Wolf packs struggle after roadway deaths

First Raven, now Sundance.

It has been a deadly two weeks for wolves in the Bow Valley.

Raven, a nine-month-old pup belonging to the Pipestone pack, was hit and killed by a car on the Bow Valley Parkway on Jan. 12 west of Muleshoe.

Ron LeBlanc, a resource management specialist with Banff National Park, said park ecologist Jesse Whittington found the body of a black female – which by all indicators appears to be Sundance, the last surviving member of the Bow Valley group – early Monday morning (Jan. 25) in the westbound lane of the Trans-Canada Highway between 40 Mile Creek and the exit from Banff’s industrial park.

The driver of the vehicle that hit Sundance did not report the incident to Parks Canada; plastic debris from a vehicle was found at the site.

German canid expert Günther Bloch, who has been observing wolves in the Bow Valley region for 20 years, said the female wolf killed Monday is Sundance, based on age and appearance, but he’s undertaking a DNA test for confirmation.

LeBlanc said backtracking showed Sundance, whose mother Delinda is pictured on one of the Banff ROAM buses (Delinda was killed on the Trans-Canada in 2008), and two other wolves crossed the cattle guard located at the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and Compound Rd. The other two wolves returned the way they came.

Sundance is one of three wolves that have been spotted frequently using the wildlife corridors flanking the town of Banff and in the Spray Valley.

Bloch and Canmore photographer Peter Dettling have collaborated on long-term behavioural observations since 2007 that culminated with the recently published book Eye to Eye with the Wolf – with wolf expert Dr. Paul Paquet and Parks Canada carnivore specialist Mike Gibeau – documenting 20 years of wolf observations in the Rocky Mountains.

Bloch said Sundance had remained in her family’s home range along the Bow Valley Parkway by herself until October. when the Pipestone family entered her territory.

She tried to join the Pipestone group, but the lead female, Faith, refused to have another breeding female in the group.

As a result, instead of remaining with the Pipestone group, Sundance left with two of the family’s males.

“Sundance had a look at the two boys, found them very attractive and lured them away,” Bloch said, Thursday, Jan. 21. “She was slowly creating a new family, one former Bow Valley wolf with two Pipestone wolves.”

After the two males left with Sundance, the Pipestone family was left with the five members, the leading male and female, Spirit and Faith, and their three pups, Blizzard, Skoki and Raven, the pup who was killed on the parkway.

At the time of her death, Raven and her sibling Skoki had been separated from the rest of the family, something Bloch said happens regularly, but in this case led to a tragic end for Raven.

In light of Raven’s death, Bloch and wildlife photographer John Marriott called for three mitigation measures on the Bow Valley Parkway to help control speed and reduce wildlife deaths, specifically wildlife crossing signs, radar control and speed bumps similar to what is now in use on the Vermilion Lakes Road.

Bloch said in Germany, for example, speed bumps are placed in areas transportation authorities “want to make fast drivers uncomfortable”, which helps to get faster drivers to use highways and not parkways.

Parks Canada is looking at ways to mitigate the cattle guards, given the fact that wolves can walk across them.

LeBlanc said low-traffic cattle guards can be electrified, but he said he believes the crossing on Compound Road sees too much traffic to use that option effectively.

The two remaining wolves, one black and one gray, were seen at the Cascade Pit area at about

1 p.m., leading LeBlanc to put yellow-and-black warning signs on the Trans-Canada Highway to alert drivers the wolves might return.

“We were concerned, because they were hanging around the area, they might investigate the kill site, so we put up the signs,” LeBlanc said.

“It’s always a situation where people need to slow down and watch for wildlife. It’s a tough one when they get out on the Trans-Canada Highway.”

And wolves, like the family dog, have emotions and feel happiness, fear, anger and loss.

“Every animal has an emotional life. It is very important to know that, a lot of scientists agree that wolves have an emotional life,” Bloch said.

When a wolf is killed, the rest of the family howl, calling out for the missing relative. When they don’t get a response, they begin to search until Bloch said they eventually realize the wolf is gone.

Bloch, Dettling and Marriott name the wolves to help people connect to them, to see them as individuals and hopefully take a greater personal role in ensuring the wolves remain safe.

The wolves were heard howling Monday night in the Middle Springs area.

“We heard wolves howling on the outskirts of town last night. I even heard them at my house in Middle Springs,” LeBlanc said.

Parks Canada is recording a high level of wolf activity in the Bow Valley region with the four wolves in the Pipestone group west of Banff townsite, the seven members of the Cascade group and six to seven members in the Fairholme group, along with the two males Sundance drew away from the Pipestone family.

Marriott said the last two weeks have been frustrating and sad and he’s worried the rest of the wolves living in the Bow Valley home will be killed by unnatural causes as well.

“Here we are, just months after these wolves established themselves in the valley, and already we’re heading down the same old path, with wolves dying far too often of unnatural causes in what is supposed to be Canada’s flagship national park,” he wrote in an email.

“It is time that people started speaking out about these needless deaths in earnest, and that Parks and the CPR started listening and acting so that the time comes in the not-so-distant future where we aren’t always losing our Delindas and our Bear 56s in Banff National Park.”