UNBC is joining communities, governments, and other academic partners on the impacts of large-scale wolf removal in the north.
To help with the study, researchers are using carcases collected over the past 15 years to study wolves’ diet, what diseases they carry, and their DNA.
Ecosystem Science and Management Associate Professor Dr. Jamie Gorrell said when trying to protect the caribou, they don’t want to do irreversible damage to the wolf population.
“The idea is to study how would control programs actually change wolf behaviour, ecology, and even individual health.”
“We’re using all these factors to study the population as a whole, but we’re working closely with the communities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to make sure that we can maintain ecologic resilient wolf populations into the future.”
Gorrell said they will be bringing in students to teach and help analyze the samples collected over the next three years.
The goal is to gather as much data to give to northern communities so they have a better understanding of the wolf ecology in their respective region, and more evidence based management.
Along with the Northwest Territories and Nunavut where the research is based, Gorrell is also working with researchers with the University of Saskatchewan.
More information can be found on UNBC’s website here.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing pgnews@vistaradio.ca.
