Human-Driven Extraction Has Doomed Caribou. So Why Are Wolves Paying Deadly Price? – MataSukabumiNews

Alberta’s attempt to boost caribou numbers by killing wolves is an inhumane approach that fails to target the root of the problem—the extractivist industries—says a group of scientists.

Explaining how the wolves came to be seen as the problem, Kaleigh Rogers writes at Vice:

Controversy erupted in November following the publication of an analysis in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, which, as CBC News reported at the time, assessed

The wolf killing managed to keep the caribou population stable, but was just buying time for the caribou, the study found. As Emma Marris wrote in the journal Nature, the caribou population did not show an increase. “Such an increase would require placing new limits on industrial development in Alberta, a conclusion that adds fuel to an ongoing debate about the ecological consequences of human activity in the boreal forest,” she wrote of the study.

Scientists from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Universities of Saskatchewan and Victoria say the study puts the spotlight on wolf-killing methods considered inhumane by the Canadian Council of Animal Care (CCAC).

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In commentary published this week in the journal Canadian Wildlife Biology and Management, the scientists write:

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“Expedient but inadequate emergency ‘fixes’ have been experimentally implemented to arrest the impending loss of caribou,” said co-author Dr. Ryan Brook of the University of Saskatchewan, “but no context can justify methods that impose such suffering.”

Dr. Chris Darimont, Hakai-Raincoast Professor at the University of Victoria and science director for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, added, “Proponents of resource extraction can now announce that a ‘solution’ to the caribou crisis is in hand, enabling additional habitat destruction that harms caribou and wolves. So despite intentions otherwise, wolf control creates greater long-term harm than good to animals and ecosystems, failing a simple test of ethics.”

Their commentary follows that of the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), which similarly stated that the November analysis failed to address the root cause of caribou decline: “Forestry and energy footprint in caribou range.”

The organization has also criticized the province’s continued selling of leases to the fossil fuel industry in areas critical to the caribou’s survival.

Raincoast Conservation Foundation executive director Chris Genovali summarized the heart of the problem thusly:

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October 11, 2020 Mittie B Brack News

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