SWELL Wolf Education Centre Coastal Wolves Project

Jan 22, 2025

Tundra Speaks Society through its program, SWELL Wolf Education Centre is initiating this project.
 
We have set up some trail cameras on a remote beach on Vancouver Island to capture coastal wolf activity. When we capture these videos & photos , we will post them on this page. We will also post any photos & videos from other sources with their permission. Also, there will be scientific based info on coastal wolves , as well as Indigenous knowledge of coastal wolves from the local FN groups, posted on this page.
 

Parks Canada – Wild about Wolves

One area of Vancouver Island that is providing good work in co-existing with coastal wolves is Parks Canada – Pacific Rim. They have developed a program called Wild about Wolves which they have been developing over the past 5 years.

One of the major components of their program is working with the FN groups that reside in the territory where the park is located. The FN people there have co-existed with the coastal wolves for hundreds of years.

There are two videos that Parks Canada has produced which demonstrates how the FN people have interacted with wolves. The first video is called: Traditional Knowledge & the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTsSN3gc9G4
This video sets out how they view the wolf & how important this animal is to their culture.

The second video is titled: Traditional Worldviews on Wold Co-existence. In this video, three FN elders give us very good info on how to co-exist with the wolf & reduce wolf-human conflicts. Dennis Hetu of the Toquaht Nation gives us 4 simple rules to live by to harmoniously co-exist with wolves. The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrNqtvkMWZw

If we view the wolf from the FN perspective of not inviting them into our world but respecting their world, co-existence is very achievable.

What species & sub-species are the Coastal Wolves?

There is some erroneous discussion & information that the coastal wolves are a separate subspecies. This is not true.

The coastal wolves are Grey Wolves (Canis lupus) and they (SE Alaska & BC Coastal Wolves) should be assigned to Canis lupus nubilus (Chambers 2012).

So they are not a separate sub-species but are what biologists term an Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU) because of their unique ecological, morphological, behavioural, & genetic characteristics. (Munoz-Fuentes 2009).

So I am sure the discussion will continue but the coastal wolves despite being unique will remain under the nubilus subspecies.

Range of the Coastal Wolves
 
Coastal wolves are not just located on Vancouver Island or the Great Bear Rainforest but they extend all the way north to SE Alaska. The Alaskan coastal wolves also eat salmon & other marine animals like the BC Coastal Wolves do. (Szepanski 1999)  (Watts 2016).
 
This wide range of the coastal wolves is like the country of Chile. It is a narrow band of north/south direction with little territory expanding in an easterly direction.
 
The dispersal of coastal wolves when they leave their natal pack to seek out a partner is also north/south. The strong genetic differentiation between the coastal & interior wolves is most likely habitat discontinuity. It is hypothesized that dispersing grey wolves select habitats similar to the one in which they were raised. (Munoz-Fuentes 2009). 
 
This explains why coastal wolves live in a narrow north/south band from southwest Vancouver Island up to SE Alaska.
Habituation of Coastal Wolves
 
With the Netflix series, many written articles & other sources of interest about the coastal wolves, I along with others are becoming increasingly concerned about the human habituation of the coastal wolves.
 
This habituation has been prevalent in years past, as we have had incidents of stupid kayakers feeding these wolves on Vargas Island  just north of Tofino, but the incidents of habituation are getting much more frequent recently.
 
You will see in the short video attached to this post, how these wolves at night were breaking into the holds of kayaks looking for food. These wolves can chew through the nylon straps in less than 30 seconds because of their strong jaw muscles which can produce up to 1,500 psi bite pressure.
 
There was an incident in 2003 when some UVIC students camping on the beach were feeding the wolves hot dogs. During the night a kayaker was bit on the head & dragged out of his sleeping bag by the wolves because they had associated food with these kayakers.
 
BC Parks were petitioned by a local group & they installed food caches on Vargas Island Provincial Park. When the wolves realized there was no more food in the kayak holds they returned to their traditional hunting ability for their traditional prey. This shows that these wolves can be trained out of poor human actions of providing food for the wolves.
 
It is imperative that humans DO NOT FEED coastal wolves or any other wolves. They are very capable of hunting for their own food. Also not leave garbage around because the wolves will associate that with humans.
 
Another habituation problem for wolves which is much harder to curtail, is what I call CHA or constant human attention or affection. People want to see these elusive animals & I have had people from different parts of the world (such as Hawaii, Ohio & Scotland) contact me to find out where they hang out. So you can see tourists & professional photographers & videographers actively seek out these wolves.
 
This CHA is very detrimental to coastal wolves because it can cause the wolves to feel “safe” around humans. Conflict with coastal wolves then occurs where dogs are attacked & wolves have displayed aggressive behaviour towards humans and these wolves have been shot by hunters because the wolves can not distinguish between a photographer looking through a zoom lens or a hunter looking through a scope.
 
Please respect what the FN people do in the Pacific Rim territory & that is not to actively engage with these wolves but respect their need to travel in their territory without constant human “harassment.”
Coastal Wolves Swimming
 
BC coastal wolves are known to be very good swimmers. They have been observed swimming in these cold ocean waters for 8-12KM. Therefore, they can survive these cold temps while a human would die of hypothermia in 15 minutes.
 
The wolves Wim with the current & tides in their favour. But once the wolf begins swimming, they are vulnerable out there in the water. Boaters have been known to shoot them while swimming. Therefore, wolves being an animal that wanders at night, swimming at night is safer for them.
 
The attached video (on the FB page) shows a coastal wolf swimming in the day having to negotiate boaters. Lucky fore this wolf, the boater was respectful to the animal. You will also see in this video, me explaining about them swimming.
Diet of Coastal Wolves
 
We have seen many images of coastal wolves foraging the coastline eating mussels, crabs, & other marine creatures but this is a very small component of their diet. Coastal wolves are smaller than their subspecies (nubilus) cousin’s in BC’s interior. The females are generally around 60lbs. While the males are 80lbs. Generally. This is at least 20lbs. Lighter than their respective cousins. While the coastal wolves are smaller, they are not going to be sustained on eating these little grubs. I will show you the scientific studies on three areas of coastal wolves, SE Alaska, Great Bear Rainforest (GBR) & Vancouver Island that comprises the wolves diet.
 
SE Alaska
 
The population density was 30>/1,000km2 on these islands & mainland where the wolves live. (Person 2000). Ungulates were the principal prey of wolves but a variety of alternative  marine resources represented an important component of wolf’s diet. It ranged from 28-56% and the variation in diet was highest in summer & fall than winter. (Watts 2016).
 
Kohima & Rextad (1997) found there was a high proportion of deer (92%) in their diet with the beaver providing 18% in the summer. SE Alaskan wolves consume way more salmon their their interior cousins. (Szepanski).
 
So deer was the main choice on the menu fore these SE Alaskan coastal wolves but was supplemented by salmon & other marine resources along with beaver. Wolves are opportunistic so they are going to eat whatever is available which can vary from territory to territory.
 
GBR
 
Raincoast Conservation Society produced a study titled, The Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) of British Columbia’s Rainforestrs (2000 Pilot Study) & the authors were Chris T. Darimont & Paul C. Paquet. They estimated the population density of wolves in their study area to be 406-473 or about 30-35 wolves/1,000km2. Very similar to SE Alaska wolf density.
 
The authors found that deer constituted dominant position of the diet. Deer was found in 83% of all scats & increased to 93% in summer. Also found in the scat was beaver, black bear, goats & birds. Salmon constituted 8.7% in summer & 8.3% in the fall. Black bear was 2.0%, beaver 1.1%, & goat 0.7%. Notice they did not find any noticeable traces of marine resources (grubs, etc.) in their diet.
 
Vancouver Island Coastal Wolves
 
Parks Canada in the Pacific Rim have conducted two wolf diet studies to determine what the wolves were eating in the park or adjacent to it. In 2012, Todd Windle (Project Manager of their Wild about Wolves project) stated in the 300 scats they collected & analyzed, river otter around 30% was the first choice, followed by deer, harbour seals & raccoon at 20%.
 
From 2020-2022, their projected collected more scat & they found the raccoon was the main choice, followed by deer, harbour seals & black bear. They were surprised about the choice of bear but Todd stated the Park has a large black bear population estimated to be around 100 & more population than deer. (We noticed that on an evening float plane tour fro Uclueklet to Tofino, for 1 hour we counted 12 bears on the beaches).
 
So you can see there are different food choices depending on the region, seasons, & availability of the prey. Deer comprised the main food choice in each of the three regions with the Pacidfic Rim being less dominant due to the large logging clearcuts. Salmon are very important when they spawn & the wolf only eats the head of the salmon because the body of the salmon has parasites in it that is harmful to the wolf. But remember the wolf is opportunistic & that determines much of their choices.
 
The pictures accompanying the post is of Tundra eating road kill deer. The hind leg she has, Tundra consumed that overnite & she consumed it all including the hoof.