July 1, 2008 Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd recovers after aerial wolf control
State wildlife biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shot and killed more than two dozen wolves from a helicopter last month to help a small caribou herd struggling to survive on the Alaska Peninsula.
It marked the first time since 1985 that ADF&G personnel have shot and killed wolves from the air as part of a predator control plan.
Biologists killed 28 wolves on the calving grounds of the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd near Cold Bay, located about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, to stop what has been a precipitous decline as a result of extremely poor calf survival. In the last six years, the herd has declined from 4,100 caribou to 600. Biologists have counted a total of only six surviving calves in the herd in the past two years.
Wolves from three packs were shot from a helicopter while on or near the calving grounds in late May and early June, according to a press release issued by the department on Friday.
So far, biologists are encouraged by the results of the air strike, which was approved by the Alaska Board of Game in March.
Biologists estimate 63 percent of the approximately 450 calves born this spring survived their first two weeks of life and both pregnancy rates — 90 percent — and weights of newborn calves indicate the herd is healthy, department spokesman Bruce Bartley in Anchorage said.
“That pretty much leaves predation” as the reason for the herd’s decline, he said.
While it’s too early to tell how many calves will survive the summer, most caribou calf mortality occurs during the first few weeks of life, according to the department. Telemetry flights will be flown periodically throughout the summer to document further mortality.
Biologists captured 65 newborn calves to be weighed and fitted with radio collars equipped with mortality sensors so biologists can track them and identify a cause of death if necessary.
“If they survive the summer as we suspect they will, we’ll probably have more calves survive this year than we’ve had the last several years combined,” Bartley said.
The latest figures show wolves are still the biggest killer of caribou calves, however. Of the 24 deaths documented by biologists among radio-collared calves in the first weeks after calving (36.7 percent of the total number of calves), wolves killed seven (10.8 percent) of the radio-collared calves, while bears accounted for five calf deaths (7.6 percent). Another four calves (6.1 percent) were killed by either wolves or bears, but biologists were not able to determine which one. Two calves drowned (3.1 percent) and one died of starvation (1.5 percent). The other five (7.6 percent) died of undetermined causes.
Though the herd ranges primarily within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not permit wolf control on federal lands in Alaska, its calving grounds are on state lands and both the department and game board felt the action was necessary to preserve the herd.
This is the first time in about 15 years that state wildlife biologists have actively participated in a wolf control program.
In the past five years, the state has relied on private pilots and gunners to kill wolves in different parts of the state where moose or caribou populations are too low to meet the needs and demands of subsistence and sport hunters. More than 800 wolves have been killed in the past five years as a result of the program.
Permitted pilot/gunner teams shoot wolves from the air or land and shoot them, practices that have twice been outlawed twice by Alaska voters in state ballot initiatives but were revived by the Alaska Legislature five years ago when it gave the Alaska Board of Game authority to approve citizen-based predator control.
But that program could be halted if a ballot initiative that would allow only ADF&G personnel to shoot wolves or grizzly bears from the air in the event of a “biological emergency” is passed in August. The initiative is on the Aug. 26 primary ballot.
The situation with the South Alaska Peninsula herd may very well have fallen into the biological emergency category, said Joel Bennett of Juneau, one of the initiative sponsors.
“It sure sounds like it would be a candidate for what we had in mind,” Bennett said. “The two key elements from our perspective is that the commissioner make the determination that it’s a biological emergency, not the Board of Game, and that it is based on adequate data, which in this case they would argue they have.”
While there is no definition for exactly what a “biological emergency” is, Bennett said it is basically a situation where a population will suffer an irreversible decline if something isn’t done.
In the past five years, the state has relied on private pilots and gunners to kill wolves in different parts of the state where moose or caribou populations are too low to meet the needs and demands of subsistence and sport hunters. More than 800 wolves have been killed in the past five years as a result of the program.
You and FormerLurker need to get over yourselves and your feigned sense of outrage over the FUCKING WOLVES. Remember, $12.40 buys a non-resident wolf license in Alberta, Canada; they aren't ate up with the "Save the WOLF!!" bullshit.
You hold no moral high ground here, you're an anti-hunter. I get my "cheap fucking thrills" exposing you for the fraud you are. Go back to El-Pee, Fred Mertz.
I can't, I'm not enough of a wild eyed bloodlustful fanatic wishing to kill a bunch of "Mooselem" children, and was banned for daring to speak out against those who were ecstatic over the deaths of innocent people.
I'm sure you fit in quite nicely there though, so I'm sure you are a member in good standing at ElZionPost.org...
And BTW slick, I'm not Fred. I am also not an anti-hunter, I am against shooting creatures from airplanes and killing animals for sport.
I have no quarrel with those who depend on what they hunt for food, just with those who do it for fun.
Nobody is killing wolves for sport from an airplane, you and the Defenders of Wildlife are a bunch of goddamn, motherfucking, lying sons-of-bitches. Eat shit and die you jackass.
Nobody is killing wolves for sport from an airplane
No, they are doing it for political show as to excite all the "sportsmen" who ejaculate over a "good" kill while dreaming of Sarah Palin holding their dicks.
you and the Defenders of Wildlife are a bunch of goddamn, motherfucking, lying sons-of-bitches. Eat shit and die you jackass
So how am I lying? My opinion that this assault by air is morally bankrupt and is totally unnecessary. The facts are, it IS taking place, although you are apparently trying to say it isn't, which makes YOU the liar.
Fucking liar. I posted the links to the Alaska Fish & Game regulations and you wouldn't look for yourself. You don't have the moral high ground here, you are not the arbiter of what is and is not true. The truth is you want to see the eradication of tens of thousands of caribou and moose by the wolves, you only bring emotional rhetoric to the table:
Facing a "serious conservation concern," members of the Alaska Board of Game voted to adopt a predator management program to help a severely declining caribou herd in Game Management Unit 9D (Figure 1). The Southern Alaska Peninsula (SAP) herd presently numbers 600 caribou, down from a historical high of 10,000 caribou in 1983.
"It would be irresponsible in this case for us not to take action to help this herd," says ADF&G Division of Wildlife Conservation Director Doug Larsen.
The SAP declined dramatically over the last five years (Figure 2), in spite of good nutrition and minimal hunting harvest. The problem has been calves are not living as long as they should. Adequate numbers of calves have been born each year, but survival has been poor. During the past two years, nearly all of the calves been killed.
The management program approved by the Board will focus on removing wolves near the SAP calving grounds. Department staff plan to use a helicopter to locate and kill about 25 wolves from two to four wolf packs in the area. Goals of the program are to allow calves to survive to adulthood and to stop the overall herd decline. Brown bears, though abundant, do not kill as many calves as do wolves on the Alaska Peninsula.
"This type of focused predator reduction is very similar to programs conducted elsewhere by state and federal agencies addressing conservation concerns," Larsen said.
Although the herd ranges extensively on federal lands contained in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, they tend to calve on state lands, where predator control can be conducted.
Surveys confirmed nearly all calves died early in life and at a much higher rate than observed in other Alaska herds (Figure 3). Field studies on the Alaska Peninsula have shown that just about all calf deaths at this stage of life are caused by large predators (Figure 4).
The future of the SAP depends on whether or not calves survive during the next few years, and with high fuel prices and a lack of alternative food sources, the welfare of many local communities depend of the future of this herd.
Caribou herds have disappeared before, but because the SAP herd has been identified by the Board as important for human consumption, the Department is mandated by Alaska's "intensive management" law to take steps to rescue the herd.
The herd's decline was initially suspected when caribou surveys conducted in 2003-2005 indicated a drop in the number of calves reaching adulthood. Winter population counts in 2004-2005 also indicated a population decline, but not dramatically different than patterns seen in the late 1980s, when a decline was followed by herd growth.
I've wasted enough time here myself trying to get retards such as yourself to understand anything beyond Sesame Street. So ok, you side with those who wish to kill animals for pure enjoyment, and side against those who wish to speak out against the cruelty of such practices.
You care not about the suffering of other creatures, in fact, you condone it.
You are a self-righteous hypocrite, a jackass, and a fool.
You never answered why Jesus sinned when he ate fish.
He didn't, so he didn't sin.
Jesus ate fish with his disciples and like 5000 people. He also gave fish to people to consume. If eating meat is a sin then why would Jesus give his people something that would be a sin for them to consume?