\u201cThe wolf\u2019s been exhibiting what I would call atypical behaviour, not wary behaviour, walking along the side of the road, walking through day-use areas, walking through campgrounds, not fleeing and even approaching vehicles, and in a few cases, people.”<\/p>\n
KANANASKIS \u2013 Provincial wildlife officials warn against feeding or approaching a habituated wolf in Kananaskis Country to give the animal the best shot at survival.<\/p>\n
The wolf, which has been boldly walking through campsites, day-use areas and along roads in Peter Lougheed and Spray Lakes provincial parks since early May, is being hit with rounds of chalk balls to try to scare it away from busy areas in a bid to reverse its non-wary behaviour.<\/p>\n
There are no plans to collar or relocate the wolf, but destruction for public safety reasons is not off the table if visitors don\u2019t do their part to keep their distance and not feed or leave food or garbage accessible \u2013 which is illegal in the provincial parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of any place better for this wolf to be in terms of it\u2019s in a protected area with stringent garbage management and staff who are trained and have the tools to apply aversive conditioning techniques,\u201d said John Paczkowski, human-wildlife coexistence team leader for Alberta Parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want to monitor situation. I think if this escalates to the point where it is actually approaching people and getting getting food rewards, the results might be severe for this animal. In the interim, we will do what we can to keep it on the landscape. We\u2019re always hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n
A structured program in which deterrents like rubber bullets, noisemakers, beanbag and chalk rounds are continually and consistently used, aversive conditioning aims to modify undesirable behaviour by pairing it with pain or an unpleasant stimulus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The technique is most commonly used on bears.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have managed to condition the wolf a few times with chalk balls and we\u2019re also at the ready with bear spray in case the wolf approaches a vehicle or something like that, just anything to increase its wariness around people,\u201d Paczkowski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it takes off at a run, but it will leave the area. We\u2019ve been able to apply aversive conditioning where it moves away and we may not see it for a few days and then it pops up again showing that habituated behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paczkowski said there have been almost weekly reports of the wolf across a 500-square-kilometre area of Kananaskis Country since early May, sometimes two or three times a week, sometimes 25-km\u00a0apart on the same day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wolf\u2019s been exhibiting what I would call atypical behaviour, not wary behaviour, walking along the side of the road, walking through day-use areas, walking through campgrounds, not fleeing and even approaching vehicles, and in a few cases, people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like it\u2019s curious behaviour right now and the wolf seems quite habituated, but our big fear is that someone has or will feed this wolf and it will become food-conditioned and start to exhibit that sort of food-seeking behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visitors are asked to help by reporting any sightings of this wolf to Kananaskis Emergency Services at 403-591-7755.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key message we say over and over again \u2013 never feed wildlife, any wildlife at all,\u201d Paczkowski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour cooperation in your behaviour and reporting might help this wolf.\u201d<\/p>\n
In mid-June, Parks Canada was forced to euthanize a young injured wolf that showed up in a backyard in the community of Field in Yoho National Park, B.C. The wolf, which had an injury to its leg, had been digging up herbs and potatoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe wolf\u2019s been exhibiting what I would call atypical behaviour, not wary behaviour, walking along the side of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-25070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}