Wolves
Management
 Throughout its range, the distribution, habitat
and ultimately the numbers of wolves has been greatly affected by human
settlement and development. In the NWT, where a small number
of people occupy a vast area, most of the land has remained undeveloped. In the
mid 1900s a wolf control program was implemented in an attempt to increase prey
populations for human consumption. The last wolf control program in the
Northwest Territories was in 1977 - 78.
The current policy of ENR is
that there will be no wolf control unless it is clear that a bison, muskox,
moose or caribou population is threatened because of wolf predation. Such programs, however, will only be successful when carried our in
conjunction with controls on hunting, if hunting has been identified as a
contributing factor to decline. Wolf hunting and trapping is restricted to
winter which protects the wolf when it is raising pups or when its fur is
not in prime condition.
Wolves are extremely
resilient and can usually survive the pressures of hunting and trapping,
providing they have sufficient prey. Thus wolf management is directly
related to caribou and other prey management. It can be concluded that the
future of the wolf in the NWT depends on the future of
the caribou and other prey species. Wolves are an important and natural part of
ecosystems in the NWT.
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