on one of the toes...
    Do you go and remove the toe!????..NO (I suppose you could, like removing prey)
    You remove the stone. (the preds)

    Good luck with the CO, but you will find out very quickly they have nothing to do with the management
    of our wildlife.
    They only "enforce".
    This whole caribou management issue is between the Bios and the higher up in the ministry giving orders. (Mostly the higher ups)
    The Higher ups take their orders from who knows who, but sometimes from those in Politics of the province.
    And right now, those folks don't want to have a wolf cull because of public pressure it seems.

  4. #3
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    I stand corrected, you said Biologist...my bad.

  5. #4
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    Mar 2010
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    Concept of removing prey as a solution is asinine and sums up everything that is so wrong.....keep right on managing to zero....won’t matter soon.

  6. #5
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    Quote Originally Posted by northof49 View Post
    Concept of removing prey as a solution is asinine and sums up everything that is so wrong.....keep right on managing to zero....won’t matter soon.
    Agree 100%

    It seems some forget predators diet can really vary and adapt according to available food sources. Unfortunately this has been attempted and failed many times yet still implemented as a management tool

    What is the definition of insanity again?

  7. #6
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    Quote Originally Posted by northof49 View Post
    Concept of removing prey as a solution is asinine and sums up everything that is so wrong.....keep right on managing to zero....won’t matter soon.
    It makes no sense unless, the goal is to drive ungulate populations down, and then limit resident hunters opportunities, then giving the rest and the eventual build up of ungulate populations to the FN.
    Then after that happens the government will be putting lots of cash into game management making them look like real hero's, then they will be taking out Wolves in any way they can, my guess is aerial shooting and new technology poison.

  8. #7
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    The problem is the biologists know what needs to be done, they make recommendations and then the decision makers make their choices as to what recommendations to follow, how much of the recommendation to follow or if they will follow the recommedation at all. Look at the fires in the caribou and the thompson. The no hunting w/ ATV ban in certain regions was recommended to be a complete ban to ALL ATV's, recreational users, hunters etc. The backlash that would of come from that was too great so they just picked on the hunters.
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  9. #8
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    368

    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    Bugle,
    It is hard to get hard data on wolf cull costs, but last weekend I heard at a public meeting that helicopter gunning cost on the order of $3,000 per wolf whereas trapping them is between $1K and $2K. Actually closer to $1K but I do not remember the specific average cost.

    A couple of our site members took on the order of 16 wolves from a guide area last year. This resulted in the owner reporting a good lamb crop after not seeing any lambs for the previous two or three years.
    "The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

  10. #9
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    Mar 2015
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    the so called animal sympathizers would rather that the wolves were starved to death than killed quickly...how cruel is that!!!!!

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    Re: Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

    Quote Originally Posted by dracb View Post
    Bugle,
    It is hard to get hard data on wolf cull costs, but last weekend I heard at a public meeting that helicopter gunning cost on the order of $3,000 per wolf whereas trapping them is between $1K and $2K. Actually closer to $1K but I do not remember the specific average cost.

    A couple of our site members took on the order of 16 wolves from a guide area last year. This resulted in the owner reporting a good lamb crop after not seeing any lambs for the previous two or three years.
    Fair enough!
    I didn't say it was going to be "cheap".
    Just saying it is "affective".

    Wolves can be tricky to trap.
    But can be done.
    And yes, removing wolves does "help the cause" of some of the issues on game #'s in BC

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