Most Valuable, Yet Unprotected
Full protection from hunting and trapping has long been advocated for the two major “road corridor” groups of wolves in Denali National Park and Preserve. The seventy-year-old or older Toklat family lineage and at least five successive groups occupying the adjacent eastern area—Savage River, Headquarters, Sanctuary, Mount Margaret, and Toklat East—have provided more viewing opportunities and scientific insight than wolves anywhere else in the world.
Along with Yellowstone National Park, Denali is considered to be the world's premier location for viewing wild wolves. Data from bus driver observations indicate that visitors have a 19 percent chance of seeing a wolf on a trip into the park.25 More than anywhere else in Alaska, wolves in the eastern part of Denali provide significant benefits to tourism. However, because most park visitors travel only fifty to seventy miles into the park along the park road, just a few groups of wolves provide the great majority of viewing opportunities.
Yet they are not accorded full protection from hunting and trapping. In fact, because of the complex shape of the northeastern park boundary, there are areas within a few miles of the park road where wolf hunting and trapping are not only legal but have increased significantly in recent years. After the Savage River group was hunted to extinction, the four successive eastern groups in their territory have been terminated over the past twenty-five years owing largely to hunting and trapping. Toklat has also been hit hard at least several times. Losses of individual wolves and entire wolf groups continue with serious harm to their world-class scientific and viewing values and despite legitimate ethical concerns.
The eastern areas of Denali generally provide good year-round moose and sheep and seasonal caribou hunting for wolves; thus it is to be expected that they would also support persistent wolf family lineages. The Savage River family was well established in 1966 but disappeared in winter 1982–1983, almost certainly because of illegal hunting. None of Savage River's successors has lasted long in the presence of continued trapping, hunting, and growing development outside the northeast and east park boundaries. State land transfers in recent years have facilitated even more human activity. The spring 2009 estimate of fewer than seventy wolves in the park north of the Alaska Range is the lowest it's been since 1987.26 Without these impacts, eastern Denali would support a group of wolves with longevity comparable to the decades-old Toklat family just to the west.
Wolf Movements and Traplines
Wolves typically engage in one of three types of movements: (1) the more or less routine, recurring movements that define the “territory” of each group, (2) the unpredictable extraterritorial forays by each group well outside these areas, and (3) dispersals, during which certain individuals, most commonly two- to three-year-olds, leave a group and don't return. It's during winter extraterritorial forays that eastern wolf groups are put in danger. Extraterritorial forays are easy to underrate in importance because they constitute only about 9 percent of the wolves' winter travel. But when they extend into the areas of easy hunting-trapping access and the heavy development that nearly surrounds the east and northeast boundaries of Denali, it becomes a crapshoot for the wolves to make it back home intact.
In the winter of 2008–2009 alone, about half of the twenty Denali study groups were known or likely to have been hit by trappers or hunters. Since 2003 at least nine groups of wolves from near and far areas of Denali have used the Wolf Townships. At least six of these groups suffered hunting or trapping losses. The Denali National Park wolf database provides a longer-term perspective in a somewhat different way: since 1987, when wolves were first radio-collared in Denali, eighteen collared wolves (among others without collars) have been trapped or shot in the Wolf Townships on state land east of the park boundary. These eighteen wolves represented eleven different family groups, including three groups from areas west and northwest of Wonder Lake, seven groups from surrounding areas of the park and within the townships, and one in between.
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Field notes #140
March 10, 2007
5:30 pm—Farther up Savage we see snowmachine tracks: 63°48.05',
149°21.43'—virtually right to park boundary, which is 63°48.00'.
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As of 2009 three active wolf traplines border the park boundary and account for the majority of trapping deaths for Denali's wolf groups. In some places trappers may even use saturation snaring—a corridor of snares that is the land-based equivalent of high-seas drift-net fishing. Consider, for example, the Dry Creek trapline. Like most traplines in Alaska, it is maintained with a snowmachine. Typically traps are placed in and along the snowmachine trail and snares with baits are clustered in brushy areas here and there short distances off the trail. Wolves commonly travel in these trails during deep snow periods, as do most other large wildlife such as moose. The Dry Creek snowmachine trapline trail essentially follows right along the northeast park boundary. As with the other two traplines, it seems obvious that the trapper used a GPS receiver to set the line as close to the park boundary as possible. Clearly, these trappers have situated their lines so as to maximize the chances of catching Denali National Park wolves.
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Field notes Denali #132
May 2006
12:25 pm—we are following the snowmachine tracks W.
• ~30 caribou (0–2 calves) ~ 2 miles W of starting coordinates
• adult red fox curled up ~ 2–3 miles W of forgoing “dismantled hunting camp,” along snowmachine trail.
• We tracked snowmachine trail to lowermost of 2 camps / airstrips located along Dry Creek just above Dry Creek canyon.
• there are 3 snowmachines, ~ 2 sleds, etc and we see 2–3 men at the cabin—apparently just arrived here yesterday or early today—we circled them, but they do not seem very friendly—apparently they recognize us. They must have wanted to get here very much, as their trail over the ridge traverses much bare ground.
• The next day, Buck's wife received a call from K-2 Aviation—Rick S, who owns this cabin, called to emphasize that “that bug lover Haber is not welcome to land here.” I later learned that he is one of the ranking officials of Alaska Outdoor Council.27
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More Than Numbers
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists have routinely brushed off my call to protect these wolves in the Wolf Townships with their usual emphasis on numbers, telling me that there are enough wolves around to repopulate the area. However, there are more than numbers and “populations” to consider in evaluating the impacts of shooting and trapping on wolves. Wolf numbers might bounce back fairly soon after a major human-caused loss, but the behavior and other aspects of biology that set this species apart are likely to be an entirely different matter. In fact, human killing endangers the very sociality—the eusociality—that sets wolves and a handful of other species apart, and makes them so interesting and important from ecological, scientific, and other standpoints.
For an ultra-social predator in particular, it is to be expected that shooting and trapping will produce numerous biological impacts. For wolves, there is evidence of lingering impacts long after numerical recoveries on the social structure and other behavior, hunting patterns, distribution (including territories), genetic variations, and mortality patterns of survivors and recolonizers. These impacts begin showing up at annual areawide shooting-trapping losses of 15 to 20 percent, that is, at rates below what usually would be needed to offset annual reproduction.
The primary functional units of wolf biology are families and extended families, featuring among the most sophisticated forms of cooperation known for vertebrates. A relatively few of the oldest, experienced wolves, especially the primary alpha breeding pair, typically assume the key roles. Because these core adults commonly stand out near the forefront as leaders or with other assertive behavior, they are disproportionately vulnerable to ground and aerial shooting. Although young, inexperienced wolves generally sustain most of the
trapping losses, the behavior of the core adults leaves them vulnerable to this killing method as well. In fact, high-ranking adults commonly try to help other family members who get caught and in the process risk getting caught in nearby traps and snares themselves. Also, where wolves are more accustomed to people, as in a park situation, a higher proportion of older, experienced adult wolves is likely to be killed by hunting and trapping. Their frequent exposure to humans along the park road makes them relatively unconcerned with human activity or scent, and thus less likely to avoid trap and snare sets.
Biologists and others often point to the well-known 35 to 40 percent average annual areawide losses that wolves sustain under natural conditions and argue that shooting and trapping merely replace these natural losses or that the natural losses “swamp out” the shooting and trapping losses. What they overlook is that the natural losses consist mainly of pups and subadults who die and disperse, whereas the shooting, trapping, and other human-caused losses are much more likely to include adults with key roles in maintaining the integrity of the group and determining how it functions. This probably explains why shooting and trapping impacts begin to show up at only about half the natural average annual areawide loss rate—at 15 to 20 percent, rather than at 35 to 40 percent. The recent history of losses for the Toklat group alone demonstrates how the alpha wolves are more susceptible to hunting and trapping deaths, and how their deaths shatter the family group structures.
Most of the wolf behavior and wolf-related patterns and processes that prevail in the prolonged absence of shooting and trapping are adaptive. Shredding and sometimes even temporarily distorting them is therefore likely to diminish and simplify the species itself. When this happens, it amounts to an important biological cost, even if wolves “repopulate” the area or their numbers haven't declined much in the first place. (See Plate 18.)
Misplaced Protection
State officials claim that it is important to protect the lifestyle of a handful of trappers who kill these wolves. However, any notion of a grizzled old trapper on snowshoes eking out a living by killing these park wolves is a fantasy: all three of the current trappers make a good living apart from selling the pelts of these wolves. This has been true of all of the wolf trappers I have observed in the area over the past forty-three years. One trapper does not even live in the area but works at his well-paying job as an ADF&G biologist in Palmer during the week and drives north now and then to check his trapline, located less than two hours via snowmachine from Healy. Another trapper is a National Park Service employee. A part-time recreational activity of a few trappers is being given priority over hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world—including thousands of Alaskans—who come to the park in hopes of seeing wolves.
Furthermore, the response that the “area's wolf population” is doing fine, hence there is no biological reason for a protective closure, is meaningless even from a population perspective. Abundant data on dispersals of wolves from and to Denali indicate that the biological population to which Denali wolves belong extends far beyond the boundaries of Denali National Park, probably all the way to the Arctic Ocean. Killing every wolf in Denali would not threaten the actual biological population; wolves from other areas of the population would recolonize the small park portion. In other words, this is a meaningless standard. Thus, there is no threshold number of wolves within the park area below which anyone could logically (let alone biologically) identify a “credible biological emergency.” The only biological basis for managing wolves is by emphasizing their primary functional units, the family group, both the naturally short-lived as well as persistent. The loss of a single group, or even a significant individual, whatever the cause, constitutes a significant biological loss.
There are usually fifteen to twenty groups of wolves living primarily within the Denali National Park and Preserve boundaries at any given time. At least a third of these groups venture to the northeast park boundary area at unpredictable winter intervals.28 They do this because that area is a major traditional wintering ground for their prey, used by Denali caribou but at times also moose and sheep from interior areas of the park. The existing boundaries of the park and adjacent state wolf protection area have little relevance to the ecological boundaries of this wintering area, and trappers are able to target park wolves accordingly.
In particular, these trappers target the very same wolf groups that provide the majority of viewing opportunities for park visitors. Losses to these wolf groups directly translate into significantly less wolf sightings by the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the park each summer. The Denali wolves are of well-established state, national, and international importance from various standpoints, yet a few trappers are allowed to lie in wait for them in this area and lay waste to the interests of the far greater numbers of people who want these wolves to be left alone.
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Journal Notes: State-Snared Wolves, 199429
November 28
At 2:40 pm, we find a second ADF&G Moody Creek snare site, right along Moody Creek, just east of a small creek that comes into Moody from the north. This one is 150 yards south of the other snare site in this area. It is in an area of spruces and willow brush. It looks like there are several baits, especially on the south side, near Moody Creek. It also appears that an adult caribou has been caught in one of the snares here; it is dead and already somewhat scavenged.
We see one adult tan wolf, lying passive on its side, caught in a snare around its chest (just behind its front legs). It is about one hundred feet north of the Moody Creek bar, at the north side of the snare set. At this time it looks dead because it's not moving, however upon closer observation we see that it is alive. Broken spruce branches and brush in a ten to fifteen foot diameter area around this wolf indicate it struggled considerably earlier, but now it is lying passively.
It is now 2:50 pm. Bad weather—lowering ceilings—force us to leave. We fly down Moody Creek and find a wolf trail, fairly fresh, going upslope on the north side of Moody Creek valley, about two miles to the west outside of the wolf control area. This trail came down Moody Creek from the snare area, then went upslope to the north at this point, where we lost it in the trees and low ceilings. It looks like the trail of about eight to ten wolves, obviously the Yanert-Moody Creek group. They had traveled to the snare site, where one of their adult females now has been caught. Was this wolf caught first, and then the others came there, or were they all together at site when the one was caught?
We then continue down Moody Creek to the Healy area, then northward to head back to Fairbanks. Along the way we see eighteen single adult moose and five pairs of cows and calves—a total of thirty-eight moose.30 At 3:50 pm, we land at Fairbanks International Airport.
I then arrange for a helicopter from Fairbanks to fly us to the Moody snare site tomorrow morning. SR and BH with the Anchorage Daily News will fly to Fairbanks in the early morning, and I will take them to the snare site. We'll fly the Cub as well as helicopter.
November 29
SR and BH, Anchorage Daily News, will fly with JF in the helicopter, and follow AW and me in the Cub, to Healy. At Healy, I will get out of the Cub and join them in the helicopter. Meanwhile, AW will fly in the Cub by himself, scouting the Dean Creek set and flying cover for us at Moody Creek.
At 10:30 am, we start up in the Cub. The weather is calm, with ice fog, and twenty below zero. We take off, heading south to Healy, and in the first few miles I count seven adult moose and five pairs of cows with calves—a total of seventeen moose.
At 11:08 am, we reach the flats/foothills interface. The temperature is thirteen below zero at altitude, with light fog and clouds. I count two moose and several dozen caribou here and there, without even trying to find them. I also note quite a lot of fresh tracks and cratering in the snow, signs of considerable caribou activity, particularly on the California Creek area. We also spot the tracks of about six wolves on the trail where our Fairbanks-Healy route intersects; they are f
resh but we didn't follow them.
At 11:28 am, we arrive at the Healy airstrip and land on skis. I now get in the helicopter. At 12:05 we arrive at the Moody snare site.
There are now four wolves caught in the snare set. The one right along Moody Creek, the tan adult we saw last night, is still alive but lying passively near the north side of set. And now there are also three tan pups, caught at the south side of the set, each within twenty feet of the snared caribou, which obviously lured them here. What likely happened is that the remainder of the wolf family group came back here late yesterday or early today, after having continued down Moody Creek and turned north, to try to help the adult female who was already caught in the snare.
There are five tan free wolves, mostly adults, milling around, acting confused, on the river bar right in front of the three pups that are caught. Two of the pups are still alive and one, on the south side of the set, is dead. The five free wolves are completely ignoring the helicopter as we circle and hover just above. They make repeated attempts (we saw at least six attempts) to walk up onto the bank to the three pups just twenty feet north of the bank, apparently wanting to help them. However, each time, as soon as they get to within a few feet of the pups, they stop, as if afraid, and retreat back to the river bar, looking back at the pups. They clearly want to help the pups but seem to know there is danger and hence pull back at the last moment each time.
Among Wolves: Gordon Haber's Insights into Alaska's Most Misunderstood Animal Page 17
