Dive into wolf conservation ethics on the Nerdy About Nature podcast
Wolf Conservation Program Director, Chelsea Greer, was interviewed on Ross Reid’s podcast.
As a guest on the Nerdy About Nature podcast, I sat among the trees with Ross Reid to discuss all things wolves. In this conversation, we explored a diversity of topics from my career background and efforts directing Raincoast’s Wolf Conservation Program, to the social lives of wolves and the profound role they play in functioning ecosystems.
Ross and I also delve into BC’s controversial wolf cull, a government-sanctioned program that traps, hunts, and shoots hundreds of wolves from low-flying aircraft every winter. As the government continues to scapegoat wolves, commercial logging and fossil-fuel industries continue to transform areas of woodland caribou habitat into a landscape that can no longer provide the food, cover, and security these animals need to survive.
A central thread throughout our conversation is the concept of conservation ethics and how it relates to wolf conservation and traditional wildlife management practices. This includes Raincoast’s wildlife welfare ethic, which advances the need to apply animal welfare principles to wildlife, a notion that is disregarded in the mass killing of predators under the guise of caribou protection. These principles also apply to methods of wildlife study, and although Raincoast practices minimally invasive research, everything we do has an effect, which is why seeking continual assessment and improvement of our research practices in terms of methods, data, and ethics is essential.
Find out where to watch the podcast on the Nerdy About Nature website.
About the Nerdy About Nature Podcast
Nerdy About Nature aims to create a more diverse, inclusive, equitable and just future for us all by breaking down barriers to access factual science-based education, while providing critical insight and constructive conversation on environmental and social issues to encourage positive changes in this world we all share.
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Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
