Alaska to Kill Over 75% of Wolf Population in New Aerial Hunt

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Alaska abruptly resumed shooting wolves from helicopters this weekend in hopes that shooting the wolves will increase the population of caribou for hunters to kill. The state plans to kill up to 328 wolves, sparing under 100 in the Yukon area.

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Not everyone in Alaska is gung-ho about the plan. The National Park Service has been collaring wolves for a two-decade-long study tracking predator-prey relationships, and now many of those wolves are bound to turn up dead.

>>UPDATE: Defenders of Wildlife has taken legal action to stop the hunt.

“They [the state] have a mandate to provide for maximum sustained yield. They want to provide more moose and caribou for people to harvest,” said Greg Dudgeon of the park service. “Our mandate is to manage and provide for healthy populations of wildlife. So we don’t place the value of a wolf over a caribou, or a caribou over a moose.”

The state hopes to increase the caribou population from 40,000 to 100,000. Dudgeon said the goal is outrageous because the animals haven’t been that populous since the early 20th century.

Defenders of Wildlife, a wildlife conservation group that has vocally opposed aerial hunts, said they worry that the wolf population estimates are smaller than in reality, meaning it’s possible that only a couple dozen wolves could survive the cull.

“The Palin administration and the Board of Game are acting with complete disregard for scientific wildlife management,” said Wade Willis, Defenders of Wildlife’s Alaska representative. “It is unprecedented for such a wholesale slaughter to take place, especially when it is based on such shoddy science and when it includes wolves that have been collared by the National Park Service for scientific study.”

The wolf hunt rings similar to the sea lion cull currently underway in Washington and Oregon. The sea lions are being trapped and killed because they eat a small portion of endangered salmon and instead of cutting the commercial fishing salmon quota, the states decided to kill sea lions for the second year in a row.

[Via LA Times]
Photo Credit: dobak on Flickr under Creative Commons license.


Alex Felsinger (233 Posts)

Alex is primarily concerned with animal welfare, wildlife conservation, and environmental justice. As a freelance writer in San Francisco, he leads a deliberately simplistic and thrifty lifestyle, yet still can’t help gawking at the newest green gadgets and zero-emission concept cars.


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  • AlaskanPete

    You realize that the “hunters” who kill the caribou are subsistence villages, right? They’re protected by federal law and live with an extremely low carbon footprint. They’re the native Alaskan population who have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years before the russian settlers back in the 1800′s.  You guys think they’re a bunch of eskimos in igloos but they are very kind and humble people who live out a very admirable life. They have a huge appreciation for nature, and reflect that through their lifestyle, which is very respectful to the local environment. They live without consumption unlike straw environmentalists who bitch and moan about matters they don’t even understand beyond an article on a special interest group’s website.

  • http://Web christine

    why do they want to kill the wolves? is it because they want more caribou to live, so they could kill them too? There a lot of wolves that are endangered now and we can’t convince those aerial hunters to stop killing them. Nature should take care of itself, and those hunters don’t get anything out of their “recreational hunting”.

    • Dallas

      have u ever lived in alaska… i do i live in the bush area to. wolves are starting to over populate. The caribou are scarice around here and thats what a lot of us people survive on now and wolves are everywhere around town. they kill your dogs or any pet outside if you dont watch them. Just last night i was outside and i can hear them howling and yelping just right out behind my house. yea arieal hunting should be legalized but not just for hunting but predator control and the saftey of this comunity and the future generations. =because numerous people in my comunity have either seen one or hit one with there car because there that close to town. so learn some facts before you start saying its good or bad because urr not the ones dealing with the wolf problems

  • http://Web Rob

    I think some people need to read “Never cry wolf” Canada sponsered a year long wolf study (due to complaints of diminishing caribou)and it turns out that the wolves don’t vote so politics really aren’t the issue. Also turns out that healthy caribou run faster than wolves which means the wolves mostly kill the weak, small, and sick animals (you know, the ones that all hunters want to take), thereby making the herd stronger. If not convinced, fine. lets pretend that the wolves are decimating the herd. Well then how could their numbers be high? If they are wiping out their food supply, then they would wipe out their own population.

  • http://Web AkHunter

    Since you people know absolutely nothing about wolves it would seem only right to oppose aerial hunting. The “big bad wolf” that is personified as a noble dog is one of the only animals on the planet that enjoys killing. If we let thier population grow the decimate all living things in the woods eating only a portion of what they kill. Be weary the things the liberal democrats say about fish and game in Ak because we recently voted them all down from positions of power :) . In Ak we are legal to take 10 wolves a year and in some areas that’s not nearly enough, so we use aerial hunting by predator control teams in areas where the wolves have killed everything. If you want to experience first hand the beauty and majesty of wolves, fly up here sometime and walk really really far into the woods. I would recommend not bringing a weapon and maybe sprinkling a little hamburger meat in your hair. Have a nice day!

    • http://Web Peter

      You’re full of sh!t. “One of the only animals that enjoys killing”. Humans are far worse. Hunters killing wolves just to increase the population of another animal to KILL them as well? How many species of animal are endangered because of Hunters or whalers or fishermen? Plenty! How about we go and shove the hunters in the forest and shoot them from helicopters?! Let’s see if that makes a freaking difference in population!

  • http://Web donna

    why are prople killing tge collerd wolves in alaska is that illegal .the wolfs are still endagered.whats the use of killing 75 pecent of the wolfs .the wolf hunt for food and nthey kill other animals is nature

  • alexa

    did anyone hear about the pups, den tracking?it makes me sick, and f**k those dam arial hunters, they just dint have the balls to go and face them on the grownd, get off your asses, your not salving anything you gun happy morons.
    excuse the language, this is a very dificult topic.

  • alexa

    ralph seriosly?
    you do know why they want to kill the wolves right? to kill more elkand caribou. the eco sistem would compleatly crash if the popuation was left to grow, and grow, and grow…wolves help the environment. go lupiens!

  • alexa

    i get that alaska needs more carebou, but if the carabou hurds are desimated we shouldnt blame the wolves, there is a lot of people who come from out of state and kill carabou, many or then are trophie hunters, and the amount that people alowed killed is just not resanable. how can we not expect that there would be a drastic decreas in carabou? the wolves have been at this number forever, and changing this is only going to make it worse. they where there first, we are the ones who are over populated.

  • alexa

    nice jackie!
    i completely agree, if you know anything about the natrural balance, you will see that nature takes care of its own, when the preditors become over populated the herbivores go down and the plant life thrive. then the preditors go down, then the herbivore go up and the plant life goes down. its all a very delicut balence and if we keep screwing with it its going to be our butts. wolves are my favoret animals as well and wolf at the door? who says there isnt anything you can do? im letting my town know about this bill, im putting up posters explaining it, if your lazy thats fine, but this needs to be done.

  • deniro11

    maybe they should shot the scum bags who make these laws they our sick these creatures are natural hunters so you want to kill them so man can kill more caribu how stupid is this I hope a wolf finds your ass walking down the road you scum bag and that it goes after you

    • http://Web donna

      i agree wolf are natural hunters. so humankind what to destroy nature again.nature takes care pof their own, if the wolfs that are collerd abeing killed why. they are being studied. humakind has made may animals near extict , plus wolves asre still on the endagered species list. by the way wolves are my favorite animals to. i think they are gogous and cool. those aerial hunters should be arrested for murder of wolfs

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