Wolf viewing declines in Denali National Park

DENALI PARK — National Park Service researchers say opportunities for visitors traveling in buses to see wolves on the Denali Park Road have declined significantly in the past three years.

A random sample of visitors found that wolves were seen on about 4 percent of trips last year. By contrast, in the three previous years the percentages were 12 percent in 2012; 21 percent in 2011; and 44 percent in 2010.

More than 400,000 people visit the park annually and about half of those visitors travel on buses to Toklat at Mile 53, or beyond.

NPS biologists use radio tracking to gather data on the wolf packs that range on the north side of the Alaska Range, and have documented the decrease in the number of wolves that den and roam in closer proximity to the road in the eastern half of the park, as well as a decline in the overall number of wolves in Denali north of the Alaska Range, according to a press release about the decrease.

Park researchers say the relationship between the decline in wolf populations and the decline in viewing opportunities is complex.

“We are just beginning to learn about the factors, such as pack disruption, that play a role in magnifying the impacts of individual wolf losses on viewability,” said Dr. Philip Hooge, Assistant Superintendent for Resources, Science, and Learning.

The fact that park visitors are seeing fewer wolves has not resulted in larger numbers of viewed prey species, the research data shows. The proportion of bus trips where bears, moose, caribou and sheep were seen varies by year, but none show the steady decline found with wolves.

The overall number of wolves in the packs north of the Alaska Range in the national park and preserve is also down. Spring counts declined from 66 in 2012 to 55 in 2013, which is in the lowest level since counts began in 1986. Hooge said that while the low number of wolves impacts visitor’s experience and may have ecosystem effects, the wolf population remains viable.

Sport hunting and trapping are legal in Denali National Preserve, located on the far western edges of the park. Subsistence harvests are legal in the preserve and the 1980 additions to the national park. Most of the combined hunting and trapping efforts take place in the western areas of the new park lands, but documented wolf harvest is quite small.

“The wolves commonly seen by visitors often leave the park to follow migrating prey species such as caribou,” Hooge said. “Prior to 2010, one of the areas at the boundary of the park most frequented by wolves was closed to hunting by the state of Alaska.”

In 2010, the National Park Service asked the Alaska Board of Game to expand the buffer zone, which would have prohibited hunting and trapping in additional areas where many of the most-viewed wolves winter. The board declined this request, and voted to also eliminate the existing buffer zone along the park’s northeast boundary.

The wolf viewing data is available online at nps.gov/dena/naturescience/wolfviewing.htm. Researchers also will explain the data more thoroughly in a peer-reviewed paper expected to be available in the spring of 2014. The NPS will continue to collect data on wolf viewing.

For more information, visit nps.gov/dena, or call (907) 683-9532 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.