Banff motorcyclist pursued by ‘massive’ grey wolf along stretch of B.C. highway, takes pictures

Tristin Hopper, National Pos

Last Saturday, Banff mechanic Tim Bartlett was christening a new motorcycle through the Rocky Mountains when he had a rare wildlife encounter that was equal parts terrifying and enchanting. On a stretch of British Columbia’s Highway 93, a massive grey wolf emerged from the trees, lunged at his speeding ride and chased after him at full speed as he pulled away.

The story would have become little more than another legend clanging around the roadhouses of Western Canada if Mr. Bartlett had not whipped a camera out of his top pocket to record the event for posterity; capturing a series of rare snapshots that have since been beamed around the world. The Post’s Tristin Hopper reached him by phone on Friday morning.

How did this happen?
I was about 320 [kilometers] into a 400 k trip … and was doing about 90km/h in the right hand lane going north and [the wolf] came from the left hand side of the road. It darted out, crossed the other lane and I had to swerve and accelerate to get around it. I went forward about 100 meters and when I turned around it was just standing in the middle of the lane watching me.

How close did it get to you?
It was coming at me. It probably got to within a couple meters, easy, maybe a meter. If I’d have slowed down I would have definitely hit it, so I just opened it up, got a bit of power and got around it. I’ve had dogs run out at me on bikes before and you sort of get a feel for the distance the speed you’re going, but it was pretty tight.

But after you’d gotten some distance between you, that’s when you pulled around for a closer look?
I stopped the bike, pulled my gloves off, took my camera out, did a u-turn and came back, and that’s when I managed to get the pictures. When [the wolf] heard me coming, it jumped back over a [roadside] barrier and it started running. I sped up a little bit, it got in nice and close and I was driving with my right hand and clicking pictures with my left. When I first came back around, it came in really close; probably a bit too close. It would have been a real bad time to run out of gas. Even over the motor, I could hear it. I could hear its feet on the road.

Do you think this wolf was playing with you, or were you being hunted?

To me, it was more exciting than scary, I’ll ut it to you that way. In my gut, I didn’t feel threatened at all. I would have felt threatened if I was walking or on a bicycle, but I knew I could outrun it. It also didn’t have a real aggressive feel. I don’t think it was after me, it was probably after the bike. That’s just the way I felt; I could have been wrong, I’m no wolf expert.

How fast was it going?
I didn’t look at the speedo, but I’d say somewhere between 30 to 40 km/h.

And the wolf’s size?
It was bigger than the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. Long legs and a big head, a massive head; it was almost out of proportion. It was big enough.

The chase kept up for about a kilometer. How did it end?
As you can see in one of the last photos, a few cars had started coming and going so I thought, I better not be here, so I accelerated away. I didn’t want it jumping out into the path of an oncoming car. The last I saw it was running into the trees.

This is highly-unusual behaviour, of course. The vast majority of wolves would never show themselves to a human much less chase after them at full speed. Have you been approached by any wolf experts?
That was actually one of the first calls I made. One of my very good friends works for Parks Canada … and he put me on to the guy I should talk to and he was under the same impression as me: This is not really normal behaviour.

Banff, of course, swells with thousands of European and Asian tourists each summer who would kill for this type of mystical “close encounter” with Canadian wildlife. Were you hit with any kind of “nature high” after the experience?
I’ve still got it. I’m having a hard time getting down to the ground, actually, and it was almost a week ago. You just feel so privileged. I mean, this is why I live in Banff. This happens and you just think “this is something totally off the charts.” It’s way more than I’d even hope to imagine. Just seeing a wolf is one thing, to have it run beside you and chase you is another thing altogether.

More images from this article

Courtesy of Tim Bartlett

Courtesy of Tim Bartlett

Courtesy of Tim Bartlett

Courtesy of Tim Bartlett

Courtesy of Tim Bartlett

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Wolf Weekly Wrap-up

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 

Can states be trusted to manage wolves? – Strongly worded opposition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s gray wolf delisting proposal continues to pour in, including this column
from veteran writer and activist George Wuerthner. He says that states have proven that they cannot be trusted with wolf management. He points to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where wolves have already been delisted and are now being aggressively hunted.

“…there is reason to believe that the state wildlife agencies are not capable of managing wolves as a valued member of the national heritage. For instance, in the Rockies, once wolf management was turned over to the states, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have all embarked on a rampage of persecution. Wolves are indiscriminately killed and trapped. State wildlife officials bemoan the fact that more wolves have not been killed.
I am not worried that hunting and trapping will cause wolves to be extirpated again in these states. I do not think that is the issue for most wolf proponents. Rather, I feel, as many do, that persecution is not a valid justification for managing any wildlife species.”

Further, he argues that states have a responsibility to debunk myths perpetuated by anti-wolf extremists.

“Nevertheless, the perception among hunters as well as ranchers in Montana and adjacent states is that wolves are destroying hunting opportunity and severely impacting the livestock industry. Because of this perception, the state wildlife agencies in all three states, instead of actively countering these flawed opinions with solid numbers and records, have instead chosen to ignore reality and adopted aggressive wolf reduction hunting and trapping policies.”

In the coming weeks and months, Defenders will be working hard to push back against this premature delisting proposal, using many of the same arguments that George outlines. We’ll be urging our supporters to attend public hearings and voice their support for continued wolf recovery. And we will be prepared to challenge the proposal in court if necessary. You can take action now by officially submitting comments to USFWS. See detailed instructions here
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Last year’s workshop attendees in the Wood River Valley of central Idaho.

Workshop at Wood River – Much of Defenders western staff, as well as many of our colleagues from the conservation community, are in central Idaho this week to learn more about how livestock and wildlife can coexist. We’re hosting our annual workshop for the Wood River Wolf Project, gathering our partners to discuss the successes and challenges of using nonlethal deterrents and other proactive strategies to limit conflict between predators and their potential prey. Our project is entering its sixth season and has an incredibly successful track record, yet we continue to look for ways to expand the use of these tools and techniques to other areas.

This year, representatives from California, Washington and Oregon are joining us to see how they can apply these methods in places where wolves have only begun to recover. Such exchanges are vital to the future of wolf conservation and will hopefully foster more collaboration between wolf advocates, wildlife managers and the ranching community.

On the prowl in Montana — Tracking wolf packs is no small task, but the data from collared wolves provides wolf biologists and managers with vital information about the health and distribution of populations. A recent story from the Daily Inter Lake follows Ken Laudon, biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who is responsible for trapping and collaring wolves in the northwest part of the state. He likens tracking Montana’s wolf packs each year to putting together a puzzle, and his job is to find the missing pieces. Read on to learn more about what Ken is discovering.

Wolf runs after motorcyclist – Wild wolves are curious creatures, but they typically have a healthy fear of humans. However, around national parks and other places that receive a lot of tourists, wolves and other wild animals can quickly become habituated. Case in point: a wolf was recently photographed chasing after a man on a motorcycle! (You have to see the pictures to believe it.)

The incident took place near Banff, Canada, in Kootenay National Park, and apparently the man was more thrilled than threatened by the close encounter. But clearly having wild animals running up to people is not a good thing over the long run and usually ends with the animal being removed. Since the incident was reported, others have come forward with similar stories of wolf encounters in the same area. While no one has been harmed by the wolf, its days are surely numbered. This is a good reminder that we all must do our part to make sure that wild animals stay that way. Never approach or feed wild animals. Always observe from a safe distance. And report any strange animal behavior to the proper authorities. It’s our responsibility to protect ourselves and the wildlife we care about!


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Image of the Day

Pretty polar wolf, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

4 wolves killed after livestock deaths

Friday, June 21, 2013

Kill order remains in place for wolves near Silver Creek

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By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

An Idaho wolf moves through a clearing. Photo courtesy of Idaho Fish and Game

     

Four wolves—one near Carey and three in the Sawtooth Valley—have been killed in recent weeks due to depredation on cattle and sheep. All were killed by Idaho Wildlife Services on private land.

    

 According to the agency’s director, Todd Grimm, a female wolf was trapped and killed May 29 on the Flat Top Ranch following a complaint by ranch owner John Peavey that he had lost more than two dozen lambs and ewes. Peavey said he protects the bands with people, spotlights and guard dogs, but he was criticized by wolf advocates for allowing his ewes to give birth on the range rather than in sheds.

     

Grimm said the wolf had had pups this spring, but was not lactating at the time she was trapped and killed.

    

 “Either the pups were no longer nursing or they had already died,” he said.

     

Grimm said three male wolves were trapped and killed on Decker Flat, on the west side of the Sawtooth Valley near Obsidian, on May 30 and 31 and June 10. He said the wolves were killed upon direction from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, as is the case in all the lethal actions taken by Wildlife Services, an agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the order came following the death of a calf on May 28.

     

Grimm said two of the wolves were yearlings and were wearing radio collars placed on them by the Department of Fish and Game. He said Wildlife Services sometimes refrains from killing wolves with collars, depending on their value to scientists studying them.

     

“In this case, we didn’t realize the wolves were radio-collared until after the fact,” he said.

     

Grimm said he did not know of any nonlethal deterrent actions taken before the kill order was issued, a situation criticized by pro-wolf activists. When requested, the Idaho Wolf Project, organized by nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, provides ranchers with volunteer night guards, portable fencing, air horns and other deterrent methods.

     

“Here we have people willing to help with proven nonlethal methods and we’re spending taxpayer dollars to kill wolves,” said Lynne Stone, director of the Boulder-White Clouds Council.

     

But Grimm said nonlethal deterrents don’t work well with cattle, which stay much more spread out at night than do sheep.

     

He said the three wolf kills ended the control order in the Sawtooth Valley.

     

Grimm said a kill order has also been issued for two wolves in the Silver Creek area south of Bellevue after a calf was confirmed to have been killed there on June 8. However, he said, “the wolves haven’t shown back up, so I don’t know if we’ll be able to do anything there.”

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Wolves in Montana improperly managed

June 20, 2013  •  Guest column by MARC COOKE and KIM BEAN

Soon the commissioners at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will be voting on the 2013-2014 wolf hunting and trapping proposal. Under the current senior leadership at Montana FWP it’s abundantly clear that they are determined to plot a course that is a clear, radical departure from the Montana Grey Wolf Recovery Plan.

Under Director Jeff Hagener’s guidance we are seeing a variety of different methods that would increase the slaughter of Montana’s wolves for no legitimate reason. Montana FWP’s plan is premature, failing to allow the recently signed House Bill 73 to take effect. Sadly, during the past legislative session Wolves of the Rockies worked side by side with Montana FWP to derail Senate Bill 397, only to have Montana FWP offer its version of SB397 in the 2013-14 wolf hunting and trapping proposal.

In the 2013-14 proposal we have increased “bag” limits to a total of five, extended hunting seasons, hunting over baited traps and an unreasonable quota on Yellowstone’s research and sustainable, revenue-producing wolves.

The current wolf proposal awaiting commissioner action and approval clearly flies in the face of the best available science and the public trust doctrine. While elk populations continue to increase and depredation continues to decrease throughout Montana, one has to ask the logical question: Why is Montana FWP in a three-state race to the bottom in science-based wolf management?

The answer is crystal clear. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks resents that wolves are on the landscape. Especially the wolves of Yellowstone National Park. It continually denies research such as the recent spring release of the Bitterroot Elk Study which reconfirms that elk are continuing to recover. This groundbreaking research also paints an accurate picture that wolves are not the vicious killing tyrants that many, including the leadership at Montana FWP, would have you believe.

Sadly, wolf enthusiasts and advocacy organizations, both in Montana and nationwide, are coming to the realization that Montana FWP, with Hagener at the helm, is plotting a course to return to what hunters refer to as the elk glory days, when Montana was an elk farm and hunting success was assured. The elk farm days came at a grave cost: a dysfunctional ecosystem, forage suppression and catastrophic, retarded riparian areas, with cottonwoods and aspens consistently kept to shrub levels.

Under the Public Trust Doctrine, Montana wildlife belongs to all Montanans. The governor delegates this responsibility to the director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The director is responsible for ensuring and implementing policies and proposals that represent best available science, taking into account the desires and concerns of all Montanans for the protection of all wildlife, not just ungulates, and not just the concerns of the consumptive hunter, trophy hunters and livestock producers’ interest. Clearly, the voice of all Montanans is not being fairly represented by Montana FWP.

Considering that hunting and trapping revenue is continually declining in Montana and throughout the U.S. in general, one has to ask the question: When will the leadership at Montana FWP purge its current mindset and tap into the sustainable revenue stream of the wildlife-watching enthusiast?
Marc Cooke of Stevensville is president and Kim Bean of Helena is vice president of Wolves of the Rockies.

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Image of the Day

Cute standing polar wolf, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

Images of the Day

Black and White, a photo by North Wolf Photography on Flickr.

Image of the Day

2013-06-15 Nahanni-W 6 004, a photo by puckster55pics on Flickr.

Thoughtful wolf

They Shoot Wolves, Don't They? How the Wild West Is Lost

Posted: 06/17/2013
By Brenda Peterson

Novelist and nature writer

The federal government's proposed delisting of the wild wolf is an environmental regression, not only for the wolves, but also for next generations--who in the future may only see a CGI wolf in films, not loping wild through our forests. News of the federal abandonment of wolf protection is a haunting reminder of the devastating war against the wolves waged in earlier centuries. Before federal protection, wolves were hunted to extinction: by airplanes in Alaska, poisoned, trapped, and shot on sight throughout the West. As a New York Times op-ed asks, "Have we brought back wolves for the sole purpose of hunting them down?" Here's a reminder of the unsustainable, anti-wolf culture that we'll revert to, if we allow this proposed delisting to stand.

In 1993, I was in the Far North, reporting on the Alaska Wolf Summit and the aerial shooting of radio-collared wolves. One of the wildlife managers advised me, "Take off your press badge." Another advised, "Come see how we really manage endangered species up here--in the what's left of the Wild West."

In a Last Frontier hotel bar adorned with deer and elk trophies, I silently observed a small but very powerful group of Alaska's Board of Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials swaping hunting stories and ridiculing the Summit protesters for their signs: "Don't Kill Wolves on our Public Lands!" and "Respect the Wolf!"

Without my press badge in that Fairbanks bar, I was, invisible--after all, only a woman. The real world of federal and stage wildlife management is dominated by men with deep ties to hunting, ranching, and agribusiness. In many Western States, hunting licenses fund most of the wildlife programs--a conflict of interest so obvious, but rarely reported. Some federal and state wildlife managers only grudgingly admit scientists to their inner circles because of the Endangered Species Act. Their fervor that night was reserved for talk of "wolf harvests" and "caribou calf crops," of "lethal management," and "sustainable yield" to assure higher populations of big game for hunters.

I was dismayed at the wildlife managers' sense of entitlement, authority, and control over the natural world and all other animals. In the smoky haze of that Fairbanks bar, it was like watching wildlife managers play poker with the fates of other species. I forced myself to remain quiet, staring up at a gigantic moose head trophy.

It didn't seem to matter to these wildlife cronies at the Wolf Summit that statistics didn't support their politics and 80 percent of Alaskans identified as "non-consumptive wildlife supporters." The wildlife managers were the "alpha" males driving all wolf management policy. After the Wolf Summit, the state of Alaska declared a "land-and-shoot aerial hunting" of wolves that led to widespread slaughter of wolves from planes.

In 1993, only 10 percent of the U.S. population were hunters. In 2013, the USFW reports that only 6 percent of Americans are hunters. "Hunters are 89 percent male and 94 percent white," the report notes. Fishing and bird-watching are more popular than hunting. So why are our wildlife policies still so skewed in their support of hunting agendas?

Much--and little--has changed for the wild wolf since that 1993 Wolf Summit. In 1995, wolves were granted federal protection and wolf packs successfully reintroduced in Yellowstone and throughout the West. Wildly popular, the wolf-reintroduction programs in Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies still provide huge tourism income. Wolf biologist, Cristina Eisenberg, author of The Wolf's Tooth, notes that since wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone, scientists have documented "rapid recovery of over-browsed aspen, willows and cottonwoods, stream bank stabilization in eroded streams, and a dramatic increase in biodiversity of songbirds."

Welcoming wolves back to their rightful habitats has restored our public lands. It has also restored something in our national psyche: a sense of balance and humanity. We can generously share with these other "keystone predators" who nourish the entire ecosystem.

The delisting of wild wolves is premature and scientifically unsound. For years, Republicans have tried to gut the Endangered Species Act; but why is the Obama administration supporting such unenlightened wildlife policies of the past? Do Democrats need Western State senators so desperately, that they'll sacrifice environmental ethics--and the majority of Americans who support wolf protection?

"This is politics versus professional wildlife management," former Director of the USFW, Jamie Rappaport Clark says. "The service is saying, 'We're done. Game over. Whatever happens to wolves in the U.S. is a state thing. They are declaring victory long before science would tell them to do so."
One of the wildlife managers at the Alaska Wolf Summit told a story that still haunts me these ten years later. "My Grandaddy was a trapper," the man said proudly. Once his Grandaddy found a fierce wolf with his paw clamped shut in the metal teeth of a trap. "'That wolf just stood there looking at me,' my granddaddy said. 'He just kept staring at me and wagging his doggone tail. That wolf wagged his tail like that--until I shot him.'"

The return of wolf management to Western states still trapped in 19th-century frontier mentality is irresponsible and short-sighted. We are in the 21st century. The forests are not our farms. Wildlife is not a "crop" to be "harvested." Wolves are top predators who restore, balance, and protect our wild lands. They are our future allies, not our foes.

It's time for the majority of Americans to tell hunters and ranchers that it is not the Last Frontier for the wolves. It's time the feds and states listen to the majority of this country who support wolf protection--because wolves are what is most Wild about our West.

Over one thousand wolves have been killed in the wolf-hunting seasons in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. As one of the more visionary wildlife managers told me when wolves, "Forget wolf control. How about a little self-control? The wolf is the real hunter. We can learn from wolves, if we can just keep from shooting them."

Public comment on this delisting:
Natural Resources Defense Council

Wolf Watcher: Take Action

Brenda Peterson is a National Geographic author who has covered wolf reintroduction for The Seattle Times and in her memoir, Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals. Her new book is Seal Pup Rescue and her new novel is The Drowning World.

For more: Brenda Peterson Books

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IFAW: Wolves, elephants, and the best (or worst) of intentions

By: Paul T

Posted: Mon, 06/17/2013

The two groups filing the lawsuit have worked to reintroduce Mexican gray wolves to their native habitat in the Southwestern U.S.

Two U.S.-based environmental groups have declared their intent to sue the federal government over just that – intent. 

 

WildEarth Guardians and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance said last week that they will file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to prosecute people who kill or otherwise violate the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

At question is what’s called mens rea in legal circles – the level of intent or awareness that a person has about the crime they are committing.  Some laws require proof that a person knew they were breaking the law when they broke it, while others require only that the law was, in fact, broken, whether the person meant to break it or not. 

The ESA requires the latter, but the DOJ, oddly, has decided on its own that the former should apply when it comes to prosecuting ESA offenders, making it difficult at best for law enforcement to catch those who harm, harass, kill, buy, sell, import, export, eat or otherwise molest endangered species.

The ESA itself requires prosecution of those who “knowingly” violate the law, meaning that they acted purposefully and not, say, by accident, when they killed an endangered wolf, for example, or traded in a tiger pelt.  The DOJ, however, has been applying a different standard for over 13 years now.

The DOJ has decided that it will only prosecute offenders when it can prove that they “willfully” violated the law, meaning, for example, the person not only meant to kill the wolf, but meant to kill the endangered wolf and break the law, and knew as much the whole time. 

Not easy to do, especially since criminals, being criminals, don’t always want to admit that they are criminals.

The two groups filing the lawsuit have worked to reintroduce Mexican gray wolves to their native habitat in the Southwestern U.S. To date, 48 of those wolves, over half the reintroduced population, have been illegally killed, with few prosecutions. The species remains on the brink of extinction, though recent captive births have helped keep hope alive.

But the DOJ policy has implications for other species besides wolves, grizzly bears, or others who are the favorite foes of American ranchers and hunters out west. An ivory trafficker could easily argue that they didn’t know the ivory-colored, tusk shaped carvings they brought home from Africa were made of ivory, or that ivory came from elephant tusks, or that elephants were endangered, in order to get off. 

Nobody really knows why, in 1999, the DOJ decided to ignore Congress and forge its own path when it comes to prosecuting wildlife offenses (or, in this case, not prosecuting offenses). 

Whatever the reason, the DOJ needs to reverse course and do what Congress intended for it to do when it comes to prosecuting wildlife criminals, and maybe save itself and the taxpayers some time and money in the process.

--PT

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