Ministry of Water, Air and Land Protection

• Main Authors: Lara Roorda, Randy Wright, Wildlife Branch, Cariboo Region
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: 3Table of Contents; Canis lupus; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.612.8896; http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/fia/2004/fia2004mr032.pdf

An assessment of wolf (Canis lupus) pack numbers and their territory size within the eastern Mountain Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) inventory blocks began in July 2001. The purpose of this assessment was to determine which wolf packs were utilizing caribou habitat and potentially impacting the stability of the Mountain Caribou population in the Cariboo Region. Mountain Caribou are now a red listed species and very low caribou numbers have been observed in several of the eastern inventory blocks. Capturing and sterilizing the dominant wolf pack members and removal of subdominant wolves was also initiated in February 2002. The sterilization component of the project is meant to reduce wolf recruitment in the study area packs. Professional wolf trappers and staff from the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection and British Columbia Conservation Foundation performed all ground trapping and much of the aerial immobilization. Bighorn Helicopters assisted in capturing 2 wolves through net gunning. A total of 27 wolves were radio collared; of which 9 males and 7 female were sterilized. These twenty-seven wolves constitute 11 different packs. Thirty wolves have been removed from the study area. Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly aerial telemetry flights have been conducted to determine pack composition, location and territory size.