adamshoalts.com: Columns

Welland Tribune
14 February 2007,
By Adam Shoalts

If there is one animal on earth that you probably would not want to find yourself vis-à-vis with it is Ursus maritimus—otherwise known as the polar bear. These formidable animals are the world’s largest terrestrial carnivores.

Author and wildlife biologist Jerome Knap noted that, “The polar bear is not afraid of man. It recognizes no enemy.” Little wonder considering adult males weigh on average between 420-500 kg, and some larger bears have even weighed in at a staggering 800 kg. The reader need not fear though, as polar bears—extraordinary as this may sound—do not live quite this far south.

On the other hand, black bears did once roam the forests of Niagara. Regrettably, they have long since been extirpated. Habitat lost as a result of human population growth rendered Niagara and the rest of Southern Ontario unsuitable for bears.

(Although, thanks to Marineland and similar establishments, it is still possible to view bears right here in Niagara. Though the effect of seeing docile bears in captivity does not generally produce the same sort of awe when viewing bears in the wild.)

But to return to my original bear subspecies, the polar bear.

Polar bears have attracted a fair amount of media coverage over the last few years because of their plight. Global warming and other factors, such as hunting and pollution (i.e. oil spills) have led to a decline in the number of bears.

Warming temperatures result in decreasing sea ice, which limits the portion of the year bears are able to hunt for their primary prey, seals. For years concerned biologists have been documenting the dire effects: some bears are literally dying of starvation.

The threat to the polar bears has become so serious that even the United States government (which is not generally known for its greenness) recently announced that the species is under formal consideration to be designated as a “threatened” species.

Such a designation would make it illegal to import polar bear parts (i.e. tanned hides, which are valued at upwards of $3,000) into the United States.

This created something of a panic in Northern Canada, specifically Nunavut. With the exception of Manitoba, hunting polar bears in this country is still legal in every province and territory in which the bears live, including Ontario.

Nunavut has good reason to be alarmed at the developments in the United States. In Nunavut, there is lucrative sport hunting business in which wealthy Americans pay top-dollar (usually $20,000 according to the Canadian government) for the chance to kill a bear.

The bear hunt is estimated to generate one million dollars annually in Nunavut. Which explains Nunavut’s icy reaction to the recent developments in the United States.

Nunavut’s Environment Minister, Patterk Netser, responded with great scientific acumen, stating that, “There’s a lot of uninformed people and these people feed on the ignorances of these people and force governments to make… policies that are very reactive…” Not surprisingly, Nester also said Nunavut will submit a formal objection to listing polar bears as a threatened species to the U.S. government.

There are approximately 22,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild, of which some 60 percent are estimated to live in Canada.

Currently, an estimated 400 polar bears are legally killed each year in Nunavut. Nunavut’s government recently approved plans to increase that figure by 28 percent.

Fortunately, the resulting uproar from wildlife biologists was enough to force the rescinding of that ill-considered decision.

In addition, an uncertain number of polar bears are killed legally in other Canadian province and territories, and of course, poachers claim their share as well.

In 2002 Environment Canada designated polar bears as a Species at Risk under the category “special concern.” Prudence dictates that more concrete measures should be adopted without delay.

A moratorium on the hunting of these magnificent animals sounds perfectly reasonable.
As for any fears of economic losses to the sport hunting industry of Nunavut, there are in fact proven alternatives. For instance, the northern community of Churchill, Manitoba has capitalized on its local bears by catering to tourists who want to view these awesome animals in the wild.

With global warming inexorably increasing, the long-term survival of the polar bears is already in jeopardy. Solving that enormous problem promises to be a taxing challenge, but ending the polar bear hunt is a simple proposal that will help alleviate the polar bear’s plight.

For the Welland Tribune: by Adam Shoalts.

For the Welland Tribune,
By Adam Shoalts
December 26, 2006.

There is something quite invigorating about being half-lost in a swampy forest on a moonless night and surrounded by yapping coyotes. I am certain everyone has found themselves in just such a situation at one point or another in their lives. For me, it seems to be a somewhat regular occurrence.

But perhaps that is because I have an addiction to long, solitary walks in the woods by night. As well, perhaps it is because I have something of an obsession with Canis latrans—better known as the coyote.

Just the other day I was taking a stroll in the local woods with my 110-pound dog, and we happened to cross paths with two coyotes. It was during the late afternoon, so I had the luxury of light to carefully view the two creatures. They were truly magnificent-looking animals, and the male was the largest I’ve ever seen. He seemed to weigh over 50 pounds, and was far from being intimidated by my growling dog. In fact, the coyote, a handsome-brownish red in colour, soon did something I had hitherto believed to be impossible: he actually made my monster of a dog turn tail and flee.

This left me alone with the two coyotes.

A book I had been recently reading about coyotes explained that—contrary to popular belief—they are excellent hunters, quite capable of taking down white tail deer. (Which are larger than me).

Indeed, since the extirpation of the coyote’s larger and more celebrated relative, the Gray wolf, from Southern Ontario and elsewhere, the coyote has begun to fill the void as top dog. According to leading American coyote biologist Dr. Robert Crabtree, in the United States east of the Mississippi River, coyotes have filled the wolves’ former ecological niche as regular predators of deer.

It is thus almost certain coyotes have adapted to that same role here in Niagara; where the last of the wolves were exterminated probably over a century ago. Certainly, the remarkable size of the male coyote I saw led me to conclude its diet consisted of something other than rabbits and rodents. My normally fearsome dog after all, would not flee from an unworthy foe.

As well, it has been conclusively documented that coyotes, contrary to popular perceptions, will hunt in packs like wolves. In this manner a coyote, which normally will never exceed 50 pounds in weight (notwithstanding the one that eyed me in the woods) can kill much-larger prey, such as deer.

Coyotes too, like wolves, when living in packs possess a complex social hierarchy. There is an alpha-pair, which are generally the only members of the pack (ranging from four to as many as nine individuals) that are permitted to breed. Furthermore, it is almost certain that coyote pairs will mate for life. However, to my knowledge, there is no direct evidence as of yet that supports the theory that coyotes’ employ dynamite and intricate booby-traps to hunt roadrunners. Though Saturday morning cartoons are rarely wrong.

Coyotes are however, astonishingly clever and tenacious creatures. Indeed, coyotes, far from being subdued by man like all-too-many other wild predators were; have beaten our best efforts to exterminate them. For instance, 150 years ago, the coyote’s natural range did not extend beyond the midwestern portion of the continent. Their habitat consisted of the Great Plains, the mountainous areas bordering them to the west, and the southern deserts.
Conversely, today the coyote has expanded its range to encompass the whole of North America save for the far North. They can even survive on the periphery of an urban landscape, and have become a nuisance in some mega-cities.

With all this respect for such an extraordinary creature, I naturally decided to follow my dog’s example (but certainly in far more dignified manner) and retreat from these bold coyotes. After all, I was infringing on their territory, not the other way around. Which sadly, is a fact that too few people realize when they encounter wildlife.

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