Although Dr. Chris Darimont initially made his mark with seven years of cutting edge research on BC’s coastal ‘rainforest wolves,’ he actually specializes in all large carnivores, not just Canis lupus.

A University of Victoria graduate trained as an evolutionary ecologist, Chris has developed strong scholarly and practical interests in animal welfare. As a Conservation Biologist for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California (Santa Cruz), his research focuses on sensitive carnivores, like wolves and bears, which endure some of the most severe suffering among wild animals due to direct (e.g., trophy hunting) and indirect (e.g., food competition with fishers) human effects.

As a vocal advocate for animals, Chris subscribes to an ‘informed advocacy’ approach. Several television documentaries have focused on his work including Discovery Canada’s Rainforest Wolves, Canadian Geographic’s Secrets of the Coast Wolf, and National Geographic’s Last Stand of the Great Bear. His work is also commonly featured in print (Discover Magazine, Nature, New York Times, Oprah magazine) and on radio (CBC, National Public Radio).

Chris also believes that conservation biologists must lead by example.

Accordingly, his research employs exclusively non-invasive methods. His current focus for Raincoast is assessing how much salmon is required to sustain key terrestrial species, such as grizzly bears.

This question probably means more to Chris now than ever, as he explains: “I’ve been blessed with my own ‘cub’ this spring (our first). My partner, Alison and I were fortunate; we had access to abundant and high qualityfoods throughout our pregnancy. Our daughter Maëlle emerged from the womb happy and healthy. The same may not be true for the bears.”

“My family will travel with me and the Raincoast team to BC’s Great Bear Rainforest this field season,” he says. “We will embark on the second year of what we believe to be the most important applied conservation work on the coast; counting bears and cubs, and assessing their health in an era of dwindling salmon runs.”

Chris Darimont’s work with Raincoast is more urgent than ever. At the policy level, we are pushing for meaningful changes to salmon harvest regulations that now allocate only a small amount of salmon to bears and other wild creatures.

Did You Know?

Grizzly reproduction includes delayed implantation in which the embryo waits for a signal of good things to come before developing.

Female coastal grizzlies – even if pregnant – can only have cubs if they consumed enough salmon before heading for winter hibernation.

For the full story in the Seaside times click here

A collective of Canadian environmental groups has written an open letter to Premier Gordon Campbell decrying the provincial government’s proposal for an aerial wolf kill in efforts to protect the dwindling mountain caribou population.In the letter, sent Monday, 16 environmental groups state they are strongly opposed to the killing of wolves — as well as other carnivorous animals including cougars and bears — arguing human activities such as the logging of old-growth forests and snowmobiling are the main causes of mountain caribou population decline.

“These herds are small because they have lost habitat on a massive scale,” the letter stated. “Even if we could kill all the predators, these herds could still be wiped out by incidents such as automobile accidents, avalanches, stress from snowmobiles and fluctuating winter conditions unfavourable to their survival.”

The collective — which includes groups such as the Valhalla Wilderness Society, Raincoast Conservation and the Animal Alliance of Canada — proposes four alternate solutions: stopping clear-cutting and road-building in mountain caribou habitat; stopping snowmobiling and heli-skiing in historical mountain caribou wintering areas; habitat restoration in clearcut areas; and reducing the speed limit on the Salmo-Creston Highway, where a number of animals have been hit by passing vehicles.

Anne Sherrod, chair of the Valhalla Wilderness Society, said on Tuesday the group had not yet received a response.

The provincial goal is to increase the mountain caribou population — now estimated at 1,800 to 1,900 animals — to the pre-1995 level of 2,500 animals within 20 years.

The proposal for the aerial wolf kill first surfaced in February.

In March, the B.C. Supreme Court put the brakes on development of a coal mine near Moberly Lake because the provincial government did not sufficiently consult with the West Moberly First Nation or accommodate its concerns.

By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun, March 18, 2010

The public has rejected the idea of an aerial wolf kill in B.C. to benefit threatened mountain caribou, even before the first gun has been loaded.But whether the B.C. government listens to the public, or to the scientists who say the kill is vital for caribou recovery, remains to be seen.  Chris Ritchie, manager of species at risk recovery for the ministry of environment, said Wednesday the response has been overwhelmingly negative since the proposed aerial wolf kill became widely known in February.

“I’m trying to think about anything that was supportive and I can’t think of anything,” Ritchie said in an interview.

The province’s mountain caribou science team has recommended: immediate aerial removal of wolves that threaten herds with fewer than 50 animals; immediate augmentation of the South Purcell herd and all herds with fewer than 20 animals; and immediate but gradual reduction of moose densities throughout the mountain caribou range through adjustments to hunting regulations that allow for increases in cow moose harvest and hunting seasons.

The provincial goal is to increase the mountain caribou population — now estimated at 1,800 to 1,900 animals — to the pre-1995 level of 2,500 animals within 20 years.

Ritchie said the science team’s advice is “not to be taken lightly” but noted that their recommendations do not necessarily consider the political challenges in the face of adverse public opinion.

“It makes it a challenge. The practical, technical side, I think, is sound.

“If we want to maintain some of these specific herds that are in peril, we need a tough decision.”

He said no specific recommendation has yet been made to government.

As of last fall, trapping and hunting had killed about 35 wolves over the past three years in mountain caribou recovery areas, not nearly enough to sufficiently boost threatened herds, he said.

Christie said wildlife officials “basically need to remove an entire pack,” rather than pick off one or two by hunting or trapping. “That leaves us with not many options.”

The caribou recovery program has a budget of $630,000 in the fiscal year ending March 31, covering everything from caribou surveys to monitoring snowmobile activity to predator-control projects.

Sterilization pilot projects targeting the breeding alpha male and females are also underway in at least four packs to determine the effectiveness in controlling wolf populations, he said.

The strategy behind liberalized hunting of moose? Fewer moose (the primary prey of wolves) means fewer wolves and therefore a greater chance for caribou (a secondary prey source) to increase.

So far, hunters haven’t responded as the ministry had hoped in two pilot areas, one near Revelstoke and one in the Parsnip drainage east of Prince George. “The hunters have to recognize an opportunity,” Christie said. “There’s human nature: ‘I’ve always hunted here. Why should I go there?’ It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Caribou population surveys are underway and will give officials a better idea of the success of recovery initiatives.

Robert Serrouya, a member of the B.C. mountain caribou science team and a doctoral student at the University of Alberta, said tough decisions across the board are needed to save the mountain caribou, including management of predators and prey, mechanized recreation and forest harvesting.

“It does sadden us that some wolves and cougars will have to be killed to save these endangered caribou. Aerial gunning is the most humane way of removing wolves, compared to all other alternatives, and it also allows people to selectively remove animals that pose the greatest risk.”

If the caribou die off, then the urgency to protect and enhance the old-growth forests on which they depend will lessen, he fears.

Caribou are already almost extirpated from Glacier and Mount Revelstoke national parks, in large part due to predation, he said.

Not all scientists agree with the caribou science team.

Chris Darimont, a wolf researcher with Raincoast Conservation Foundation, said overharvesting of mountain caribou habitat is the real cause of the species’ plight.

“Logging has deprived mountain caribou of critical food and made them more vulnerable to predation [by providing roads, and better moose habitat, which attracts wolves to an area]. Likewise, snowmobiling — by scaring caribou from prime habitat and granting easy travel routes to wolves — is also in part to blame.”

He said once wolves are shot out of one area, others from neighbouring areas will simply move in. “Helicopters are not cheap. Voters get outraged. And losing wolves is devastating to ecosystems.”

The province has committed to protect 2.2 million hectares of mountain caribou habitat from logging and road building.

With financial backing from big-game trophy-hunting organizations such as the U.S.-based Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, biologists with shotguns flew over the northern Muskwa-Kechika area in the 1980s, shooting more than 700 wolves in four years.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Fall was in the air and Raincoast’s wolf project was conducting a ten day expedition on our research vessel Achiever to collect genetic samples from areas on B.C.’s north coast in the vast area known as the ‘Great Bear Rainforest.’ Arriving after sunset, we anchored in a system known to us to be a wolf hot spot. I slept on deck up in the observation platform that was still attached to Achiever from our marine mammal surveys that had recently concluded for the season.It was still dark when the howl of a single wolf woke me up. I got up with my sleeping bag draped around me and crouched behind the blind of the observation platform, listening intently.

A cacophony of other voices then suddenly reverberated through the valley, almost as if in an echo chamber. Just as quickly the howling came to a halt. In anticipation I grabbed my binoculars. Then in the slowly advancing light of day the wolf family began to appear on the beach, one by one, then a pair at a time. The play and roughhousing of its younger members went on for a good part of the sun-drenched morning.

After the wolves had finished their romp I waited until they had retreated into the bush, then I hiked quickly up the system to where the salmon stopped spawning. All along the banks of the stream were headless pinks, the missing heads a telltale sign of wolf predation.  I watched as seagulls, ravens, and insects descended on the leftovers.  It was another reminder how wolves serve as providers to the larger ecosystem.

Soon it was time to get back to Achiever as tides and schedules dictated. As my jog back to the beach turned into a sprint, I marveled at the surgical-like precision the wolves exhibited in chomping the heads off of so many fish.

Coastal B.C. provides a landscape which facilitates a truly unique way of life for Canis lupus. Where else on the planet do wolves take to the sea, swimming among forested islands to feed themselves? Where else can wolves make more than 75 per cent of their living from marine resources like salmon, beached whales, and seals? Where else can we learn how these magnificent animals used to live, before the planet suffered extensive loss of wild wolves in most other places?

Our vision is to ensure that B.C.’s ‘Rainforest Wolves’ can continue their wild ways amidst an uncertain future marked by challenges against which they have no evolved defenses – climate change, industrial forestry, fisheries, trophy hunting, increasing marine traffic, exotic diseases, and others. We must consider carefully what wolves require in the face of these threats.

To that end, we continue to gain scientific understanding about the Great Bear Rainforest’s wolf population. Our research uncovers essential information, such as details of the evolutionary history of coastal wolves, that until recently had not been documented.

All of our work, led by Dr. Chris Darimont and Dr. Paul Paquet – two of the continent’s leading carnivore ecologists, goes through a rigorous and scholarly peer-review process, ensuring that our conservation recommendations are well grounded and defensible. We call this unique blend of academia and outreach as ‘informed advocacy’.

Did You Know?

Along with humans, wolves were once the most widespread land animal on earth, but relentless persecution and the continuous loss of habitat now restrict wolves to only a small portion of their original range.

Wolves cannot curl their tails like dogs.

Chris Genovali is the Executive Director of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation

Scientists working on Vancouver Island have determined for the first time that when you try to eliminate a population of wolves from an area, you run the risk of repopulating that area with what one biologist called “monster wolves.”Beginning in the 1920s and continuing well into the 1970s, the government of British Columbia undertook several hunting, trapping and poisoning campaigns to remove all wolves from Vancouver Island so sport hunters would find it easier to hunt and kill black-tailed deer, the wolves’ principal source of food.

Consequently when a few hardy wolves swam across Georgia Strait from the northern B.C. mainland in the early 1980s in an attempt to find new territories, some were unable to find mates. So they mated with domestic stray dogs instead.

The result, say researchers from the University of Sweden, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, was something never documented before in the wild: animals who were neither wolves nor dogs. These wolves carried genetic material from female dogs.

Their research is published in the latest edition of the journal, Conservation Genetics.

So-called wolf hybrids are bred purposely by some breeders as pets, though they are regarded by animal welfare groups as ill-conceived and potentially dangerous. But they had never been documented in the wild before. Now they have.

“If the wolf-control campaign had carried on and kept wild wolves at low levels, we would have had, potentially, a population of monster wolves on Vancouver Island,” Raincoast biologist and University of California postdoctoral researcher Chris Darimont said in an interview.

“Animals that aren’t fit as pets or wild creatures. What our work found is an historical signal of tremendous ecological and social imbalance among wolves as a result of government wolf control.”

Darimont hastens to add that the 200 or so wolves who now live on Vancouver Island are not “monsters”.

It’s likely, he says, that the hybrids born in the 1980s were unable to survive in the wild and therefore unable to propagate. Instead, the wolves who were able to find wolf mates became the ancestors of the small population of wild Vancouver Island wolves that now exists. Wolves can have as many as five pups a year.

What is certain is that today’s Vancouver Island wolves represent an entirely different lineage from those who lived there before government wolf-control programs began. In other words, Darimont explained, they no longer bear any real genetic link to the wolves who lived there 40, 50 or 60 years ago, which goes to show how “brutally successful” the control programs were.

Had they continued, he adds, it’s possible that any wolves still on Vancouver Island might be “monsters” maladapted to survive in the wild and unfit to be taken in as pets.

“Wolf control is indefensible ethically. I think most British Columbians would agree with that,” Darimont said. “What this study contributes to the discourse is additional ecological evidence that wolf control is a very bad idea indeed.”

Yet it’s one that still has its proponents. Between 2003 and 2005 a wolf sterilization program, organized by the B.C. environment ministry but bankrolled by big-game hunters, was undertaken in the Muskwa Kechika area of northern B.C. to boost moose populations there. Another 20 to 40 wolves are being targeted either for “sterilization or removal” in the B.C. interior to help rescue endangered mountain caribou.

Of the Vancouver Island findings, ministry officials said: “. . . while certainly interesting, the research presented here looks at a situation with a very small and geographically isolated sub-population of wolves that resulted from broad-scale eradication attempts early in the previous century. While the genetic conclusions may be relevant in situations where conservation is a concern . . . that situation is not one that represents the current status of grey wolves in B.C.”

But Darimont says the Conservation Genetics study and others like it show any wolf-control program is a mistake because of its unforeseen and potentially dire consequences.

“What happened on Vancouver Island is another unintended consequence of wolf control, one that could have had potentially devastating consequences in the long term.”

The scientists made their discovery by accident. In demonstrating the genetic distinctiveness of wolves living along the B.C. coast, a revelation published in 2007, they came upon something they’d never seen before: wild wolf remains of fur and bones that contained genetic markers peculiar to dogs, not wolves.

Further study led them to conclude that these animals were neither wolves nor dogs, but wolf hybrids — creatures unfit to survive in the wild or domestically.

What they think happened is that when wolves were wiped out of Vancouver Island, as few as 16 mainland wolves — perhaps eight males and eight females — swam across Georgia Strait in the late 1970s or early ’80s in search of new territories. But while those wolves probably found plenty of deer meat to eat, some were starved for sex. So some of the males took the previously unheard of step of mating with domestic dogs and creating hybrid offspring.

What makes this particularly extraordinary, says Darimont, are the estrus cycles of wolves and dogs. Wild wolves will mate for only two weeks a year in early winter. Domestic female dogs come into heat twice a year, but at no set time. So the odds of a wild male wolf “getting together successfully” with a domestic female dog are tiny, he explained. The fact that they did demonstrates how desperate the wolves were.

“The timing had to be exquisite, and this gives us a good idea of how difficult it was for these original founders to find appropriate mates. If the males had to resort to getting with a female dog, things were pretty desperate on the single scene. It was ecologically and socially a desperate time for wolves. And an environment I hope Vancouver Island wolves never see again.”

The latest publication from the Raincoast carnivore team and collaborators confirms the hybridization of domestic dogs and wild wolves on Vancouver Island.  This is likely owing to the human-induced extirpation of wolf populations that occurred from eradication campaigns prior to the 1970s.  Following this, wolves recolonized Vancouver Island from the mainland.  The introduction of the dog mtDNA likely took place when the number of wolves on Vancouver Island was extremely low and wolves were trying to find mates.  No dog mtDNA has been previously reported in a population of wild wolves.   While the findings show that individuals in the wolf population have bred with dogs, the population of wolves still remains genetically distinct and should be considered wild.

Vancouver Sun Story

Conservation Genetics pdf

June 11, 2009,
Chris Genovali / raincoast.org

There is an amazing array of things one can purchase on eBay, from used lawn furniture to vintage dolls to bongs allegedly used by Olympic athletes. Among the myriad items being sold on eBay are guided hunts of North America’s grizzly bears, black bears, wolves and cougars. It’s hard to believe, but these recreational killing opportunities are now bought and sold on the world’s largest internet auction site; eBay has become an online marketplace peddling the trophy hunting of the continent’s top-level predator species.

When eBay announced a global ban last year on sales of ivory products after a report revealed the online auction site was helping to fuel illegal trade in wildlife products, conservation and animal welfare groups were encouraged by eBay’s action. However, a subsequent review of the EBay website found hunting sales of not only the aforementioned North American large carnivores, but of African lions and leopards as well.

In February, Raincoast Conservation and our US partner Big Wildlife approached eBay to request they end of sales of carnivore sport hunting on their website, citing that such sales glorify and promote profound animal suffering for fun and profit, as these hunts are not for food or subsistence, but purely for trophy. Due to eBay’s hesitation, we arranged for one of Raincoast’s wildlife scientists, Dr. Chris Darimont. to meet with
them at their Silicon Valley, California headquarters to present additional evidence of the ecological, evolutionary, economic and ethical arguments against the trophy hunting of carnivores. Further talks ensued. Still nothing. In response, we received a letter from eBay Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Tod Cohen informing us that the company had no interest in halting trophy hunt sales. It is disappointing that eBay has decided to hide behind the rationale that trophy hunting of large carnivores is legal; just because something is legal doesn’t mean it is ethical or sustainable.

Tod Cohen of eBay wrote in the letter, “While these decisions are never easy for us to make, the conclusion to this broad decision-making process is that we will not be expanding the scope of hunting experiences prohibited at this time. eBay is an open marketplace based on the principle that anyone can buy or sell just about anything, as long as those sales comply with applicable laws and our policies.” In his letter, Mr. Cohen clarified that eBay has refused to post the sale of items the company and the general public find “offensive.”

Most people find pursuing cougars with dogs, treeing the frightened animals and then blasting them out of trees offensive. Most people believe gunning down a wolf for sport and a trophy is offensive. Most people think killing a grizzly so that the bear ends up as a rug in someone’s living room is offensive. If eBay prohibits the sale of offensive material, then why does the company promote the gratuitous killing of large carnivores?

Trophy hunting of top predators ignores the importance these species play in natural systems. For instance, top predators help regulate the food web,sustain ecological integrity and preserve species diversity. Their
disappearance triggers changes in abundance of other species and the intricate connections among the remaining residents can unravel.

BC’s grizzly bears-especially coastal grizzlies-face a suite of threats to their survival from habitat loss, declining salmon, mortality from recreational killing, poaching and lethal predator control. There is also
now the spectre of climate change. Destruction of the grizzly’s habitat and overexploitation of the salmon on which their very lives depend may be complicated, multifaceted issues to address. But one threat is not: trophy hunting. A record 430 grizzlies were killed in BC in 2007, and the provincial government continues to permit grizzly bears, and other large carnivores, to be shot and killed for sport in our parks and protected
areas.

In Alberta, it took a plunge in the grizzly bear population to the point where less than 500 are estimated to still exist before a halt to the grizzly hunt was implemented. Even with the species teetering on the brink in Alberta, elements within both the provincial government and sport hunting lobby are pushing for a resumption of the hunt.

In an interview with the Lethbridge Herald last fall Calgary-based wildlife scientist Dr. Brian Horejsi was not caught unawares by the latest population figures from Alberta’s grizzly bear recovery team.

“These numbers don’t surprise me at all,” Horejsi said. “I have been watching bear habitat, bears and the absolutely fraudulent antics of this government for pretty close to 40 years. And so I am not at all surprised. I have been saying that there may be as low as 400 bears and perhaps as many as 500 since 1990. It was evident to any trained observer who was independent of either special interests or government that there was something seriously awry way back then.”

One wonders how low the Alberta government will stoop to rationalize its continued refusal to adequately protect the province’s imperiled grizzly bears. Could there be any more stunning example of bureaucratic obtuseness than Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton’s suggestion that anecdotal evidence from sport hunting interests regarding grizzly bear numbers is on par with a $2 million scientific study sponsored by his own government?

From the Herald interview with Horejsi: “We have to remove the intensive human use of grizzly bear habitat that has simply drowned bear populations with mortality and reduced so dramatically their habitat that they’re not safe anywhere. There are very few security areas for bears or for any wildlife in Alberta.”

The fact is that you can kill bears quickly via trophy hunting or kill them slowly through destruction of their habitat. The Alberta government has done virtually nothing to address the habitat issue and with Morton’s
anti-science posturing it is clearly attempting to set the stage to rescind the hunting moratorium as well.

While hunters, governments, and conservationists continue to argue about the population status of grizzlies and other top-level predators in western Canada, the inescapable truth is that killing these magnificent animals for sport, trophy and profit has no place in today’s society.

The question remains for eBay users is whether they find it “offensive” that eBay is facilitating the recreational killing of large carnivores by allowing guided hunts to be auctioned on their site. V

Chris Genovali is executive director of Raincoast Conservation.

Coastal B.C.’s fish-munching, island-hopping wolves will need to be better managed if the species is to thrive for future generations, says an expert on the unique animals.

A report released last week by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation found that coastal wolves from Vancouver Island up to Alaska are genetically different from their mainland cousins. Their hair has a tint of red, instead of grey, and depending on exactly where they live, marine creatures can make up to 75% of their diet.

Coastal wolves will dig for clams, hunt sea lions or feast on a beached whale. These animals travel from island to island, but never venture far from the ocean.

“If you’re a wolf on the coast and you’re born on the coast, you’re going to stay there,” said Chris Darimont of the University of California, whose University of Victoria doctorate is on wolf populations. He was one of
several scientists who worked on the report.

“If you took the average coastal wolf and dropped it off in Interior B.C., its chances of surviving and reproducing and mixing its genes with Interior populations is extremely low.”

Darimont said he’s unsure exactly how many wolves live along the coast, but guesses “there are a few hundred” on Vancouver Island.

Because these animals can’t be found anywhere else in the world, the report concludes that they should be recognized as an “evolutionarily significant unit” that deserves special conservation.

“That means management ought to afford them extra precautionary measures,because we have a lot to lose. If they were exchangeable with other populations, then we can be a little more liberal with our management of them,” said Darimont.

Although the coastal wolf species isn’t at any immediate risk, logging of old-growth forests and other alterations to the wolves’ habitat, in addition to dwindling salmon stocks, could one day have an effect on its numbers. He said the provincial government’s management of the wolves has been “pretty hands off” and more restrictions are needed on wolf hunting. Unlike many large-game species, a person doesn’t need a big-game licence to kill them.

Forestry practices also need to leave old-growth forests untouched, while some access roads used by hunters may have to be closed.

“A lot of these things I understand may not be popular things for a lot of people around Nanaimo who make their living through forestry. But we can’t have it all. If British Columbians want to substitute ecological integrity for access to recreational areas, then that’s a decision they’ll have to make, but at least they will be well-informed about the tradeoffs,” said Darimont, who stressed that he and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation isn’t against hunting, only hunting for trophies. And that’s why most people kill wolves.

A Ministry of Environment spokesperson said staff will be reviewing the report on coastal wolves.

Darimont will be giving a multimedia presentation on these animals and other creatures found in the Great Bear Rainforest in Nanaimo on Monday at the Vancouver Island University theatre at 7 p.m.

Where does biodiversity come from and how can we preserve it? These are fundamental questions the answers to which conservation scientists now seek at a frenetic pace. Why? Because the planet – Canada included – is rapidly running out of diversity. And in the face of this abrupt loss, plans (and especially action) to preserve it are failing miserably.

This week, our team of conservation scientists from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and several universities revealed in the Journal of Biogeography a previously unknown source of biodiversity. Knowing that conservation science by definition ought to transcend academia, our goal is to let Canadians know what they are poised to lose if urgent measures are not taken to protect this newly identified biological treasure.

Deep in British Columbia’s coastal temperate rain forests, an area known as the Great Bear Rainforest, roams a wolf like none other. Our data set, drawn from nearly a decade of our non-invasive work, combines genetic information with a summary of the unique ecological, morphological and behavioural characteristics of these special wolves.

Genetically, wolves nestled in the moist forests west of the coastal mountains are the most divergent population in western North America. In fact, these rain-forest wolves are more differentiated from the western continent’s two subspecies than the subspecies are from one another, even though previous taxonomy had placed coastal wolves in one of these subspecies.

Why is this so? The ecological environment in the Great Bear Rainforest differs markedly from any other that the species inhabits worldwide. Where else on the planet do you find swimming, salmon- and seal-eating, island-hopping, tiny deer-munching, red-coloured, small-skulled wolves? Nowhere else does this “phenotypic,” or observable, diversity exist in wolves.  And, critically, we show how the ecology on the coast drives the genetic differences we observe in wolves.

If, as our research and an emerging body of evidence suggest, ecology drives genetic differences, then the striking inference is that the ecologically distinctive Great Bear Rainforest likely gives refuge to many more genetically unique animals and plants. In this way, one animal (the wolf) provides us with a key insight into an entire ecosystem.

We think this inference is valid. After all, if any animal is capable of dispersing from the coast into interior habitat and vice versa (and, in dong so, dilute genetic differences between areas), it’s the highly mobile wolf. But the genetic data indicate this is not so, and that suggests using the wolf was a highly conservative test of the area’s potential to harbour many more unique life forms.

Given their marine-oriented lifestyle, and with tongue planted somewhat firmly in cheek, we like to think of coastal wolves as “Canada’s newest marine mammal.” Not so far-fetched, though, when you consider that polar bears are officially designated likewise.

Semantics aside, we argue that the unique genetics, ecology and behaviour of coastal wolves satisfy strict criteria for this population to be recognized as an “evolutionarily significant unit.” This designation is a recent and innovative classification used by scientists to differentiate unique populations within species. In many ways, it is a more informative equivalent of the older “subspecies” classification system and, in theory, grants protection and special conservation status to populations.

But how about in practice? This new information comes at a critical time when the future of nearly 70 per cent of the Great Bear Rainforest is being deliberated by government, industry, first nations and environmentalists. The stated intent is to institute some form of ecosystem-based management; in the view of many scientists, including Raincoast’s, this proposal is seriously flawed. It more closely represents minor adjustments to the status quo and commercial clear-cut logging and does little to ensure the persistence of sensitive, wide-ranging carnivores such as wolves.

So, knowing a little more about biodiversity and steps we ought to take to preserve it, the question is: Will resource-extraction industries continue to be granted a licence to despoil the remaining ancient forests of coastal B.C. and the irreplaceable biological treasures they sustain?

Chris Darimont and Paul Paquet hold academic positions at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Calgary, respectively, and serve as conservation scientists for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation in Victoria. Chris Genovali is executive director of Raincoast.

March 11, 2009
Judith Lavoie, Canwest News Service

Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Edmonton Journal, Times Colonist

They have red-tinted hair instead of grey, eat fish along with meat and love to island-hop. That makes coastal wolves, found from Vancouver Island to southern Alaska, unique in behaviour, looks, diet and genetic makeup, an international study has found.

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation study, led by Violeta Munoz-Fuentes of Uppsala University in Sweden, with collaborating scientists from the Smithsonian Institution, University of Victoria, University of Calgary and University of California, will be published in this month’s Journal of Biogeography.

“They are like no other wolves. The genetic differences are striking and their ecology is very, very different. It’s so cool,” said Chris Darimont, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose UVic doctorate is on wolf populations.

After five years of collecting wolf droppings, then studying genetics, scientists found coastal wolves have adapted to the temperate rain forest environment and have evolved into a different type of animal from their grey-coated cousins across the Rocky Mountains or their Arctic relatives.

“It shows statistically that genetic differences are driven by a different ecological environment,” said Darimont, who believes that makes a case for much stronger protection of B.C.’s coastal and old-growth forests.

Coastal wolves should be recognized as an Evolutionarily Significant Unit that deserves protection and special conservation status, the study concludes.

Instead of relying on large deer or elk, like other wolf populations, coastal wolves have only small, black-tailed deer on their meat menu, so they turn to seafood.

“They eat spawning salmon, beached whales and even kill seals and seal pups. They are so adaptable and such smart creatures. They know how to make a living off marine resources,” Darimont said.

“They are truly island wolves. They swim between foraging patches on islands, such as in the Broken Group or Clayoquot Sound. We are saying, tongue-in-cheek, that this is our newest marine mammal,” Darimont said.

Coastal wolves are smaller than other populations and many have a browny-red tinge. “They blend perfectly into the reddish brown algae on the coast. They look as if they’ve been dipped in reddy-brown paint,” Darimont said.

No accurate figures are available, but there are probably “a couple of thousand” coastal wolves and they face increasing threats from loss of habitat, depletion of salmon stocks and trophy hunting, he said.

Paul Paquet, one of the study’s authors, describes some wolf habitat in B.C, including much of Vancouver Island, as a “wilderness ghetto” with tree farms instead of old-growth forest and roads intersecting forest, meaning increased hunting and trapping.

Resident hunters require no special permits for wolves, with a limit of three a year, and trappers have no bag limits. “It’s laissez-faire management dominated by hunters,” said Darimont.

Environment ministry spokeswoman Kate Thompson said staff have not yet had a chance to review the study.

Examination of droppings reveal that timber wolves pooh-pooh venison, in favour of salmon.  Raincoast’s Dr. Chris Darimont is on CBC Radio’s As It Happens talking about BC’s salmon-eating wolves, Sept 2, 2008.

Some North American wildlife advocacy groups are urging eBay to ban the posting of certain guided trophy hunts currently available on the online auction site. Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Raincoast Conservation and Big Wildlife sent correspondence to EBay CEO John Donahoe requesting that posting of hunting auctions for such big predators as bears, wolves and mountain lions no longer be allowed.

“Few EBay users are aware the company also auctions off the lives of some of our planet’s most magnificent animals,” said Big Wildlife communications director Brian Vincent. “EBay has become an online marketplace peddling the slaughter of wolves, bears and cougars.”

A search on EBay this morning came up with opportunities to “Buy Now” or bid on guided hunts of grizzly, black and brown bears, mountain lions and wolves as well as numerous species of hooved mammals and birds. Interestingly, the site does not allow for the sale of products such as teeth, claws and rugs from certain animals, including those of bear and mountain lion.

“Have the lives of Canada’s grizzly bears, wolves and other large carnivores become so cheapened by the purveyors of trophy hunting that selling an opportunity to kill one is now as commonplace as trying to unload a kitchen appliance or baseball cards on EBay?” said Chris Genovali, executive director of Raincoast Conservation.

EBay has altered listings policies in the past. Last year, the company announced a global ban on the sale of ivory products on their site after an International Fund for Animal Welfare report revealed that these auctions were encouraging the poaching of ivory-bearing animals.

eBay auction website was asked to ban the sales of guided trophy hunts for bears, wolves, cougars and other top predators. Canadian and U.S. wildlife advocates including the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Big Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance claim that eBay’s sales of guided trophy hunts put the survival of these species at greater risk.

“Have the lives of Canada’s grizzly bears, wolves and other large carnivores become so cheapened by the purveyors of trophy hunting that selling an opportunity to kill one is now as commonplace as trying to unload a kitchen appliance or baseball cards on eBay?” asked Chris Genovali, executive director of the British Columbia based Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

If you launch a quick search on eBay you may find auctions for bear hunting in Wisconsin that offers transport ‘to and from the baits at prime hunting hours’ with an Alaska hunt offering black bear, wolf, and wolverine; and a hunt in northern Ontario that offers the ‘opportunity to harvest a big Canadian black bear’.

When last year under the pressure of an International Fund for Animal Welfare which reported the online auction site was helping to fuel illegal trade in wildlife products eBay announced a global prohibition of sales of ivory products the three groups were content with the measures taken. Still the recent review of the eBay auction site revealed that hunting sales complete with photos of grizzlies and other carnivores killed for trophies. The wildlife defenders expressed their concern on that expansive trophy hunting of top predators diminishes the important role these wild species play in the nature cycle.

Raincoast says the lives of BC’s majestic predators such as grizzly bears, black bears and cougars, should not be sold online. But, Raincoast executive director Chris Genovali says that’s exactly what’s happening with trophy hunts being auctioned off on eBay.Genovali says his group is not against hunting, but he says the line has to be drawn somewhere to protect North America’s big predators.

“Have they become so cheapened by the purveyors of trophy hunting that selling an opportunity to kill one is now as common as trying to unload a kitchen appliance or used car or something on eBay?”

Genovali says his group has sent a letter to the CEO of eBay asking that the site ban such auctions. He says he thinks his request is reasonable as eBay has already stopped selling ivory, because it encouraged the poaching of ivory bearing animals.