Spring count reveals wolf numbers at a 26-year low

DENALI PARK — On May 9, the National Park Service released its Spring Wolf Survey Data showing that an estimated 55 wolves inhabit the 6 million-acre park and preserve.

The wolf population count dropped from 57 wolves last fall to just 49, but based on the density, the total population is estimated to be 55 wolves within park. That is the lowest spring number recorded since 1987, when 53 wolves were counted.

This year’s total represents a nearly 17 percent decline in the Park’s wolf population in the past year, from 66 wolves counted in spring 2012.

The highest spring population recorded was in 1991, when 134 wolves were counted. The spring population count has dropped by more than half since 2006, when 116 wolves were counted.

The NPS website states that “(w)olf densities for the past three years have been the lowest in Denali since 1987. No obvious explanation for this current low density is apparent.”

However, the killing of the alpha female wolf of the Grant Creek pack by a recreational trapper early last spring, and the subsequent disbursal of most of the pack, must be considered a very significant contributing factor. Without the alpha female and a litter of pups to raise, the pack declined from 15 wolves in 2012 to just three this year.

For years, members of the Grant Creek pack were the most frequently viewed wolves in the park. This year, given the exceptionally low wolf densities and the scarcity of the Grant Creek wolves, viewing opportunities for visitors will surely decline. This is very unfortunate news for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who have already made plans to visit Denali this year, virtually all of whom come to see wildlife, especially wolves.

In winter, Denali wolves frequently wander across the north and eastern Park boundaries in search of prey or mates, where they are vulnerable to trapping on state-managed land. A wolf buffer zone existed in the area beginning in 2002 until it was repealed by the Alaska Board of Game in 2010.

The AWA filed emergency petitions with the Board of Game in September and October 2012, asking it to re-establish a no hunting or trapping “wolf buffer zone” adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Park. Both of those petitions were unanimously denied by the Board of Game; however, AWA and other groups continue to advocate for protection of the wolves that wander onto adjacent state land.

For more information on wolves, visit nps.gov/dena/naturescience/wolves.htm.