The Ktunaxa Nation is deeply concerned about provincial government’s plan to kill wolves if they prey on caribou trans-located to supplement the threatened southern Purcell mountain population. The aerial cull of wolves would be conducted by provincial government staff, and would be triggered by the loss of a caribou via wolf kill, which would be signaled by the satellite collars on the trans-located caribou, stated a Ktunaxa Nation press release issued Feb. 1.

“We feel that wolves are a natural part of the ecosystem,” said Ray Warden, Director of the Ktunaxa Lands & Resources. “A cull could have negative long term consequences,not only for the wolves, but ultimately also the caribou.”

“As others, the Ktunaxa Nation is deeply concerned about the dwindling caribou populations throughout our territory. We have had discussions with the BC government, and we fully support supplementing the population through translocation or other means, as an essential part of recovery efforts.”

“However, if the effort requires harmful interventions such as a wolf cull, then perhaps the entire translocation program needs to be reassessed. In our view, wolves preying upon caribou is part of the ecosystem. If you artificially reduce the wolf population, you also run the risk of other species that wolf prey on becoming too abundant, and then other effects cascade through the ecosystem.”

“We support monitoring predation impacts and reviewing the translocation program after the first year to determine if the wolf predation impact is such that too many wolf packs would have to be killed over too many years to make the translocation effort a success. We are deeply opposed to killing wolf packs on an annual basis for years to come.”

The Ktunaxa Nation recognizes the initial efforts that have been made by government, the forest industry and others to address the impacts as part of an overall recovery effort. The KNC supports many of these initiatives including the translocation of caribou from the Level-Kawdy territory.

“We are in communication with the Tahltan First Nation,” continued Warden. “We are very appreciative of their support to augment our population with caribou from their territory. However, we believe that it is misrepresentation to say that they don’t want to let their caribou be brought down here without aerial wolf control. The Tahltan also understand the need for a balanced ecosystem, and in this case, they are more concerned about the wolves in their own territory, than ours.”

Ktunaxa Nation

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