The Blood of our Brother wolf will turn the rivers red!
Alaska Confirms 60 Percent Decline in Rare Wolf Population,
Still Plans Trapping and Hunting Season
SITKA, Alaska— The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is planning a 2015-2016 trapping and hunting season on rare Alexander Archipelago wolves in the Prince of Wales Island area, despite scientific data confirming a 60 percent decline in the wolf population in just one year. The population of wolves on the island could be as few as 50.
According to an official memorandum issued by the department last Wednesday, the population numbered only 89 wolves in fall 2014, down from 221 the prior year — although the number could be as low as 50. Female wolves were particularly hard-hit: Data in the report show that, as of last fall, only 7 to 32 females were left.
Report data further indicate that the 2014-2015 harvest of Alexander Archipelago wolves was unsustainable, a fact the report does not discuss. It acknowledges that the 29 wolves killed in the 2014-2015 trapping and hunting season represent a loss of one-third (33 percent) of the entire population, if the population were 89 wolves. Not mentioned, however, is that the loss would reach 58 percent if the population were 50.
The death figures do not include mortality from illegal hunting, starvation, disease and other sources. Peer-reviewed research has established that total annual mortality in the range of 30 to 38 percent is unsustainable, indicating that the 2014-2015 hunting levels further jeopardized this population.
“Opening another trapping and hunting season on this small, declining population is madness,” said Larry Edwards of Greenpeace. “Wolves in the Prince of Wales area are geographically and genetically isolated. This is simply unsustainable, posing a grave risk to the population.”
Alaska Confirms 60 Percent Decline in Rare Wolf Population, Still Plans Trapping and Hunting Season.