Island Coastal Wolves

This small, unique group of wolves resides on the west coast of Vancouver Island, eking out an existence in this remote, rugged habitat.

The coastal wolves are not sea wolves as Netflix claims. The sea wolf in the First Nation world is the Orca. There are many similarities between the orca and the wolf. The Hesquiat and Songhees peoples’ creation stories has the orca coming onto the beach and transitioning to become the wolf. Then the wolf transitions to become man. So please call them coastal wolves not sea wolves.

The coastal wolves belong to the Canis lupus nubilus subspecies, which is the subspecies for all of BC’s wolves. Therefore, the coastal wolves are not their own subspecies but are considered an ESU, (Evolutionary Significant Unit). This means they have unique attributes such as their isolated marine habitat, great swimming ability and a marine diet which is unique to them.

There are very few scientific journal articles on the coastal wolves but I have summarized the important articles. They can be found on my Blog titled SWELL Wolf Education Centre Coastal Wolves Project.

A main feature of this project is the placement of trail cameras in their habitat to capture their movements and behaviour. I will be posting the pictures and videos when they have been captured on the cameras.