Following the Last Wild Wolves by McAllister Ian; Paquet Paul C.; Darimont Chris

Author:McAllister, Ian; Paquet, Paul C.; Darimont, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NATURE, Natural History
ISBN: 709043
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2011-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

Salmon Forests

FALL

THE RAIN pounded down on the roof of my boat; it sounded like a gorilla banging away up there. At the same time, the storm-force gusts hit the boat broadside and almost threw me out of my bunk. But I knew that the salmon were now finally entering the forest and would get to their spawning grounds. And the wolves would be waiting for them.

This had been the driest season on the central coast since records had been kept—the driest for a hundred years. It was the first time that the elders in Waglisla had ever seen so many snowless mountaintops from the village. Even the lake-fed systems had not contained enough water for the salmon to migrate upriver, so they had been pooling at the mouth. Marine predators such as seals, sea lions, halibut, whales, eagles, and humans had taken their fill.

I had been gone only a few months from the Fish Trap Pack’s territory, but as I sailed up the inlet, I could sense that things had changed. It was strangely quiet.

With the Fish Traps Again

I stopped off to check the pack’s den site. I knew they were absent before I had even set the anchor, and not just because I couldn’t hear or see any birds in the forest. This den island does not have the salmon resources that the neighbouring one does, so before the salmon migrate upriver, the Fish Traps change location and swim across the channel to the spawning grounds. Islands that provide greater spawning density tend to support more resident competitors such as bears. The wolves thus avoid such islands in the spring and early summer while the pups are vulnerable.

The swim would be the longest the pups had taken so far, but I knew they would have made this aquatic journey with ease.

I was fortunate enough to watch the wolves make the swim one August. I can’t usually observe every pack member at once, but they were all on hand for this move. They made the crossing in single file, with adults bringing up the stern and the bow of the wolf flotilla. Wolves swim across channels and inlets as we cross streets, looking both ways to make sure there is no oncoming traffic.

Many times I have come around the bend in a motorboat and unintentionally forced a wolf to turn around and abandon a crossing. Wolves need to be cautious, since moose and deer swimming between islands have been swallowed by orcas, and some humans armed with guns or gaffs would show little mercy.

When the wolves reached the opposite shore that August, they shook off the salt water and looked back the way they had come, waiting for Three Legs to arrive. I could only imagine how this new experience would be for the pups—a different set of islands, an expansion of their territorial world, a new playground to explore.

Back in the present, at the tide line I located the main trail to the den site. Just one fresh set of adult tracks crossed the mud flat; there were no pup tracks anywhere.

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