Prince Of Wales Wolf Hunt Goes On Despite Objections

Here’s more from KFSK about the hunt and those who think POW Island wolves shouldn’t be hunted:

Fish & Game’s regional wildlife supervisor Tom Schumacher says the month-long hunting and trapping season seemed a reasonable balance between keeping the population under control and conserving the species. And it’s yielded nearly the same as last year’s winter wolf harvest.

“We don’t set a quota these days,” Schumacher told CoastAlaska. “So we just go for something that seems like a season length that will achieve a sustainable level of harvest. And I think that’s certainly the case here.”

But conservationists want the federal government to intervene. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition in 2020 to have Alexander Archipelago wolves listed as a distinct subspecies after a record number — 165 wolves — were trapped and killed two years ago after the quota system that capped the total harvest was lifted.

“The state still doesn’t really have a good handle on the wolf population,” Shaye Wolf, the center’s Oakland, California-based climate science director said Wednesday. “What we do know is that these wolves are suffering from high levels of inbreeding from habitat destruction from logging. So these high levels of trapping are a problem for them.”