Aerial wolf hunting flies again in Alaska

Alaska Bill SB 267 permits anyone with a state trapping or hunting license to spot wolves from the air, land and shoot them on the spot

By Environmental News Network staff

May 3, 2000
Web posted at: 12:07 p.m. EDT (1607 GMT)

A week ago, hunting wolves from airplanes was illegal in Alaska. Today, the only requirement is a $15 trapping license.

Introduced by Alaska state Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, Bill SB 267 permits anyone with a state trapping or hunting license to spot wolves from the air, land and shoot them on the spot. The bill was vetoed by Gov. Tony Knowles, but state legislators overrode the veto.

The action displaces a citizen's initiative in 1996 that outlawed aerial wolf hunting and curbed wolf eradication programs except in limited cases of biological emergency.

Knowles and a coalition of conservationists and Fish and Game Department officials say the reinstatement of aerial wolf hunting is a tremendous setback for the protection of all wolves in the United States.

"Nobody knows how many wolves there are in the state," said Joel Bennett of Defenders of Wildlife. Bennett served on the Alaska Fish and Game Department for 14 years.

"Estimates that between 4,500 and 10,000 wolves exist come from (studies) based on only a few areas in Alaska," he said. "We do know that wolves are heavily exploited in parts of the state, reduced to levels that would concern any biologist."

Wolves in Alaska are not listed as an endangered species

Alaska is the only state where wolves are not listed under the Endangered Species Act, but conservationists maintain the legislation could put wolf populations at risk.

Monitoring aerial wolf hunts will be a great challenge, Bennett said. "Alaska is a vast place and tens of thousands of people will hold these licenses. It will be difficult to tell if hunters stay within hunting boundaries," he said.

"To track and spot a wolf from an aircraft, land and then kill it, is not considered to be a fair chase method," said Alaska Department of Fish and Game commissioner Frank Rue. "We know from past experience that the practice leads to other abuses such as chasing wolves to exhaustion, herding wolves and shooting them from the air."

The Anchorage Daily News reported that one Alaska resident gunned down 60 wolves from his private plane over a three-year period. "Airplanes are mechanical hawks. Many people want to be challenged by that method of killing," Bennett said.

The lion's share of support for the legislation came from sport hunters who believe wolf-control programs increase game populations. "Many people in Alaska rely on moose and caribou for their food supply," said Dick Bishop, vice president of the Alaska Outdoor Council. "These populations have been declining dramatically."

Bishop added that the governor garnered much of his support from animal protection groups and environmentalists.

Kelley cited the recent attack of a 6-year-old boy by a wolf as evidence that the state should do more to thin out its wolf population. But wildlife management officials and conservationists say the aerial hunting strategy is based on myth and not science.

"The department believes that successful predator control can only be achieved when we have demonstrated that it is based on sound science, is cost-effective and has broad public acceptance," Rue said.

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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Defenders of Wildlife
Alaska wolf
Wolf song of Alaska
The Alaska Outdoor Council

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