Conserving Ontario’s Wolves: Steps Forward
In March 2004, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced a suite of commitments to conserve Ontario’s two species of wolves – gray wolves and eastern wolves. These commitments included the development of a “proper wildlife management program for Ontario’s wolves” to “ensure that Ontario gets the vital scientific information it needs to protect and manage wolves.” These commitments represent a significant shift in wildlife management practices in the province, as the Ontario government had historically treated wolves as vermin and offered a bounty on them as recently as 1972.
Though both gray wolves and eastern wolves are recognized as keystone species because of their disproportionately important role as top predators in the functioning of ecosystems, little data exist on their populations and ranges across Ontario. Additionally, the number of eastern wolves is low enough – due to the loss of habitat and pressures from hunting – for them to be considered a species at risk. According to MNR’s estimates, trappers harvest 300-500 wolves a year and hunters kill 500-1,000 wolves a year. Harvest reports do not distinguish between eastern wolves and gray wolves.
Eastern wolves have lost 58 per cent of their historical range in Canada and are now extirpated from the Atlantic provinces and the eastern United States. The highest population densities of eastern wolves are reportedly found in southwestern Quebec and southeastern Ontario, particularly in Algonquin Provincial Park. Monitoring programs have never been conducted to determine their numbers accurately across Ontario as a whole, and MNR’s recent population estimates vary disturbingly from 900 to 1,600.
The eastern wolf is legally designated as a “species of special concern” under the federal Species at Risk Act, which means the species is considered to have characteristics that make it sensitive to human activities or natural events. However, although MNR has also designated it as a species of special concern in ministry policy, Ontario’s Endangered Species Act does not grant protections to the species (see pages 148-152).
The gray wolf is found in northern Ontario. Gray wolves have a larger build than eastern wolves, which are more like coyotes in appearance. MNR has never attempted to make a comprehensive assessment of the number of gray wolves in Ontario, but the ministry speculates that there are approximately 7,200. Gray wolves are not considered to be a species at risk by either the federal government or MNR.
In November 2004, the ministry proposed a number of regulatory measures for wolves in selected wildlife management units in central and northern Ontario intended to control their harvest, to provide a mechanism for the ministry to collect vital information, and to enable the ministry to make future conservation decisions. This proposal extended the same regulatory measures to coyotes within the wolf range, because in large areas of the province, the range of the two species overlaps. Coyotes are very difficult to distinguish from wolves, especially eastern wolves. MNR’s proposal included:
- requiring a wolf/coyote game seal, in addition to requiring a small game licence.
- establishing a limit of two wolves or coyotes per hunter per year.
- establishing a wolf game seal fee for residents at $10 per seal and for non-residents at $250 per seal.
- establishing a closed wolf/coyote hunting and trapping season.
- requiring mandatory reporting of wolf/coyote hunting activity and harvest.
- requiring that these new regulations apply in wildlife management units in central
and northern Ontario within wolf range.
In March 2005, MNR followed through with parts of this proposal, establishing a closed season that will take effect from April 1 to September 14 of each year in 67 wildlife management units. The closed season does not cover southern Ontario, and it does not restrict the protection of livestock by farmers. The ministry also announced that it plans to establish a wolf advisory committee in December 2005 “to review additional wolf information as it becomes available.” As of March 2005, the ministry had not reached a decision on requiring a wolf/coyote game seal and annual mandatory reporting, but it did state that these measures were still under consideration.
Hunting wolves, which are designated as furbearing mammals under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, requires a valid Outdoors Card and a small game licence. Already, small game licences were not valid from June 16 to August 31 each year in the parts of Ontario lying north and west of a line from Georgian Bay to the Ottawa River. Therefore, the new closed season effectively doubles the time period during which it is prohibited to hunt wolves in central and northern Ontario. Still, raccoons, red foxes in northern Ontario, arctic foxes, gray foxes, weasels, and opossums all have more restrictive closed seasons than wolves, and the only furbearing mammals with less restrictive closed seasons are red foxes in southern Ontario and skunks.
ECO Comment
The ECO is encouraged by the initial steps that MNR has undertaken to conserve Ontario’s wolves. Wolves are among the most easily identifiable symbols of wilderness in the province, and how they are treated reflects on our broader stewardship of Ontario’s natural environment. Not only must wolf populations be sustainable for their own sakes, but they must also have the capacity to fulfil their natural ecological role as a top predator.
The new closed season now effectively treats wolves in the same way that the ministry treats most of Ontario’s other species of mammals. This is a dramatic shift in attitude, and it brings MNR’s treatment of wolves in line with that of other jurisdictions. However, as acknowledged by the ministry itself, this represents only an “initial step” in establishing a proper wildlife management program for Ontario’s wolves. The establishment of bag-limits, reporting requirements, and monitoring programs will provide valuable information to guide future actions. These future actions must be based on sound science to conserve Ontario’s wolves effectively, as well as being defensible and understandable for the public.
MNR should heed the cautionary tale of the treatment of wolves in the United States, including the lengthy and extremely costly measures to restore wolves to some of their former range in the lower 48 states. It is far easier and significantly less controversial to conserve a species still in the wild than to have to re-introduce it. (For ministry comments, see page 216.)
| This is an article from the 2004/05 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2005. "Conserving Ontario’s Wolves: Steps Forward." Planning our Landscape, ECO Annual Report, 2004-05. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 86-88.
